Korako Nuk: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKorako Nuk: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1579. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]NUK KORAKO (National):Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. I rise to support the motion but firstly I want to acknowledge the passing of two great leaders of Māoridom: Apirana Mahuika of Ngati Porou and Tama Huata of Ngāti Kahungunu. Nō reira e ngā rakatira haere atu rā haere atu rā. Haere atu rā ki te pao o te whakawairua takoto mai takoto. [And so to the esteemed elders go forth; farewell. Depart to the spiritual beat. Lie there rest.] Let the dead be the dead and the living be the living.I want to highlight one thing that the Prime Minister said in his speech: National is a Government doing something for Māori. One of the reasons I sought to enter Parliament as a National MP was to advance the cause of Māori. Some of my people have expressed scepticism and asked how I could join National. These are the people who buy in to the widespread perception that the party opposite is the one that can do the most for our people. Let me be clear. I joined the National Party because it is the party that has done the most for Māori in the past and will do the most for Māori in the future. It is indeed about aspirations. For too long Māori have been at the bottom of many major social indicators—in particular education and welfare dependency. For too long Māori have looked for Labour to turn things round. For too long Labour has let our people down.Labour is full of rhetoric on the importance of education. From what I have seen and heard the Māori MPs on the other side of the House really care about our people and the importance of a good education. They talk a good game but when it comes time to stand up and do something about the problems that exist it is the teachers unions that get the final say. Labour’s answers to educational underachievement have been to ignore the failing schools to oppose telling parents how their children are doing and to fight against innovation in our education system. Our whānau want their kids to succeed. So when National says we should help parents to be more involved in their child’s learning they welcome that. They welcome being told in plain language how their children are doing. They welcome having data available that shows how their children’s school is performing. They agree with the Government that schools should be operating in the interests of their students and not those of the teachers union bosses.The fact that National is good for Māori is evident from the settlement of historic Treaty claims. As the Prime Minister said in his speech Labour signed only one or two deeds of settlement per year. But now just after over 6 years of a National Government we have signed 46 deeds of settlement. That is fantastic progress and it makes me proud to represent National.I want to acknowledge our relationship with the Māori Party. Together we have improved social outcomes for Māori through Whānau Ora and we have repealed Helen Clark’s land-grab of the foreshore and seabed. This Government remains relentlessly focused on lifting the living standards of Māori along with every other New Zealander through economic growth. Labour’s approach to Māori in poverty has been to keep them there. Labour talks about jobs and lifting our people out of poverty and when the time has come to act it has done nothing. On this side of the House we know what it takes to lift people out of poverty. It is not sitting around talking about what a job is. It is not voting against every single job-creating measure this Government has put in place. It is not burdening small businesses with red tape and higher taxes and still expecting them to take on one more staff member.National has restored confidence in our economy which was crippled by the global recession and a Labour Government. Businesses now have the confidence to take on new workers thanks to the 90-day trial period. As I said at the beginning of my speech this is about aspirations.I live on a papatupu or an ancestral community. This is the Māori heartland. I can tell the Leader of the Opposition that most Māori do not want to talk about self-governance. Our aspirations as a people are much higher than that. Like everyone else Māori care about education we care about jobs and we care about the welfare of our children. We are not interested in the sort of separatism that is around the self-governance talk from the other side. What we are interested in is an ongoing partnership with the Crown that will enable us as a people to fulfil our aspirations. The Opposition parties will say anything to get into Government but empowering our people to reach the future they aspire to is again about walking the talk. If I could sum up Labour’s achievements for Māori in one sentence it would be this: after all that was said and done there was more said than done. Kia ora.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Just before I call the next member and I think we have just had a fairly egregious example of it I do want to warn members that in this debate it is not appropriate to read speeches.