Rurawhe Adrian: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru):Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te W’are e tū ake nei otirā tika ana kia huri atu ki a rātau ā ki a rāua ta’i kua wehe atu ki tua o te ārai. Nō reira e te rangatira Api Mahuika e te rangatira Tama Huata tēnei a’au e tuku mi’i poroporoaki ki a kōrua haere atu rā. Nō reira huri atu au ki Te Whare nei tēnā koutou tēnā tātau.[Greetings to you Mr Speaker of this House standing before us but at the same time it is fitting that I turn to the departed and to the two who have gone beyond the divide. So to you both esteemed elders Api Mahuika and Tama Huata I bid you farewell and goodbye. I turn now to you in this House to acknowledge you and us collectively.]It is a great privilege and pleasure for me to stand up today and join in this debate on the Prime Minister’s statement to this House. I am speaking against the motion and for the amendment moved by the leader of the Labour Party Andrew Little. Sometimes I am told that I drop Māori words into my speeches and it is too quick before people can get a translation—one or two words. The three or four words that I am going to use in my speech today—one is tino which means very or really; rawa atu which means beyond or to the extremities of the word that precedes it; and the third word that I am going to use is hōhā which means tiresome bothersome or fed up. Before I get into my speech those are the three words that I am going to use in this speech.It was a great pleasure for me to stand and welcome all of the political parties to Rātana Pā on 23 January this year. Everyone looked refreshed. I kept it fairly non-partisan because that is what the kaupapa of our marae there is; but in this House not so much. I am going to address some of the issues that I have heard in the House today. But before I do I want to touch on our visit to Waitangi. At Waitangi our Labour caucus went on to Te Tii Marae and we were warmly welcomed there. Interestingly enough we went on to the marae after the Government parties. It was really unusual because I have been to a lot of maraes and I have attended many many pōwhiri and I know when the local people are happy and when they are not happy. I know that the people who welcomed us there on to that marae genuinely and sincerely expressed their affection towards Andrew Little the leader of the Labour Party. That is a fact. I also heard the word “arrogant” three times from three different speakers on the home side and they were all referring to the Prime Minister—each and every one of them. They were not happy with what he had said and the way he had said it. In fact they were hōhā. They were tino hōhā. Actually they were tino hōhā rawa atu. That is a fact. They said to us quite clearly on the marae when welcoming us that they were sick and tired of the way that this Government has been talking to them and treating them. I think it is really important that we say it in this House so that members on the Government benches can hear it quite clearly. That is my message to the Government.I will tell you something else. Flippant answers are being given in this House or actually not being given—a case in point was yesterday when a Minister was on his feet not answering the question. On the cross benches every single National MP had their head down. Indeed I would say they were hōhā and quite rightly so. I expect that perhaps the senior Government whip might be sending out an email next week because during question time I think they will have their heads up this time. But that is an indication that within the National Party members the National Government there are probably new members sitting there who know very well that those questions are not being addressed in a way that is expected by the wider community who are watching. I think our people who are watching here tonight and listening to the answers at question time deserve an answer. Those answers are not coming. That is adding to their “hōhā-ness” if I can add an English ending to that word—their “hōhā-ness”. They are very hōhā. They are also hōhā with the Māori Party. That is why Labour doubled its number of Māori electorate seats. That is a fact—that is a fact. And I encourage the National MPs because they do it all the time to continue to tell the whole world how good a relationship they have with the Māori Party because guess what? Every time they do it we get more votes. So I encourage the National MPs to continue doing that. Probably I should not have said that because they might actually stop but I do not think that they will. I think they will carry on because they need the Māori Party votes to do things like end debates. So those sorts of motions where they might be against the bill but they vote for the procedural motion to stop the debate are the things that our people—my people out in the electorate—are telling me they do not like. So my message is you know—sorry Mr Assistant Speaker—that one—Hon Maurice Williamson: Ha ha! He’s forgotten the message.ADRIAN RURAWHE: No I used the word “you” and I should not have. Sorry Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): He was naughty even if the member did not recognise it. All right?ADRIAN RURAWHE: So our people are telling me that they are sick and tired of that kind of behaviour.The important thing for me and for my Labour Party colleagues and indeed our Māori caucus colleagues—we have a strong Māori voice within the Labour Party—is that Andrew Little our leader and others within the party have acknowledged the huge responsibility and confidence that Māori have given back to Labour. We will stand up to be a strong voice within this House and within this Parliament despite what people on the opposite side have said during this debate. Indeed I was a bit taken aback by one Nuk Korako who seemed to be telling us that National knows how to deal with poverty. Really? Our people are really hōhā with that because actually the number of our people living in poverty has grown not reduced—grown. And there is all of the rhetoric coming from that side of the House and from within the Prime Minister’s statement—another example would be that the average income has increased. Well if you actually have a look at the statistics those people earning over $1300 per week certainly their incomes have increased significantly but the incomes of the ones earning in the middle between $480 and $720 per week have gone up by hardly anything. And for the ones on the lowest income there have been very modest increases. So that tells us that the rich are continuing to get richer and the poor are staying where they are. My message to the constituency across this nation is that we have the ideas we have the team we have the leader and I believe that at the next election we will be the Government and the hōhā that exists today amongst our people will come to an end. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa.