Sharples Pita: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Sharples Pita: Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:641;Page:11069] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker; tena tatou. I have been wondering what it is with the concept of one in 10. One in 10 New Zealanders live in Australia making up the largest concentration of New Zealanders living in any other country. One in 10 European families and one in four Maori families fell behind in paying at least one bill for power gas or water in the year 2004 according to the living standards survey. Then there is the fact that over 10 percent of all households in New Zealand are experiencing mortgage stress. According to the economist Brian Easton half a million New Zealanders spend more than 40 percent of their after-tax household earnings on their mortgage repayments. There is the fact that one in 10 boys and one in 20 girls reported being bullied at least once a week. Of course the breaking news today is that the latest food price index shows that the price of a 2 litre bottle of milk rose by about 10 percent last month. All those indicators may appear haphazard or random but there is a connection between them and it is the silent violence of economic injustice. 
As we conclude the third reading of the Appropriation (2007/08 Estimates) Bill the Maori Party seeks to remind the House of the gross wealth disparity across New Zealand that is reflected in persistent and growing economic desperation. Sure the richest one in 10 New Zealanders have increased their net worth to just over 50 percent of the total median net worth of our nation’s wealth. One in 10 New Zealanders are in that position and life is looking good for the top 10 percent. The figures show that those people are at least 21 percent better off in 2004 than they were 20 years ago in 1984. But we cannot ignore the fact that for the poorest 30 percent of New Zealanders it appears that their real income is lower in 2004 than it was 20 years ago in 1984. 
The impacts of globalisation have been particularly dire for Maori workers. It is Maori who have been cut and slashed by the sharp edge of the policies of the 1980s and 1990s to liberalise our economy and expose it to the forces of globalisation. With the removal of tariff protections and State sector restructuring it was Maori workers who were disproportionately impacted on in the textile clothing footwear car assembly meatworks and forestry industries and in the railways. The price of global progress has been at great cost to tangata whenua. Statistics New Zealand’s household labour force survey gives even more room for despondency when it comes to describing the profile of New Zealanders who fall under the line and are classified as poor. Maori children are nearly twice as likely as Pakeha children to fall under the poverty line and others including Pasifika peoples are nearly three times as likely to do so. We have consistently raised in the House the shame that this nation carries in entrenching hardship for the poorest of the poor: some 250000 children who are still living in poverty. 
People are impoverished when they are deprived of access to power and resources. Lincoln University’s professor of agribusiness Keith Woodford has told the nation that life will get even tougher with further milk price rises this year and the cost of other grocery staples like bread flour and meat likely also to increase. But it is not just the material famine that concerns us. People are also suffering the impact of spiritual poverty: the lack of hope that a better future lies ahead. So although the current Government promulgates an endless mantra of working for some families or offers to some people the prospect of being a KiwiSaver while excluding all those New Zealanders who are kept on poverty wages far too little emphasis has been paid to the poorest of the poor. 
Part of the problem lies in the lack of robust data for measuring the growth in disparities or policy failures in the area of monitoring. The Child Poverty Action Group has identified that virtually identical names have been transferred across family assistance strategies yet those strategies now have vastly different eligibility criteria. What that means as the Muliaga case demonstrated so tragically is that with the radically changing criteria and the complexity of the family tax credit concept many families are missing out on obtaining their basic entitlements as a result of the policy confusion. 
The other issue is to do with the declining capacity of State agencies to adhere to a tight monitoring framework. In May the Auditor-General’s report on Te Puni Kokiri’s administration of its grant programmes revealed shocking standards of legal risk and non-compliance which is concerning for a Public Service agency. Instances of contracts signed before a legal clearance had been obtained or where recipients had failed to submit progress reports as the funding contracts required showed the devastating impact of running down the monitoring function of that agency. Just yesterday we revealed more evidence of the monitoring failure in reviewing the first annual report that the Minister of Maori Affairs had tabled in 12 years on progress made—or not made—against Treaty settlements. 
All across this House there would be unanimous agreement that the Government spend on Maori across education hospital and primary health care and community probation or jail and through the unemployment or sickness registers appears high. Those appropriations are spent for and on behalf of the Maori partner yet the Maori partner has little to say about how much the appropriation should be or about the nature of the design development implementation management and evaluation of the policies associated with that spend. Despite having little or no say and often having very little dedicated funds allocated the blame for poor performance in health education justice and the social services is consistently sheeted home to Maori. What is worse all evidence reveals that the gaps are getting worse and the injustice is becoming entrenched. 
The Maori Party the Tikanga Maori House in Parliament has a suggestion to challenge the poor performance that parties often clash over in considering the Maori spend. There is no denying that Aotearoa possesses a dual economy: the New Zealand economy and the Maori economy. The Maori-owned asset base has an estimated worth of $9 billion of which Maori-owned land-based businesses and incorporations earn at least $1.9 billion annually in revenue and Maori exports add up to a total of $1.3 billion a year. We know exactly where the spend is and the estimated profits. For example we can measure revenue owned by Maori who own approximately 40 percent of the New Zealand seafood industry own 10 percent of the forest estate and produce 7.5 percent of the value added in agricultural production. But in the spend on Maori undertaken by the Crown whether in education health justice or Treaty settlements the total amount spent on Maori by Maori is often submerged from view. Officials tell us that it is too difficult to aggregate such amounts. 
As an example it has taken the Maori Party an enormous search involving some 107 written questions pertaining to kura and wharekura and an additional 104 questions related to bilingual and immersion classes in mainstream schools before we were able to obtain the information from the Minister about the spend on Maori education. During that search we found that funds previously allocated to kura and wharekura in the 5 years from 2000-01 to 2005-06 have not been fully spent with the total difference being $16 million. We are yet to find out where that money has gone. That will probably take another couple of hundred questions and another couple of months of waiting and who has time to do that? 
It is the firm view of the Tikanga Maori House in Parliament that the Maori partner needs better financial data to properly monitor the Government spend on Maori and then to be able to assess that spend against the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi. Long-term relief for tangata whenua from present circumstances will depend on the courage and commitment of the nation to be open to the possibility of a Maori-inspired solution. The 2007-08 estimates are not that. Thank you.