Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Māori Development

It gives me pleasure to speak in the financial review debate of the Ministry of Māori Development. This report is the second draft that has been released. I want to give my thanks to the Chief Executive of Te Puni Kōkiri, Leith Comer, for turning up and giving his dissertation to the Māori Affairs Committee.

When one moves through the report, one sees that Te Puni Kōkiri appears to have moved its focus and resources away from its monitoring role. The Ministry of Maori Development Act states specifically that the role of the Ministry of Māori Development is to monitor other Government agencies.

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: Really?

Well, that is what the select committee said. It believes that the Act is there to direct rather than merely to guide the Minister.

The fact of the matter is that Parekura Horomia has been a Minister for 6 years. [Interruption] It is far too long. In that time, he has received a salary of between $160,000 and $180,000 a year. Over a million dollars of public money has been paid to a Minister who has not brought one piece of legislation to the House, and, if he has, it has been an omnibus, clean-up bill, or whatever one calls it—not one thing. But he parades himself around this nation saying that he and his Government have been the ones who have cut unemployment. I have to tell him that it is not the Government who cuts unemployment; it is the employers out there who, in good times, make sure that they do the employing. Nobody in the Government—

💬 Hon David Benson-Pope: Why did it not happen under National, then?

Quite frankly, we did not sit on our bums doing nothing. We put in place all the things that were necessary for the community to survive.

The report says it is a crying shame that Te Puni Kōkiri is not being allowed to do its business. We can all blame the chief executive, Leith Comer. That is the easy option. But who is the patsy in all of this? It is Parekura Horomia, who has not done a damn thing in 6 years. He took over from one of the hardest-working Ministers of Māori Affairs. That is right—it was Dover Samuels. Do members remember him? He was the Minister of Māori Affairs for about 5 seconds.

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: What about the one before him? He was great.

He was great. But this Minister has sat in his seat for 6 long years—and where are we now? We are still at the bottom of the totem pole. The Minister looks at me incredulously, because he does not really understand what a totem pole is. The fact of the matter is that nothing has happened. [Interruption]

I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I take great offence at the words muttered by Shane Jones, and I respectfully ask you to direct him to withdraw and apologise.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): I am sorry but I did not hear what the honourable member said. If the member is taking offence under a personal reflection that was implied by the member, then I ask the member to desist and withdraw.

💬 Shane Jones: They were Māori words. Perhaps we should provide a translation first.

Speaking to the point of order, Mr Chairman, I do not see anything in the Standing Orders that says there should be a translation. If I have taken offence, then that is it, and you are bound to ask the member to withdraw and apologise.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): This is a personal reflection. It is covered by Standing Order 116 and it depends on what has actually been said. Offensive references to a member’s private affairs or personal reflections on things like character are totally out of order and they should be withdrawn and apologised for. If that is in fact what has happened, then I ask the member to withdraw and desist.

💬 Shane Jones: I withdraw and apologise.

It is a fact that I released this report early, and I want to apologise again to the members of the select committee for doing so. But it was watered down a wee bit by the Labour Party, which did not really want to sign up to a hard-nosed report and to go that extra mile. For that I do not apologise.

It is a good report. It puts the Minister on notice, and, hopefully, he will find the decency to get up and actually have a go at reading the report. I wonder whether he has even read the report; I doubt it very much. The first time he saw the report was probably when he got out of his seat tonight.

I laboured tediously over the report, and I did so when the report was rightfully released, not when some fools tried to accelerate some of the nonsense that was pushed out of the Māori Affairs Committee. I am sure that if we were on another journey, the Ministry of Māori Affairs’ financial results would not be before this Committee tonight.

I want to be quite clear in relation to what the Act states, so that we can put this right tonight—properly. Although the Act makes the ministry responsible for a monitoring and liaising role, it does not provide any powers to carry out that role; nor does it specify how the role should be carried out. This Government and the ministry carried it out well. [Interruption] That is right. Leith Comer and his committee carried it out well. I commend the Ministry of Māori Affairs for the effort it put in over that period of time.

I remind my friend Tau Henare, a former Minister of Māori Affairs—whom I used to go fishing with on Thursday nights because he was so out of work that he did not know what to do; he used to get senior public servants from ministries to go fishing with him, and he was so hopeless that he never caught anything—of his time as Minister. This guy thinks he knows better as to what is good for Māori and what is bad for them. In his time and on his watch 48,000 Māori were unemployed; on my watch, there are now 16,000. That is the result of great support from the Ministry of Māori Affairs—Te Puni Kōkiri—and hard effort from this Government. When Tau was last a Minister, his Government froze the minimum wage.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): The member will use the member’s full name.

When Mr Tau Henare—

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: The Hon Tau Henare to you, Charlie.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): I heard that. The member will stand, withdraw, and apologise.

💬 Hon Maurice Williamson: I withdraw and apologise.

When the Hon Tau Henare was representing a seat, he was the real Māori spokesman for the National Party—and I know he is putting in every effort to become so again, and quite rightly, I say to Mr Tisch. There are two Māori members from that party, and he should be the spokesperson. That is what he is really up to, and it is important that members recognise that.

When he was the Minister of Māori Affairs his Government froze the minimum wage. On my watch, it has increased six times. Members should read about Working for Families. I am happy to say that we have increased incomes for everyone. It is not about wealth for the greedy; it is about recognising the needy—and Mr Henare certainly knows that. That is dead right. I am really happy that 20,500 Māoris are in industry training. I am not happy that violence still continues in households, in both Māoridom and Pākehādom. We will try to do something about that.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: When are you going to start?

I am sad to see that Tau has changed his tune now that he is back in this House. Almost 9 years ago to the day, on 8 May 1997, he said in this House: “I finish by saying that we stand here today with a great opportunity to work together for our people, not only as Maori people but as a nation. What is good for Maori must be good for the nation.” I ask Tau what has changed.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: Nothing.

That is right. The member’s priorities changed. The Hon Tau Henare should be National’s Māori spokesperson so that he can put on the table the platitudes and the negativity that his party tries to imbue—from Ōrewa to down here.

The Ministry of Māori Affairs has done well. I tell members that the next 5 to 10 years will be the most prolific time for Māoridom—and this Government has helped that. This Minister of Māori Affairs has done well, even if only he says that.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: The Minister told me that he is going to retire.

I remind Mr Henare—and I do not wish to call him anything that is not accepted in this House, apart from reminding him who he is—that the New Zealand Herald states: “Henare takes back ‘liar’ comment”. The member needs to take it back, because he knows that it is a fib. It is the same as what he did to Tony Blair.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): I caution the member that, firstly, he is out of his time, and, secondly, the use of the word “fib” is not permitted in the Chamber.

💬 Lindsay Tisch: I raise a point of order, Mr Chairperson. I think the Minister was actually going for a second 5-minute call, because he was in full swing. We are quite happy that the Minister take the other 5-minute call, which he is entitled to. I see that he is still sitting there and is keen to finish his speech.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): It is up to the Minister whether he would like to take another call.

💬 Lindsay Tisch: I am inviting the Minister Parekura Horomia to take a call.

Members have heard enough.

Report noted.

Ministry of Justice