Turia Tariana: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turia Tariana: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7521. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 There must surely be some quintessential concepts in any state of the nation address for Aotearoa. Lest we forget Te Tiriti o Waitangi provides us with the constitutional pou upon which any discussion of nationhood can emerge. The contribution of iwi entrepreneurship—Maori-owned tourism fisheries agriculture forestry and other industries estimated to be worth approximately $39 billion—is hugely important to both the domestic economy and enhancing our profile in the global market. We would and do challenge the Government that it will only be possible to deliver better public services when our agencies are culturally competent when our ministries take the effort to respond to and to relate to all the diverse populations that live in this land and when we see institutional racism eradicated. We cannot abide the political silencing of difference. We need to move beyond the bland the categorisation of “vulnerable children” and generic references to “groups which have historically underperformed”. Let us name ourselves identify our unique edge and share our commonalities while at the same time taking pride in the essence of who we are. 
We have a waiata from home that begins: 
Kia ’uiuia mai na wai koe?  
Mau e ki atu tirohia atu nga ngaru e aki ana  
ki Waipuna ki te Matapihi Putiki Wharanui ko Ngati Tupo’o. 
It asks the question: where do we belong? In that waiata it answers it by saying “Look yonder at the waves surging towards Waipuna Matapihi and Putiki Wharanui because there reside the descendants of Ngati Tupo’o.” The waiata traces over maunga and puke over waters and over the pathway along Te Awa Tupua—the lands and sacred spaces that mark out our rohe nga hapu o Whanganui. It is but one of many of our tribal treasures that are central to indigenous knowledge. Our waiata our tatai—our genealogies—and our korero are our distinctive body of knowledge that can be instrumental in shaping a future Aotearoa that is inclusive of all. The future Aotearoa that the Maori Party strives for cannot be bland and it cannot be generic. The browning of our nation demands bold action if we want to see success that is shared by all. 
I want to stress from the onset that tangata w’enua are not the prize in a grand political lottery. Over the last week we have witnessed various political parties eyeing up the Maori vote and swooping in for the kill. What they do not realise is that morehu no longer depend on politicians or individuals to tell them how they must vote. We oppose any form of electoral opportunism that targets Maori for polling gain. Our interest is in the survival of tangata w’enua. How do we maximise the contribution that we can make to the survival of people particularly Maori people? I want to remind us that Maori were all alone on these islands for hundreds of years. We shaped our own world view. We grew and we survived colonisation. Against that history the media’s compulsive fascination in predicting the death of the Maori Party after a mere 9 years in existence seems somewhat premature. So I place on record our determination to survive as a party as a movement and as a people. Over 157 years ago physician and politician Dr Isaac Featherston said it was the solemn duty of all Europeans to smooth down the dying pillow of the Maori race. The view of the day was that indigenous peoples would not survive European conquest and disease and indeed history would reveal that the Maori population was decimated but it was not extinguished and never will be. 
And so we come today to 2013 and to the ongoing challenge to us all about how to best protect preserve and achieve the survival of Maori as a people knowing as we do now that what is good for Maori will be good for the nation. We have always known that we have to sit ourselves at the seat of power to be the most powerful advocates for our people that we can be and this is where I return to a key concept in the Prime Minister’s address—the vital importance of innovation. But the innovation we talk of is not only that of science funding of revered experts or of a high-tech institute; we are talking social innovation and we are talking Whanau Ora. 
I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There is quite a lot of talking in the House and we do not talk in the House when other people are trying to speak. I would appreciate it if there was less speaking. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Members have heard the speaker’s plea so a bit of decorum please. 
Hon TARIANA TURIA 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer reminds us of the inevitable resistance that many of our most revolutionary ideas have received whether they be giving women the vote people being trusted to drive cars at high speed or the concept of kindergartens. He said: “All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted as being self-evident.” Some in this House are still at the first stage but thousands of New Zealanders speak with great enthusiasm about the process of transformation that is being experienced with Whanau Ora—the restoration of pride and self-belief that we can do and we can be. At the end of last year the  
Press 
 carried a story of one w’anau extending to more than 100 members in the upper South Island who received the meagre amount of $5000 from the Whanau Integration Innovation and Engagement Fund. Yet with that fund they developed a plan to reduce their debt and create business opportunities. They developed a Te Reo - based language and financial literacy and numeracy programme He Pakaka Reo Matua. But most important of all it gave the families a chance to dream. It was the opportunity to move from worrying about how to pay the power bill to actually planning what they want for their families 10 years from now. 
Our survival will come when we believe that we can and we will be able to do these things. Our greatest work is in standing up for what Piriwiritua fought for. The kawenata that he signed up to with Michael Joseph Savage is as relevant today as it was back then. No longer can politicians act as if all roads lead to Ratana to Maori or indeed to Pasifika peoples making false promises with no regard for follow-through. Our answers lie within ourselves and our solutions will be most enduring when they are owned and driven by our own. 
And so the Maori Party is very clear about survival on all fronts and what it will take. We know that the expression of the kaupapa and tikanga that has sustained us for hundreds of years will contribute to the survival strategy. Our focus is on pursuing these kaupapa: Whanau Ora including building healthy w’anau resilience through addressing poverty and increasing educational achievement jobs training and economic development; upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi; reducing the social hazards of alcohol drugs gambling and tobacco; and taking up our responsibilities as tangata tiaki whether it be on water or on land living by a philosophy of sustainable development. We need intelligent leadership and we need bravery both within our w’anau and across every sphere of influence. Our quest as a political movement is to continue to pay it forward; to act with conviction knowing that our basis for growth and stability is assured in our own histories our kaupapa and tikanga; and a restoring of the essence of all people to define their own realities. We can have a new start for Aotearoa and I believe that the Government’s willingness to enter into a relationship accord with the Maori Party in 2008 and to recommit to that relationship in 2011 is recognition of its public willingness to see the Maori voice as valid credible and vital to the future of all New Zealanders.