Estimates Debate — Māori Affairs Sector (continued)

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am very pleased to be able to continue my discussion about Whānau Ora and the 2019-20 Budget appropriations under Vote Māori Development, especially as it is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori.

Just to recap, Whānau Ora was implemented by the National Government in 2010. It was the brainchild of the Hon Tariana Turia, and it’s been a very successful model in terms of delivering social services and social investment. Unfortunately, it has not always been supported by the Labour-led Government, and National was very disappointed with the lack of funding in Budget 2018-19.

So we are pleased to see an increase in this Budget and that the Government has finally come to the party. But it’s still incredibly important that this money is spent wisely, and as I referred to the review that was recently completed, what that says is that Whānau Ora is siloed and that there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done to build understanding through Government agencies about a whānau ora - centred approach.

There are also significant challenges with the commissioning model, and I think that’s mostly to do with the large geographical areas that the commissioning agencies deal with, which means it’s quite difficult to relate to whānau, and it’s particularly difficult to get to those families in rural and deprived areas. Presently, we see that demand for the services outstrips supply, and we also see that there’s a lack of collaboration among how the administrations of services are done and the outcomes framework.

So there is a lot of work to make sure that Whānau Ora does deliver. We were pleased that in the discussion at the select committee, the Minister promised structural changes and he was also keen to cut out the middleman and work more closely with communities. I think what National wants to see is that community needs right across the country are met consistently and that all whānau who want and need these support services can access it.

I’d just like to make a point that the Minister for Māori Development acknowledged the contribution of former Ministers for the National-led Government and the Māori Party, the Hon Tariana Turia, the Hon Pita Sharples, and the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell and their work in establishing Whānau Ora. The Minister is confident that he can continue this programme and it can be used successfully in other environments. Thank you, Madam Chair.

E Te Tiamana. I runga i te kaupapa te wiki, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, tēnā koe. Ngā mema o Te Whare nei, tēnā tātou katoa.

[On the topic of the week, Māori Language Week, greetings. To the members of this House, greetings.]

It’s indeed an honour to take a call in the Appropriation (2019/20 Estimates) Bill, where we’re debating the Māori sector. I want to acknowledge the speaker who just retained her seat, Nicky Wagner, in acknowledging the fine former Ministers of this House the Hon Pita Sharples and the Hon Tariana Turia, and their contribution to Whānau Ora.

But let’s be really clear: this Government tackles the big issues. In nine years, if that side of the House valued the role of Māori Ministers, they should have had them at the Cabinet table. They should have had them at the Cabinet table, but they didn’t. But, in this Government, I want to acknowledge the four Ministers that came in front of our select committee, the Hon Andrew Little, the Hon Peeni Henare, the Hon Kelvin Davis, and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, the Minister for Māori Development, who presented a very comprehensive—very comprehensive—Māori development strategy to meet the needs of Māori today and going forward. Yes, we are, on this side of the House, tackling the big issues, and, like I said, we match our walk with our talk by putting the Minister for Māori Development, who has never been at the Cabinet table, at the Cabinet table this year, under this Government.

We also know that the issues that we are facing are not going to be fixed overnight, and particularly housing. The Ministers that came to speak to us—there’s a massive amounts of pūtea going towards enabling Māori papakāinga, shared equity. We heard it through the reset of KiwiBuild. But these particular Ministers, and the Minister for Māori Development particularly, have talked about committing more houses—affordable houses—for Māori.

Today, I joined the Minister in travelling to Wainuiōmata to work with the iwi, through Treaty settlements, who have put their land on the table, supported by Te Puni Kōkiri, and then we’re going to have 89 homes in Wainuiōmata. Now, people might think that’s not a lot of homes, but in Wainuiōmata that is significant. It is a mixed housing model made up of shared equity, of kaumātua flats, of market and affordable homes, and this is what this Government’s doing. We don’t just talk about it; we’re doing it in partnership with iwi. And I want to acknowledge Te Atiawa, Taranaki Whānui, and, of course, Port Nicholson, who have come to the party and have, over many years, developed that.

I want to also talk about the focus on the wellbeing that the four Ministers addressed, and particularly Minister Davis’ He Hōkai Rangi, and, of course, Minister Peeni Henare’s Whānau Ora. Yes, $80 million was gained in this Budget—in 2019-20, $80 million towards Whānau Ora—but that is not the extent of the opportunities available to Māori development. If we look at the $1.9 billion in mental health, if you hear during question time Ministers talking about kaupapa Māori delivery—Māori led by Māori—this side, like I say, not only talks it but walks it, because these are the big issues that we’re prepared to roll up our sleeves and ensure that this wellbeing Government delivers, particularly to Māori and Pacific communities.

But we also want to be head of a Government that’s proud—that’s proud—to deliver to our Treaty partner. I want to talk about the impact of voting. We’ve got local body elections coming up, and I want to acknowledge the many candidates that are standing to bring diversity around our local leadership, because it goes hand in hand with a commitment on this side of the House—a Government prepared to roll up its sleeves to reflect back the community. In the votes that we examined and the Ministers that came before the Māori Affairs Committee, ably chaired by Rino Tirikatene, they are painting a picture a delivery for Māori. Through the votes that we examined, it is clear: Hōkai Rangi, commitment to Māori land owners, and Vote Māori Development, but also the housing commitment that we’ve got there—backed up, underpinned, by the Hon Peeni Henare’s Whānau Ora.

This is an approach that, yes, the other side started, but our side is going to take it to another level, ensuring that we are delivering to all Māori communities, all whānau, all iwi, and all hapū up and down the country. I commend this bill to the House.

Madam Chair, thank you very much. I’m going to touch on Māori land and also on the Treaty negotiations side of things. But I would like to kick it off by acknowledging the passing of Pita Paraone, a man from Northland, a well-respected man from up there, on the Waitangi National Trust Board, a former member of New Zealand First, and an all-round good guy. So I’d like to acknowledge him.

I’d also like to acknowledge my friend Rino Tirikatene, who is the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee. He’s a good friend of mine, and he’s also a very good chair. He runs a very bipartisan and friendly committee. Actually, the Māori Affairs Committee is probably the best select committee to be on in terms of friendship.

I understand that from the Vote Treaty Negotiations, $1.4 billion, approximately, has been set down for over the next four years—from 2019 to 2023. I’m just wondering whether any of that money is going to be diverted away into Ihumātao. I know that we asked the Hon Grant Robertson if any money was spent on it, and he danced on the head of a pin two weeks ago and avoided the answer.

But anyway: Treaty settlements. For Northland, New Zealand’s largest iwi, Ngāpuhi—we’re still not settled. And I’ve got to acknowledge Chris Finlayson. I mean, if you want to talk about Treaty settlements, the National Party beats Labour hands down in the Treaty settlement department by a factor of four. But in terms of Northland—undeveloped land: we’ve got a lot of undeveloped land in Northland. So I asked the Minister Nanaia Mahuta about where they’d got with Te Ture Whenua Māori Act, because in Northland we’ve got the worst stats in the country for health, education, crime, and infrastructure. A third of our land is Department of Conservation land, it doesn’t pay rates, and a third is Māori land, some of which doesn’t pay rates. So a third of the land pays the lion’s share of the rates. So it’s in the interests of everyone in Northland to try and get their heads around getting Māori land into production. So it’s essential to the prosperity of Northland.

So I asked the Minister what they were doing with that and she assures me, Minister Nanaia Mahuta, that they are working on a set of amendments that they’re going to bring in later this year or early next year. So I look forward to that, because we did a lot of the work behind that, and our coalition partners, the Māori Party, led that charge of widespread consultation. I know that the previous speaker said that the Labour Party are leading the charge—well, we did a lot of work there: widespread consultation, 100-plus hui, a six-year exercise, draft legislation was presented, a first-class dispute resolution service, and also a body set up to help them with development. But, hello, there was a politically motivated misinformation campaign and this bill got set aside—didn’t get to it.

So that’s where we stand. So we put in the hard yards, and we did the work, and for whatever reason it didn’t get there. So I really hope that the current Government are able to progress that law, because there are definite and real benefits to Māori land owners and the economy in general.

I know that the Hon Andrew Little and the team have set up the Te Arawhiti office of Māori Crown Relations, which incorporates the former Office of Treaty Settlements. I look forward to the day that the Treaty settlement is complete for Ngāpuhi. It’s a complex negotiation, and I know that, again, we were just about there—we were just about there at the negotiating table. According to Ngāpuhi leaders that I’ve spoken to, it was looking like we were nearly there, and then Andrew Little came along, and now we’re back at square one.

So I hope that younger Ngāpuhi leaders step up to the plate, and I’m seeing good signs of that. I’ve spoken with the Minister Andrew Little, and I know he is sincere in his approach, and I hope that he is able to secure a deal—a deal that all parties can live with. Māori will definitely benefit from this, as will Northland. I hope that I am still in Parliament when this Ngāpuhi Treaty settlement goes through. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the member who’s just resumed his seat, Matt King, for his contributions. I want to talk about Vote Treaty Negotiations in particular. I will come to the vexed issue of Ngāpuhi later in my comments, except to say that when I assumed the mantle of this ministry portfolio, the Crown had withdrawn from Ngāpuhi; they had done so the previous June. When I became the Minister in October 2017, the Crown had had little to do with Ngāpuhi for many, many months. So I understand that members’ frustration. He’s a local member from the rohe up there, and he will know the frustrations that everybody is feeling about that particular issue.

But I do want to say how proud I feel to be in this role and the contact that I have and the work that I get to do—the mahi I do with so many iwi up and down the country and how very satisfying and pleasing it is to see—certainly at this end of the whole process—the number of iwi, many of whom have been trying for years to get to the point where they can engage with the Crown and get towards agreement over redress. So just in the last couple of months, we’ve had important milestones with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui in the Bay of Plenty, one of the other more deprived areas in the motu, and they’re making very good progress there. During the recess, I managed to sign the agreement in principle with the Whanganui Land Settlement Negotiation Trust, that deals with the land issues around the Whanganui and lower Whanganui reaches, and that has been an issue that goes back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, since the parties have been negotiating, and certainly under the leadership of Ken Mair I think they’ve got to a very good point.

This week we will have the first reading of the Ngāti Hinerangi legislation from their settlement. We signed their deed earlier this year in May. Also, during the recess I had an engagement with Ngāti Rangitihi, also with Tūhourangi, although they’ve settled, but their issues—they have a very ambitious project with some conservation land that they want to have weaved into their settlement. There’s some incredibly creative visionary thinking coming out from iwi around the country and their aspirations and ambitions for their people and for Aotearoa as a whole that we need to embrace as part of this process. I also engaged with Ngāti Whātua so they’re now dealing with the remainder of their claims, particularly around Kaipara Harbour, where they have a very ambitious project about cleaning up the Kaipara so that species that they haven’t seen there for a long, long time can regenerate and respawn and that harbour can be returned to the vibrant place that it used to be.

Ngāti Maru in Taranaki: the last of the Taranaki iwi are close to coming to their next milestone, which is initialling their deed of settlement. Waikato-Tainui: we’re dealing with their remaining claims. They’re in the process of concluding their mandate process so they’re ready to go as well. So all these things are happening. Mōkai Pātea are trying to get their mandate up. Maniapoto are dealing with the challenges in the Waitangi Tribunal for them—so a lot of work going on. When it comes to the tribunal, of course, Whakatōhea, they had their findings from the tribunal at the end of last year. We’re working with the various parts of Whakatōhea to see if we can make progress where we can make progress and deal with some of the outstanding issues by some of the hapū that need to be recognised and respected and dealt with.

💬 Hauraki: the poor old Pare Hauraki waiting for years to draw their claims to a conclusion—just awaiting now a tribunal decision following the challenges from Tauranga Moana. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa: they have got close. We are now dealing with some issues in the Waitangi Tribunal with them, but some positive and constructive progress being made.

Mana Ahuriri—my heart goes out to Mana Ahuriri. Four years they’ve been waiting, and they’ve got a signed deed of settlement. Four years they’ve had their deed of settlement, and we haven’t gotten to the point of introducing the legislation. I’m confident that the tribunal will report soon, and we’ll be able to progress their claims.

Then, of course, we come to the mighty, mighty Ngā Puhi—the people of the north. I’m very confident that with the continued engagement that we’ve got and that I’m having, we will get to the point where we will get to engage in some negotiations. But we do have to respect all parts of the Ngā Puhi hapū, including Ngāti Hine—they’re about to go off and do their thing. But I’ve been very clear with Ngā Puhi that there are a number of issues that are common to all hapū of Ngā Puhi so that it does not make sense for the Crown to negotiate bit by bit, piece by piece. There will have to be a negotiation of common issues across all Ngā Puhi. I’m very pleased with the progress being made, and this House can be too.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to stand to take a call on the Estimates hearing for Māori Development. But, before I start, I just want to say: Kia kaha Te Reo Māori, in recognition of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. I want to acknowledge our Māori Affairs Committee; I think we do have a very good select committee, and it’s well-run. I just want to do a shout out to our chairman, Rino Tirikatene. I think you do a good job in keeping us all in line.

So as my colleagues have said in their presentations and their discussions today, we covered the four areas within the select committee: Māori development, Whānau Ora, Treaty settlements—as the Minister of Justice has just outlined, a list of settlements that he’s been working on as well as the Minister for Te Arawhiti, the Hon Kelvin Davis. I found the presentations rather interesting, and especially the previous contribution from Minister Andrew Little around the list of iwi that he has been working with since the hearings. It would have been great had he outlined all of this when we had asked questions around what he had lined up for his work coming up for this year. So this is very good. Maniapoto, Whakatōhea—those were areas that the Hon Chris Finlayson had asked me to keep asking the Minister about. It’s good to see that there’s been some movement, although it would be great to have some readings in this House very shortly with some of these bills, mainly because in our Māori Affairs Committee we’re running out of work, to be honest. We need some work, and, really, at the end of the day, some of these bills actually provide us with this work.

Ngāti Hinerangi is an interesting iwi because that is the iwi of Dan Bidois, as well as Maniapoto. Dan was telling us a little bit about things that have been happening with Ngāti Hinerangi, and I’m pleased that it’s starting to move along, especially for Dan. That’s also with the Whanganui land claims. I’ve been talking to some of the whānau up the awa: they were telling me a little bit about some of the things that were going on. It never is a smooth journey when iwi traverse this area.

I want to say that at the 2019-20 Budget, the Government was very generous in their Budget towards Māori development—a quarter of a billion dollars in the Māori development portfolio. Yet even today, a few months down the track, I’m still getting asked by the commissioning agencies for Whānau Ora: when is the Minister going to start releasing some of those funds out to the commissioning agencies? I was of the view that it had already been released; it obviously hasn’t been released. Its $20 million for this year—remember, it’s an $80 million fund spread over four years. So this is something where the Minister needs to—the Hon Peeni Henare—go back and actually start to have a look at the process for releasing that budget for the 2019-2020 time for $20 million to the commissioning agencies, so they can get on and start doing the mahi that will actually help to bring together, and bring closer, whānau, and some of the work that they’ve been doing within their families.

I want to talk a little bit about—again, following up on my colleague Matt King and his discussion around Te Ture Whenua. It’s really important, that bill. We did have a bill in the House that the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell was going through with the House. It was Labour working to actually go against Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill. That would have actually helped to release some of the blockages around Māori land-locked lands. Now, Māori land-locked lands—there’s thousands and thousands of hectares of Māori land-locked lands. If that could just be opened and released so production can happen for the iwi of those lands, then we would see more economic development outcomes for the iwi of those areas. Let’s look at Mōkai Pātea at the back of Taihape. They cannot get into their lands to develop and grow the very trees that the Hon Shane Jones over here has funding for. They cannot make any headway on accessing any of the funds for growing trees.

Even though this Government shelled out a lot of money, it’s all stuck in ministries, it’s stuck in this Parliament; I don’t know where it is. Why isn’t this Government more accountable to the very people that they want to grow their economic development wealth—to actually grow employment for everybody, for Māori? Why isn’t this Government being more proactive and active for a constituency of theirs?

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I’d like to make a few contributions about this challenging area of Māori affairs. I’m really encouraged to stand after the northern parliamentarian, Matt King of the white elephants, decided to give a very distorted version about Minister Andrew Little’s carriage of the claims as they pertain to the North. Now, there is another term, the pink elephant, that’s actually associated with people who hallucinate, because that account, to the detriment of the standing of our colleague Minister Little, was nothing beyond, simply, a set of political hallucinations. However, let me get to the topic at hand.

It was the Waitangi Tribunal and their unwanted intrusion—which is why I’m incredibly enthusiastic about reining them in, insofar as they are having a hobbling effect on Māori development, but more about that later in the year. But this was a consequence of the last regime, led by Mr Key and Mr Finlayson, acquiescing with the troubled defective recommendations put forward by this body, whose writ is spreading like a kumara vine.

So it is not correct to say that this side of the House has not seized the Ngāpuhi issue. Now, there is a term in Ngāpuhi: Ngāpuhi, kōhao rau. Ngāpuhi, arero rau. Ngāpuhi taniwha rau.

[Ngāpuhi of many chiefs. Ngāpuhi of many speakers. Ngāpuhi of many leaders.]

That simply means that the house of Ngāpuhi is made up of many voices. But, as the Minister has said, there are some issues that pertain to the entirety of the iwi. It’s heartening to hear the Minister say, in public, that those issues will not be atomised and they will not be discombobulated in such a way that we don’t make progress.

I want to continue a little more on the role in Māori development of agencies such as the Waitangi Tribunal. The Waitangi Tribunal has been a key agent of change and us coming to terms with our history, but it is slowly but surely exhausting its relevance in terms of being a driver for Māori development, which is what this segment of the Budget discussions is about. So it’s important that those people who are looking to actually grow their profile and the hua—the fruits—of development stop utilising that organisation.

On the question of employment, which I’m sure other members will speak about, extraordinarily positive things have happened under the rubric of Māori development for the purpose of developing our most important talent: he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. That is something that has come about as a consequence of imagination, innovation—actually, there are three things that are driving this, and they’re quite evident, as Mr Rino Tirikatene’s report shows: number one, leadership. And the quality of leadership is fully on display amongst those Māori Ministers and their supporters within the broader Government community.

Secondly, mandating. Beyond cavil, beyond a slither of doubt, the Māori members, especially those in Labour, have an unfettered mandate to drive this kaupapa forward. Now, that was something that hobbled the last regime because they had the outhouse approach. Now, that was my old head boy at St Stephen’s School, Te Ururoa Flavell, a great friend of mine, but it was very unfortunate how he was marginalised—and that is not happening in terms of those who hold the Māori mandate under this Government.

And the third thing is execution. Now, we are very well aware that in the absence of decent delivery, execution becomes perilously close. That is why, in areas such as land development, such as employment, and such as expediting the pace at which we bring to completion the Treaty claims and especially the Ngāpuhi claim, it will be done by thinking outside of the box. It will not be completed with any unnecessary levels of attention or excrescence, with the warblings coming out of the Waitangi Tribunal—the less I hear from them, the better I’ll feel. Thank you very much.

Tuatahi, he tika me mihi ki taku hoa ahakoa rerekē tō kōrero e pā ana ki te Tribunal. Ngā mihi huritau ki a koe e te hoa. E te hoa. Sixty years old. Ngā mihi ki a koe. Tēnei wā hoki e tika ki te whakanui tō tātou reo Māori. E tika me mihi ki te rōpū Te Taura Whiri mō tā rātou mahi ki te kōkiri i te kaupapa i ngā wā katoa, ki te whakanui i tō tātou reo. Ngā mihi ki a rātou. Koutou katoa, kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

[Firstly, it is right to acknowledge my friend, regardless of his different speech on the Tribunal. Happy birthday my friend. My friend. Sixty years old. Congratulations to you. This time also is right to celebrate our Māori language. It is only right to acknowledge the organisation of Te Taura Whiri for their efforts to push the movement forward at all times, to celebrate our language. They have my thanks. All of you, be strong, be brave, be steadfast.]

Just acknowledging our reo, this is Māori Language Week, and, of course, our Minister, there, Shane Jones—a wonderful kōrero there; a bit of a different view in terms of the tribunal, and we were fascinated to hear that. We wonder what his mentor Matiu Rata might think of that today. But, anyway, ngā mihi ki a koe, e te hoa.

I think that we need to congratulate ourselves in terms of Māori development and the Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

💬 Hon David Bennett: Really?

Oh, absolutely—absolutely. Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s done a terrific job. Minister Jones has talked about some of the mahi that we’ve done. A lot of the work out there is work at the coalface that Minister Jones talked about.

💬 Hon Member: That’s rubbish.

Well, you might say “That’s rubbish”, but all I say is look at the unemployment figures—look at the unemployment figures. And if you want to look at the unemployment figures for Māori: 7.7 percent at the moment; the lowest ever in the history of statistics—7.7 percent. Now, that’s a terrific percentage that we have, and I’m so proud of it. A lot of that, firstly, is due to the work that myself and Minister Jones are doing in the regions, with the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), where we’re using that pūtea—those dollars, that investment—to get our nephs off the couch, as Minister Jones would describe the kaupapa. He talked about that a year or two back; we’ve been investing in that through the PGF and He Poutama Rangatahi. I say, today, that it’s one of the reasons why our unemployment—particularly in those regional areas—is tracking in the right direction.

I want to mention, today, our cadetships through Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK), because I think they are contributing significantly towards getting Māori into work. So, yes, we have our PGF; yes, we have our He Poutama Rangatahi; and we also have Mana in Mahi. But in this year’s Budget we secured more funding to grow our cadetship programme further, supporting an extra 600 placements—600 placements—over the next four years, focusing particularly on wāhine—focusing particularly on women. These are the types of developments that we want to see. I’ve been to the coalface and I’ve seen the Code Avengers in Hamilton, where we have cadets developing careers in the information and technology business. At Pūniu River Care, we have cadets who are not only developing careers in the horticulture industry but they are also committed to the regeneration of our awas.

Just last week, I spent the morning with our cadet programme in Auckland, with Māori leaders and managers at New Zealand Post. We had a terrific hui down there at Te Puea Marae, where they talked about how were they going to bring their Māori identity into their mahi. I said to them that that’s the challenge. They didn’t want to just be part of the line-up; they wanted to be part of the contribution, they wanted to be part of the board—part of the leadership, but at the same time they wanted to carry their Māori identity. I was pleased that we had our Te Puni Kōkiri officials with us, helping with that development.

So in terms of TPK and what’s been happening: more employers now are under this cadetship, 43 up from 17 last year; more cadets, 455 now contracted up from 330; more wāhine going into cadetships, 27 percent up from 19 percent; more funding, the Wellbeing Budget supporting 600 more cadet placements over the next four years; and a wider range of industries, tourism, high-tech start-ups, finance, for example. We’re going right across the spectrum, and we’re getting into our people, investing in the young people and investing in the regions.

The Māori development portfolio is going so well under the guidance of Nanaia Mahuta, and we as a Māori caucus are very proud to support that. Kia ora tātou.