Horomia Parekura: General Debate 
Horomia Parekura: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8627] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 Is it not fascinating that we hear this prattle from the co-leader of that party over there in relation to our performance? We hear the leader over there wanting to microchip 5-year-olds so that National can put in standards that are a whole lot of rubbish. We can talk about our record in relation to educational performance. Is it not fascinating that the Prime Minister the leader of Labour made a decision to investigate the police and the rubbish in that organisation? Why did that party opposite not do it? The reason is that its members did not have the guts to do it. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member cannot refer to lack of courage. That is a personal reflection. He will withdraw that comment. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: It was surprising that they had no fortitude in the sense of— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will withdraw the comment. “I withdraw” is all the member has to say. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I withdraw. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: He’s the last member to be talking about having guts. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: That is dead right—and the member can dig as deep as he likes. The thing with some of us Maoris who have been to Waitangi for 35 years and who have been attached to political policies for a long long time is that we do it outside in the air and when we leave whenever that may be. 
I want to talk about leadership. Members opposite have been involved with five different leaders and we know that Gerry and Simon Power are already putting up their team. Let us talk about who has gone who has been and who those members struck in the back. Who did that? Let us recount what happened that great evening when the present leader told the co-leader he would support him. Then what did he do? He went and supported Brash. Those members sing in unison; they are like a whole lot of people practising what the Brethren say. That is where they got their rhyming from. They got it by following the Brethren. The Brethren are leading the hollow people to the promised land with no strategy no vision and no account of how they need to perform. 
Let us talk about education. My colleague Shane Jones will—a long time before those members opposite—help to manage the finance benches in this country. He will do that. There are a whole lot of Maori who can do that. This is a man who can do a whole lot of things that those members cannot do. He and I can both do this job. After he came back from Dargaville—and I notice that none of National’s Maori members were there; they have abandoned you because you treat them like you know what and that is a fact—he told me that he had been driving around up there as Maori members do talking to the people and an old kuia and kaumatua said to him: “You know what John Key told me? He said that when he got back he was going to go to the wananga to learn the Maori language.” That is what he said. And it was Bill that joker from the deep south where my ancestor— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will use the member’s full name. And please stop referring to the presiding officer. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: It was the member from Southland—where my ancestors the Rutherfords come from—who said to get rid of the wananga. Then the co-leader came along and said: “We’ll do this.” 
I will talk about what this Government has done in its time. We have lifted the minimum wage seven times. It went up another dollar on 1 April. That lot on the benches opposite in the 9 years their Government was in office did not put it up even by a dollar. [ 
Interruption 
] The member at the back who is screeching out was a great rugby player but nothing else. His father was the great businessperson. What worries us is when Mr English talks of—how dare he—“the social rabble”. That is an extension of Orewa. “Social rabble” he said. 
Well families under this Government have done well. In education over the last 15 years only six to seven Maori on average per year did PhDs. This year we will have 61 completed and 500 are in progress. [ 
Interruption 
] I tell Maurice that there are a lot of things going on. That member came back to the front bench only because he helped stick another person in the back. That is what happened there. Members know the saying: “Those who wield the knife will lose the knife.” This Government has done outstanding things for Maori and for families who have put us continually into Government. Those members opposite should remember that after the election when we will come back in led by a capable leader Helen Clark. At the end of the day when I listen to those members singing in unison I am more than of the belief that they believe in the Brethren. What a lot of rubbish!