Hauiti Claudette: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHauiti Claudette: General Debate[Sitting date: 05 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16348. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAUDETTE HAUITI (National): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I want to talk about leadership. I want to elaborate on what leadership looks like to me. I was part of the 1975 “Not one acre more” land march that Whina Cooper started from Te Hāpua. We looked upon her as a great leader who could shift us and move us from a state of unbeing to a positive place. That 1975 land march was actually started while there was a Labour Government. I was also part of the hīkoi that came down to Wellington with Pita Sharples because Māori were not able to go to the High Court to test their case for the seabed and foreshore. That was also under a Labour Government. I was also part of a media group that worked on the Tūhoe raids when the police raided Tūhoe and that was also done under a Labour Government.So what we found when we came into office under this John Key - led National Government was that we had inherited an account deficit of 9 percent of GDP. We inherited external debt of a whopping 84 percent of GDP. We also inherited inflation of1.5 percent and mortgage rates of 10 percent and food prices were up 11 percent. But because of our great leader the Prime Minister John Key we have moved from that state to a better place where we see over 135000 homes in which a lot of Māori and Pasifika whānau live now insulated. We have also seen over 100000 B4 School Checks mainly on our Māori and Pasifika tamariki in South Auckland. We have also seen $2 million go into whānau and community Te Reo development.We have also seen very very strong leadership come from our Minister of Education who has moved us from very uncomfortable ground. It was uncomfortable ground because under the previous Government we were not able to aspire to educational heights. What we have seen under this Minister of Education Hekia Parata is 25400 Māori completing BA degrees or higher. We have also seen 76 percent completing tertiary studies and 59 percent of Māori are achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 up from 44 percent. What we have seen from this Government is results for Māori results for Pasifika people and results for New Zealand.But here is the cruncher you see: 47 Treaty settlements. In 1975 because they were moving to the land march there was a song and one of the lines was “Freedom from oppression to live our rangatiratanga.”—freedom from oppression to live our rangatiratanga. That is 47 Treaty settlements today. The Māori economy is worth $38 billion with 37 percent of the fish quota owned by Māori 36 percent of the forestry assets owned by Māori 12 percent of the sheep and beefs units owned by Māori 10 percent of the dairy product owned by Māori 10 percent of the kiwifruit production owned by Māori and 30 percent of land production owned by Māori and there is an estimated forecast of $12 billion per annum to New Zealand’s GDP. That is what Māori have returned to New Zealand thanks in large part to the 47 Treaty settlements. That is what we call kotahitanga. Māori because they have been allowed to exercise their rangatiratanga have returned these assets to New Zealand and that is what we call kotahitanga.Thirty years ago a song came out because there was a 1975 land march and the lines were “There is a movement on the street. Hear them talking—talking on the street”. Well Māori are talking on the street. They are talking about the Treaty settlements they are talking about the developments that are happening within their communities and they are talking about the developments that are happening in the rural sector as well as the urban sector. We know that there is so much more to do. We know that that is not the end of the story. We know that we can do more. We know that we will try to do more by Māori by Pasifika people and by all New Zealanders. This John Key - led National Government is full of great leaders who are leading our country to a better brighter future.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.