Ririnui Mita: Budget Debate 
Ririnui Mita: Budget Debate 
[Volume:655;Page:4317] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour) 
 I will start by supporting the comments of the former Minister of Maori Affairs the Hon Parekura Horomia in acknowledging the passing of the mother of the member for Te Tai Tonga Rahui Katene. It is important that we acknowledge the particular sad events that affect members of this House even though Wayne Mapp thinks it is a bit of a joke. 
We have a saying in Maoridom that we use quite often particularly in times like this. It goes like this: “Ma te huruhuru te manu ka rere.” It is a statement about economics. In other words a bird without feathers will never fly. An economy without investment will never grow. We had some important events on the weekend particularly in Mt Albert. I acknowledge first the promotions of Nathan Guy and Chris Tremain but I especially acknowledge the achievement of the new member for Mt Albert David Shearer. He ran a typically Labour grass-roots campaign which many of us in this House could learn from. 
Craig Foss 
: Ha ha! 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Once again we have a bit of sarcasm from someone who has never done a day’s work. As much as the National backbenchers and ministerial aspirants will try to talk up the Budget they know that the result in Mt Albert sent them a very strong message. The message was that the Budget was no good. National members often tried to talk it up in their pre-Budget statements saying that the Budget would be for the underprivileged underclass and those who are most vulnerable. The people of Mt Albert waited with bated breath for that Budget but it never came. The reason I know that is that I travelled to Mt Albert more than once to assist my now parliamentary colleague David Shearer on the campaign trail. That was the very strong message that came through from almost everybody we spoke to. Those who did not comment very much about the Budget were so disgusted they just walked away. 
There are still in Mt Albert some very long-term residents working-class people who have been there for a very long time who are the heart and soul of Mt Albert. People in Mt Albert told us that with this Government and this Budget their days in the sun were over. They are retired people those most vulnerable people whom the National Party claims it was targeting with the Budget. They are the people who sent the clear message to the Government that 6 months into its term they are already fed up with it. They are the people who also observed from Mt Albert the happenings in Auckland particularly in relation to the Auckland super-city proposal. They are the people who said they put their lives into the Auckland region and into its development and put everything including their life savings into making a place for themselves in Auckland. Their greatest fear is that this Government with its super-city proposal will now alienate them from any decision-making process and more than that that the assets they have built up over a number of years will be lost to them. Their greatest fear is that Rogernomics is back on the agenda and that those assets will be privatised and sold to the— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Highest bidder. 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: —highest bidder as my colleague put it. That is the reason in my view and after talking to the people of Mt Albert why David Shearer had such a great victory. 
My speech this evening is not only about Mt Albert. I have always been pro Maori development. I have always been pro policies that are good for Maori. We have had 9 years of good policies for Maori. Now I see some very dangerous policies being introduced. Although my target should be the Maori Party I have to put the blame for negative Maori policies squarely on the shoulders of the Government. It was the Government that decided that the Maori Affairs portfolio should sit outside Cabinet and that the Minister of Maori Affairs should no longer be in the decision-making loop so that the Minister of Maori Affairs would be deprived of crucial information. The position needs to make a constructive contribution to the Budget process. 
I listened very carefully to the member for Te Tai Tonga Rahui Katene in her contribution. I have to describe it as a very naive contribution. Although she put her heart and soul into her delivery it became obvious that she has no idea about the Budget process and about how important it is for Budget bids to be placed before the Minister of Finance and Cabinet. That did not happen in this case. That is why the Opposition is continually asking Ministers whether they consulted. Did they consult the Minister of Maori Affairs? Did they consult the Associate Minister of Health the Hon Tariana Turia through the Budget process? Although they say that they consulted them I doubt very very much whether they listened. They did all the talking and none of the listening. That is obvious in the way that the Minister of Maori Affairs was thrown a hospital pass by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and made an announcement last week here in Wellington at a very very large meeting of Treaty claimants that he was going to inject $22 million to speed up the Treaty settlements process. It became obvious to me that the Minister does not understand the Budget process. All that the Budget told us was that there were going to be cuts right across the public sector. One cannot say on one hand that all those cuts are being made and then on the other have the Minister of Maori Affairs stand up and say he has some new money. There is no such thing as new money when cuts are being made across the public sector. 
The Minister of Maori Affairs claims that the $22 million is to speed up the Treaty settlements process and allow for independent facilitators to work alongside the claimant communities and the Crown to ensure that there is open dialogue. That was the practice the previous Labour Government adopted. I congratulate the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations because he is actually formalising that approach but $22 million is not going to do it. When one looks at the number of attendees at the meeting from the far north to the deep south and even from the Chatham Islands one has to ask where the $22 million will come from and how far it will go. The Treaty settlements process is a very very complicated one. It is a very very adversarial one. If one wants it to work one has to get serious about resources. At the table I sat at during the meeting the people were saying to each other that the $22 million would cover them but they did not know about the rest of the guys in the room. 
We can see that if National is serious about reaching its 2014 deadline it will have to do better than what it has done. The Minister of Maori Affairs needs to understand that the $22 million he so proudly announced at that meeting will come out of his Budget. It is not new money; it will come out of his Budget. The reason why he does not understand that process is that he is not part of it. Although I am sympathetic towards him I say that if one is not in the loop one does not get to have a say. He is not in the loop. 
Regarding the cuts across the State sector I heard the member for Hamilton East David Bennett mention the free programmes to teach people how to buy a house. What has he got against homeownership? What has he got against helping people to get into their own homes? If he has a problem with people owning their own homes he had better tell the Minister of Housing because I do not think that he knows that. David Bennett had better have a chat with the Minister of Housing because I think he might be alone in his views. There are all these anomalies in terms of what has been said by the Government and what is actually happening in the communities. As I said earlier on I am pro Maori development. There is nothing at all in this Budget for Maori development. Of course we will have a task force for Maori economic development. Wake up everybody; we are already there! Maori are already there. So what will National members tell Maori that they do not already know? What will they do with their $10 million? I think it is just smoke and mirrors. I do not believe that it actually exists. I heard the honourable member Tariana Turia announce earlier in the week that she will have a task force for whanau ora and it will tell her what whanau need.