Henare Peeni: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 03 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10690. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Excellent choice Mr Chair. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to contribute to this debate.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): I might do it again.PEENI HENARE: Te Puni Kōkiri sadly does not know whether it is Arthur or Martha. Once upon a time the direction and the leadership for Te Puni Kōkiri was very clear. It knew what its job was—its job was to grow a sustainable Māori economy. Today Te Puni Kōkiri is being asked to be a social services arm. It is being asked to become a Te Reo Māori assessor. It is being asked also to continue its work in the economic space. I take the words of the member and the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee Nuk Korako who would like to see more of that take place at Te Puni Kōkiri. But sadly that is not going to happen under the current leadership. It is not going to happen when you are forcing a traditionally excellently performing ministry in Te Puni Kōkiri to do so many other things. It does not know whether or not it is Arthur or Martha.Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori Act has just come in. The member has spoken about Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori and some of the problems that were faced by Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori around staffing and of course we know that the chief executive position was vacant for some time. However it got a chief executive and I do understand that it is back to a full complement of staff. But this means nothing when its budget has been slashed to create a new entity Te Mātāwai.Although I am all for progressing and revitalising Te Reo Māori—I am a huge Te Reo Māori champion—I do not believe however that Te Reo Māori is going to reach the pinnacles that we hope it will. Why I say that is because there is a lack of leadership on this matter. We have talked about a Maihi Karauna strategy or a Crown strategy and a Te Reo Māori strategy. Well the legislation does not give the strategy. The Government is yet to work the strategy out. It is prepared to give Te Mātāwai 3 years to see whether or not it will come up with a strategy and to see whether or not the number of speakers of Te Reo Māori will lift or continue to decrease as trends have shown.Our research has shown that in that 3 years the number of conversational Māori speakers will drop by 1 percent falling to a very critical level of just under 20 percent. We know that in order for Te Reo Māori to grow and to thrive you need a critical mass speaking Te Reo Māori. Experts in the field tell us that that critical mass must be at 35 percent. So why then under this Minister for Māori Development and this Government did we not have that aspiration play out in the set-up of Te Mātāwai and the debate of the bill—that we want to see Te Reo Māori speakers in this country grow to a number of 35 percent? I am afraid there is a lack of leadership on that matter.Back to Te Puni Kōkiri. I think it is doing a great job. It just like Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori has had issues around staffing. And it is not just any old staff member; it has had vacancies in the leadership group of Te Puni Kōkiri—in key positions to lead and drive Te Puni Kōkiri. The ministry told the Māori Affairs Committee that it will work hard to fill those and I understand that it has made some progress there. But if it has made progress there then why is it that in the past financial year Te Puni Kōkiri has spent $8 million on consultants—$8 million on consultants—to carry out the work of Te Puni Kōkiri instead of focusing on filling those key leadership roles to provide leadership from this Government and the Minister to Te Puni Kōkiri to allow it to do its work correctly? All of this $8 million to consultants—we have raised several times since the last election this issue about the excess being spent on consultants. And what are they giving? What are they providing? Well we would argue on this side of the Chamber that what they are actually providing in many instances is flawed advice. I say that with respect to Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill.I want to mention Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill because all of the advice given to the Minister has just allowed him to fool himself into thinking he can bulldoze this piece of legislation through the Parliament and that he can force it on to the people despite the people being very clear to this Minister and to this Government that what they are proposing is wrong and that what they are proposing is actually going to further alienate Māori land. That is not acceptable. I am on a trust that administers a large amount of Māori land and we have looked through the bill that is to be proposed by the Minister and we too have very strong concerns about the intention of the bill. Why do we not listen to the experts? Why do we not listen to those who actually work with the bill every day—organisations like the Māori Land Court people like the judges in the Māori Land Court and people like the lawyers who have forged careers in this space? Why do we not listen to them?Well I can tell you that this Minister and this Government are not listening to them. Instead what they gone and done is said: “Let’s have hui across the country. Let’s just go through a box-ticking exercise. We’ll engage with the Māori people on Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill but I’ll tell you what let’s meet at the Langham Hotel.”—that must be the flashest marae I have ever seen the Langham Hotel—“I know another place where we can meet. Let us meet in a bunker at an airport in the hope that we can have meaningful consultation with the Māori people around Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill. Once that is all done and we have ticked all the boxes we are now going to say that the Māori people agree.”I beg to differ. That is not the view of our people with regard to Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill. Sure they want to be able to feel empowered to make decisions for themselves. Sure they want to be able to manage their land to make sure that they receive benefits from it. But it works only if you go through a solid process—a solid process—that will create a foundation for that to happen and create a foundation to empower our people the Māori people to make meaningful contributions to the economy to seek self-determining means by way of building their own value and their own assets. But what the exercise of Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill has actually proven to members on this side of the Chamber and of course to the rest of the country is this Government’s overall failure to make sure that you go through due process.We have sat in this House many times now explaining to many iwi who come here to settle their Treaty grievances—and we look them in the eye and we say to them—“Kia kaha. This is full this is fair and this is final.” Yet what we are seeing now is all of a sudden there is a flip-flop from this Government which says: “Oh heck. Actually we may have rushed this through. Maybe we didn’t quite get it right the first time. So let’s revisit it.”What have we seen? We have seen the right of first refusal on homes and on land in Tāmaki-makau-rau. That is a classic example. What else have we seen? Te Ohu Kaimoana going to court over the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary. This after the fisheries settlement in 1992 that said it was full fair and final. Now all of a sudden because of the decisions made by this Government Māori are feeling like victims again. Their rights are being taken away from them. Their ability to voice their concerns is being silenced and what this points to is this Government’s failure to lead properly and to lead correctly on true Māori development. What exactly does that mean? It means allowing Te Puni Kōkiri to do what it is supposed to do.Also in conclusion I want to just briefly mention Whānau Ora. We all agree with Whānau Ora. We want Whānau Ora to work. Recently we have heard of the tragic case about that young Māori boy called Moko who passed away through tragic circumstances through people not caring for our most vulnerable. We want Whānau Ora to get into these houses and to get into these communities to make sure that those people—the most vulnerable in our country—are protected and that those who need the help get the help that they need. However I do not believe this is happening under Whānau Ora. I do not believe that this Government is showing true leadership on Whānau Ora to make sure that those people like young Moko and the families who are dealing with a lot of our most vulnerable get the service and get the help that they require.