Turia Tariana: General Debate 
Turia Tariana: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:22053] 
TARIANA TURIA (Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 After that tirade I stand with a bit of trepidation to speak. Last Wednesday the Minister for Social Development and Employment dropped a bombshell on the horizon. His press release announced that a social report paints a positive picture of New Zealand life. We have had experience before of how much this Government values the truth. The Government has yet again chosen to paint its positive picture of a situation that otherwise provides some fairly sobering reading. Steve Maharey said that the report shows a largely positive picture: “New Zealanders are living longer healthier lives. We are better educated safer and earn more than in the past.” That may be the picture they are trying to paint but the truth is that the masterpiece is beginning to crack. 
Why are there more people in prison than ever before? Why are people—mainly Maori and Pacific peoples—dying of a diabetes epidemic? It is because the Government refuses to invest the appropriate resources as recommended by PricewaterhouseCoopers. We heard the Associate Minister of Health Damien O’Connor claim to have improved resources for diabetes education and promotion but the reality is that it is simply not enough. The Government continues to tinker around the edges as people continue to die and become disabled in horrendous numbers. 
How does the positive picture of this nation account for the fact that we are experiencing greater numbers of people in poverty in situations of deprivation and social stress such as those caused by poor housing overcrowding and low incomes? Why will young Maori boys and girls born today still die at a greater rate than others? It is precisely because of that disparity that we are proposing shifting the age of entitlement for superannuation for Maori to be reduced from 65 to 60 years in order to fit with current Maori life expectancy. 
How is it that the masterpiece this Government asks us to admire appears to have overlooked the ugly face of racism? One of the most concerning findings in the social report is that 78 percent of respondents thought Asian people were subject to a great deal of or some discrimination. Seventy-two percent of respondents thought that recent migrants were the target of such discrimination and 70 percent thought that refugees were the target. Is it a coincidence that just 3 days after this finding appeared on the public radar a rally was organised in defence of tolerance at the Aotea Square by the Council of Christians and Muslims? 
The problem is that this social report is not about people of colour; it is about the fact that those who benefit most from the systems in place treat the rest of us as “the other”. The nation has had enough of pictures being painted that are dishonest and that hide the truth of the reality in front of us. It is a very well-known fact that the health of mature and civilised nations is measured by the health status of its most vulnerable groups—indigenous people children people living with disabilities and other marginalised groups. This is the picture we must come to grips with before we go to the polls: a picture of poverty. 
The Minister cannot put his hand over his heart and suggest that the report is a positive picture when the current level of poverty amongst children is at 21 percent. It is almost 50 percent higher than it was before the reforms of 1988 when the level was 14 percent. We should not forget that as at the 2001 census 23 percent of all children under 18 identified as Maori 11 percent as Pacific Islanders and 7 percent as Asian. So the positive picture being painted by the Government does not include the reality of life for many children of colour. The Maori Party has particular concern about the fact that the proportion of children in sole parent families below the poverty threshold rose from 18 percent in 1988 to 66 percent in 2002. This group more than any know that recent Government decisions will disproportionately disadvantage it. 
We have been concerned about the likely impact of the “Working Against Families” initiative on whanau that live well below the poverty line. About 300000 children will miss out on the child tax credit. The Government’s package keeps the child tax credit in place only until 2006. Furthermore the “Working Against Families” package removes the child-related component of between $17 and $21 in core benefits. This equates to 175000 children being deprived of the child-related component of core benefits.