Horomia Parekura: General Debate 
Horomia Parekura: General Debate 
[Volume:637;Page:7988] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I understand that the leader of the National Party and his sidekicks have been roaming around the country trying to find out information on Maori. They did not have to roam around and try to pep it up and find out; I have the facts and I can tell them about those. At the moment we have the lowest Maori unemployment rate on record. It has dropped by 68 percent since December 1999. More Maori are working fewer are unemployed and fewer are outside the labour force. The number of Maori in employment increased by 22000 between December 2005 and December 2006. Again there are more Maori in real jobs. Certainly as this great gentleman in the House is shifting the mat and moving it around that is exactly what the National Party is trying to do in terms of the great things that are happening with Maori. 
Let us have some of the facts. Earnings growth for Maori was 11.5 percent. In 2005 nearly 29000 Maori participated in industry training. Irrespective of what the floor covering looks like Maori are doing a whole lot better. More facts: Maori are participating and achieving in education and training and more are qualified. This morning I released information on Maori succeeding in tertiary education. We now have 275 Maori students doing doctoral studies. If we look back 7 to 8 years we see we barely managed a half-dozen to 10 such students. Last week I was privileged enough to be at the presentation of nearly 61 PhDs. That is the transition that is happening in Maoridom. We are growing up and we are participating in a lot better fashion. 
This morning the Maori Affairs Committee—with pushing and prodding from members from the other side of the House—heard a delivery from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Maori Affairs that cited all of these great achievements. And Tau did not show up—no show Tau. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member is experienced and he knows that he cannot use just the member’s first name. He must use the full name of the member or his title. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: A person to whom I gave a lot of advice in the past when he was the Minister of Maori Affairs did not show up. As my colleague Hone Harawira who worked for me for a few years told the select committee Maori are sick of the focus on deficits. I agree with him—and I know about Hone and deficits. 
There are more facts around but I want to get back to the charade that was performed today in this House. What I saw yesterday was one of the most gutless ridiculous things with people chortling and laughing all through the discussion of the sad events that involved Graeme Burton and company. To hear the denial today was outrageous. What did Key say? He said: “I mean fundamentally Don and I share the same view …”. and that all he wanted to do was change the tone of things. That is right. There were U-turns and flip-flops on Iraq employment and housing. It goes on and on. The issue about Orewa was quite pointed. The statements on the underclass were quite pointed. Discussion of the removal of the Maori seats was more than pointed. This Government has certainly got on with it. On 1 April we will extend. We have Working for Families paid parental leave being extended to 14 weeks rates rebates for senior citizens and changes to help small to medium sized businesses. That is serious stuff.  
I am always fascinated by price takers and people who play the futures market. I am not as learned as Dr Cullen but he has certainly proved his prowess in managing the financial benches of this country. We are seeing one of the best performances in 100 years. I have learnt about people like John Key who hedge play the futures markets and are principally price takers. They prep up the market and use false assumptions and Chinese walls. They build it up and then take out the profit. That is what happening here. One National leader is making a great statement about tax cuts and the other is saying nothing.  
Paula Bennett just accelerated it. What one learns if one has been in this game long enough is that one always has to be careful of people who play the futures markets with dreams and make-believe quanta of money. Dreams are what Mr Key’s financial and tax policies are starting to become. What did Paula Bennett do today? She increased it by $1 billion. Somebody else increased it by $1.5 billion. What is the impact of that? It would be about losing hospitals good health services and good education forums—all of those great things this Government is doing.