Estimates Debate — Vote Māori Affairs

It gives me great pleasure to speak briefly on the great work that this new Government, under an outstanding Minister of Māori Affairs, is doing this year. I want to talk about the allocations in the appropriations for this financial year and compare them with the wastage that occurred under the previous administration. One of the things the new Minister took on was the early challenge of the Māori economic summit conference, in terms of developing new ideas and a fresh approach to how we could better allocate the appropriations for this financial year. I would like to compare the output from that Māori economic summit with that thing called the Hui Taumata set up under the previous administration. I cannot believe that it was set up under the previous Minister of Māori Affairs, because he is such a great guy, so it must have been that in the Cabinet of the day he was driven to set it up.

I think this Hui Taumata was formed in 2005, and the Government spent millions of dollars of previous appropriations on it. But what did it achieve? It achieved absolutely nothing for the millions of dollars thrown in those appropriations at these grand talkfests, yet along comes the new Minister, who is focused on the job, and who immediately realised that Māori economic development is the thing that will take our people forward. Increased opportunity and aspiration for our tamariki are critical to ensuring the future economic benefit of the Māori people.

I want to share some of the things that came out of the Māori economic summit. For instance, let us talk about the infrastructure industry training organisation—InfraTrain. It is a new programme to give hundreds of Māori adolescents the opportunity to upskill to enable them to take on opportunities in the infrastructure industries that our Government will be focused on. We as a Government intend putting billions of dollars into the infrastructure that lagged behind under the previous administration. It is one of many steps to improve productivity in this country. This Government has ensured that Māori will be part of that, by providing money in the appropriations this year to enable funding to develop skill sets in that area.

Another area of training for our young Māori adolescents and tamariki is in the Aviation, Tourism and Travel Training Organisation. Another one is the Seafood Industry Training Organisation. Again we have put money aside to enable young Māori adolescents to uplift their skills so that they can partake in the fishing industry, which is an industry that provides enormous opportunities. I want to compare that against the record of the previous Government, which used to dish out money to support its cronies. I read in the newspaper about Charles Waldegrave—now there is a doyen of statisticians! Let me tell members about Charles Waldegrave. He was on Te Puni Kōkiri’s books for $20,000 a year, supposedly to produce some reports on social health and well-being but he never produced one report. That is the sort of thing that Te Puni Kōkiri used to do with its money under the previous administration.

Again I feel sorry for the previous Minister of Māori Affairs because I know that Parekura Horomia would never have employed that man. It would have been done under the direction of the then Prime Minister because one of Labour’s cronies had to be on the payroll of a Government department. However, he did not produce one report while on Te Puni Kōkiri’s payroll. Thank you, Mr Chairperson.

I welcome the report of the Māori Affairs Committee on the 2009-10 estimates for Vote Māori Affairs. In this tight fiscal environment my focus for Budget 2009 is on bringing about a change in focus for Māori development. Although the vote was reduced by $27 million, this was largely due to some one-off commitments made by the previous Government that we were quite happy to honour. The new initiatives include the Māori Economic Taskforce and the Whānau Advocates Programme, which is a flagship in terms of a change in direction. These initiatives are to be administered amongst the Māori community by Te Puni Kōkiri.

As the Minister of Māori Affairs I will be seeking to empower Māori communities to develop their own solutions to their issues. In doing that I propose to put people into the community who will be responsible to community organisations and not to Te Puni Kōkiri, although the funding will go through Te Puni Kōkiri to them. This will empower communities to get involved with their own people and create their own solutions. Workers will be selected by the community and not by Te Puni Kōkiri; they will be the people whom the community identifies as ideal for that kind of whānau development work—whānau āwhina. I also intend to put a number of our nannies—our kuia—into the community so that they can work amongst women who are expecting babies and can get into the homes of children. Perhaps while they are visiting and caring for those children they can take cognisance of their situation in terms of resources in the house, the tone of the house, the behaviour, and so on. Hopefully, this initiative will bring some information forward that will allow us to apply the appropriate social service. This is not intended to bond people to social services, but rather to put them on their feet so that they can make their own decisions.

In addition, the economic task force that we have developed, which in these hard times does not have a big budget and will not be in the field of creating employment, will prepare Māori for coming out of the recession in terms of opportunities for development of small businesses, for investment, for training, and for various other ventures that I will not talk about at length here. That is what is happening.

Once again I say that I am very pleased to take this call to represent the vote. I thank the Committee for its support on this vote.

Tēnā koe, e te Kaihautū o te Whare. This is the first time that the Minister of Māori Affairs, in a much diminished status—not as a member of the Cabinet—has stood to address the estimates. The fact that the position has been deprecated is shown in that very poor speech this afternoon. Of course, there was a richer speech from Mr Tau Henare, and I now know that the buffoon he had in mind—my apologies to Rodney Hide—was actually a colleague of his, sitting closer to him, based on that previous speaker’s miserable contribution. The Minister of Māori Affairs has a very important role, and his stewardship of the lives of our rangatahi, our kaumātua, our whānau, our hapū, our iwi has been critically undermined in the way in which he has been marginalised in Tāmaki-makau-rau—and this does relate to te reo Māori and the broad interests.

Of course, the Minister has a broad writ, and I would invite the Chairperson to show a little indulgence. The Minister’s writ is so broad. This afternoon he had every right to stand and give a view on Tau Henare, because mental health and employment prospects are within his writ, and those two things are at stake in relation to the Māori members on that side of the Chamber. However, this Minister needs to come back to the “meat and potato”, basic issues of employment, housing, and education. He should not be diverted by singing a new waiata about the flag. “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.”, because that is what this Minister has delivered as a consequence of this Budget: a great deal of wind. It is wind that might cause a flag to flutter, but there will be no rangatira, there will be no kanohi Māori at the top seat of council tables up and down Aotearoa—no. He has been listening to cheap rhetoric and going to endless numbers of hui, and has been hoodwinked by the National Māori members, who after this turn will no longer feel proud enough to regard themselves as authentically Māori, given that they turned their backs on New Zealand’s largest concentration of Māori voters and Māori whānau in Tāmaki-makau-rau.

Māori members may have had the opportunity to visit the area that the Minister of Māori Affairs hails from, in terms of his residency, etc., in Tāmaki-makau-rau, but they brought none of that message back. That is why he is marooned. This Budget did not grow one inch, one dollar, more from what my proud colleague from Hikurangi mountain, Parekura Horomia, was able to secure in years gone by. Rather, the Minister of Māori Affairs played a dangerous and childish game of moving bits and pieces around on a chess game. This Minister is now about to find that this Budget will not advance his calls; it will show that the Māori Party in the context of this Budget is more interested in trophies, more interested in symbolism and not the essence—not the ngākau, not the mauri of the people. That is why his short stewardship of this role is an enormous disappointment.

💬 Paul Quinn: Outstanding! Outstanding!

His contributions are in inverse relationship to the loud noise that comes from that member over there, Paul Quinn—no content here, lots of noise there, on the outside. The Minister may have organised the hīkoi through Tamaki-makau-rau, but it is Rodney Hide who has marched over this Minister, and it is John Key who has walked over the Minister’s Party. Kia ora tātou katoa.

Tēnā koe, Mr Chair. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. It is a marvellous time to be a Māori in New Zealand. It is, indeed, a wonderful time, given our fantastic Minister of Māori Affairs, who is doing some wonderful things, and our fantastic Associate Minister, Georgina te Heuheu. What a good job our Minister is doing! He is highly regarded in this country by Māori and Pākehā alike. Between him and the leader of the National Party, John Key, a close, strong, and mature relationship has emerged that, I am sure, will long continue. I also pay tribute to the Minister for securing an additional $120 million over 4 years in Budget 2009.

💬 Hon Member: How much?

One hundred and twenty million dollars. That, of course, is in tough times—times when budgets have had to be carefully examined. The Minister has done a very good job to secure additional money.

Of course, it is not just about the dollars and cents. A lot is going on that the Māori Party, working together with National, has been able to achieve going forward. There has been a review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which, I am sure, will right some of the wrongs created by the previous Labour administration—wrongs that Parekura Horomia could not stop. I know that the women Māori MPs tried to stop the wrongs, and stood up strong on them, but even they could not stop them. A Māori flag being able to be flown on the Auckland Harbour Bridge is important to a lot of people. We have a Prime Minister who goes to both the lower and upper grounds of Waitangi during the Waitangi Day celebrations, and a National-led Government that is continuing the good work—in fact, speeding up the process—in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi. So there have been some very proud achievements by this National-led Government, and by Pita Sharples and Georgina te Heuheu.

Let us just look at where some of that $120 million, in tough economic times, will be spent over the next 4 years. For Māori education initiatives—educating our youth—there is a $19.9 million boost. Kōhanga, which are doing well and thriving in places like Tauranga, are about to do even better with this money. There is an additional $12 million to keep key aspects of the rural housing programmes going. I very much enjoyed and got a lot from going to a marae out Te Puke way with my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell, seeing some of the things going on there, and hearing what we as a Government are planning to do with the papakāinga lending programme for Māori housing.

There is an additional $4.5 million for te reo over the next 3 years in a whānau development programme to help Māori families access te reo. Iwi radio stations will receive additional money. How good is that? And the Treaty negotiation process, which also receives substantial assistance from Minister Chris Finlayson, will receive an additional $22.2 million to reduce the time taken in Treaty settlements. What does that mean? Well, it is more than just pie in the sky; it recognises the wrongs of the past but also, importantly, it creates and unlocks economic potential. Iwi around this country, including in Tauranga Moana, with the money they will hopefully receive, will see tourism initiatives—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: They don’t even know who you are, boy.

I tell Shane Jones that my voters do, and that is all that matters. I say to members that in Labour we have a party that is very keen to be holier-than-thou on these issues. Clayton Cosgrove has been quite happy to talk against Māori prison initiatives, and Trevor Mallard likes to blog on these issues. What a disgrace!

Mihi atu ki te Minita Māori ki a Pita, tēnā koe. Mō te raru ināianei kia kaha, kia māia.

[I acknowledge you, Pita, Minister of Māori Affairs, greetings. In regard to the current problems, be strong, be courageous.]

I just respond to that young chap from Tauranga, Simon Bridges. One thing I know about the previous Minister of Māori Affairs is that he was pioneering. A lot of the stuff that is being painted up as brand new is actually about 6 or 7 years old. Fishing training has been going since 1999; 684 people have gone through it. The trade training in Tai Tokerau has been going for 5 years. There are a host of things. I commend the present Minister of Māori Affairs, Dr Pita Sharples, for staying on the same track as the previous Minister, because that is where he is safe. He understands the nuances of Maōridom, unlike the shabby, buffoonish, shallow leadership that will not even recognise Māori and has used all sorts of excuses. It is outrageous.

I can talk to members about the appropriation for Vote Māori Affairs because the Māori Party members came and said they wanted to do a lot of things. They wanted to have a $15 minimum wage. That did not happen. They promised no tax on up to $25,000 earned, and instead they voted to reduce tax cuts.

I am sorry to interrupt the member but the time for the debate has now expired.

💬 Hon Parekura Horomia: This is outrageous.

The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy): I am on my feet. I will now put the remaining votes as one question.

The question was put that Vote Māori Affairs, Vote Community and Voluntary Sector, Vote Revenue, the preamble, clauses 1 to 12, and schedules 1 to 7 be agreed to.

Votes, preamble, clauses 1 to 12, and schedules 1 to 7 agreed to.

Bill reported without amendment.

Report adopted.