Flavell Te Ururoa: Budget Statement — Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Budget Statement — Budget Debate[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17922. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātau katoa. Me tīmata ake i taku kōrero mā tētahi mihi ki te uri o Ngāti Dipton. Tēnā koe e whakatakoto nei i tēnei kōrero ki mua i te aroaro o te Whare Pāremata otirā mō tāu mahi i te taha o te Pāti Māori.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Greetings to us all. Allow me to begin my speech with an acknowledgment of the relative from the clan of Dipton. Congratulations to you in respect of this speech that you presented before the House of Parliament and particularly your work with the Māori Party.]Can I start by congratulating the Hon Bill English on working positively with the Māori Party to support initiatives that matter. I also want to acknowledge the leadership the courage and the hard work of my colleagues Tariana Turia and the Hon Dr Pita Sharples who have been focused in their pursuit of real tangible improvements in the lives of all of our whānau. Budget 2014 is a testament to their absolute belief in whānau. I mihi to them both for their lifelong journey and standing up for what is right; for believing and acting in ways that inspire us all to know that we can make change happen.Yesterday a young girl Crystal Te Moananui asked me a question that got me thinking. Crystal and her classmates from Thames South School were in Parliament on what she described as a politically inspired hīkoi. She asked me what some of the difficulties were that made me who I am today. My instant response was to reflect back to the time when I was 10 years old and I lost my dad. As I think about that time I recall the intense sadness that I had the sense of loss and yet with that there was a powerful challenge to become someone who would have made him proud. The point I am makingis that every single one of us in this House—and indeed in this nation—goes through periods of crises in which it is hard to see tomorrow. The Māori Party hears stories every day of everyday whānau who are suffering loss experiencing conflict and are looking for a way forward.Our focus for this Budget then has been on keeping it real. We have listened to the stories of the heroes amongst our communities who tell us in plain language what will make a difference. Our Budget package is built around three strategic themes: building resilience within our whānau hapū iwi and communities; maintaining the momentum that we have created while being in a position to do so; and advancing into new spaces for innovation and development. If there is one thing that every New Zealander knows about the Māori Party it is Whānau Ora. Whānau Ora at its essence is about providing every opportunity for our families to thrive to live the life they dream about and to make their aspirations real.This Budget extends upon the commitment to Whānau Ora by a new investment in Whānau Ora navigators. This is the logical next phase of the Whānau Ora approach. The first phase was building the capacity of health and social service providers to actively respond to whānau goals. We have succeeded in enabling over 47000 New Zealanders to benefit from creating their own whānau plans and to move to greater self-reliance by doing it themselves. The navigator role is now providing support directly to whānau to determine how best to achieve their life goals in areas as wide as income generation healthy lifestyles jobs information technology—whatever our families seek for themselves. While they are determining what it is they need the Government also has a role in removing any barriers that get in their way.In this year’s Budget we are extremely proud of the focus on families and children. This is an emphasis that we have championed over the last 6 years in Government and what we are particularly proud of this year is to see that emphasis carried across into key ministerial portfolios. I want to highlight three specific initiatives we have promoted. Firstly there is a need for paid parental leave to be brought in so that more permanent guardians and parents can also benefit from flexible work arrangements. What we know from labour market researchers is that many Māori and Pasifika women tend to be overrepresented in areas that exclude them from being able to receive parental leave payments. This Budget and the subsequent legislation will address that gap.This Budget secondly increases the parental tax credit which has not been raised since 1999. This is a practical means of supporting low and middle income working families who do not currently receive paid parental leave when they have a new child. Thirdly we highlighted the investment of $90 million to offer free doctors visits and prescriptions for children under the age of 13. Opening up health care has been a huge priority for us. Building resilient whānau is also about healthy homes and $16 million has been injected into Māori housing with a particular focus on Māori social housing and rebuilds and repairs in rural communities. [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Could I just ask members to show some courtesy to the member who is trying to address the House.TE URUROA FLAVELL: The additional $20 million invested in rheumatic fever prevention brings the Government’s total investment to more than $65 million over 6 years. I say it is an outstanding approach which the World Congress of Cardiology also noted last week. Our relationship accord with the National Party is also committed to helping those most in need to live in warmer drier healthier homes. At last count 112000 low-income homes had been insulated which is making a huge difference across all of our communities.Keeping it real is also about making it possible for mokopuna to participate in early childhood education. An additional $155 million has been invested in this area. It is about reading writing and arithmetic. I can also say that one of the greatest projects that Pita has inspired in his role as Associate Minister of Education is Reading Together which has now expanded into more than 140 decile 4 and 5 schools helping parents support their children to read. What can be better than enabling all of our tamariki to have a great start on their education pathway?The second key theme for the Māori Party in Budget 2014 is building on those hallmark initiatives that tangata whenua have created. A key announcement for us in this Budget is the establishment of a Māori-focused centre of research excellence. There was huge outrage across the country when funding was cut for Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. The Māori Party picked up the challenge and has worked to create the means by which our own mātauranga our knowledge and our tikanga our ways of being can be preserved protected and advanced. We are really excited about this new initiative rewarding and growing the amazing talent of our Māori research community to help shape our future.Another major win for us was in securing $12 million of new funding to support iwi radio to continue the vital work in connecting Māori communities. We have also negotiated funds to achieve precious Māori language content with the support of Te Māngai Pāho.Finally the last tranche of initiatives we highlight in Budget 2014 are those we describe as advancing into new spaces for Māori development. This Budget builds on the Māori economic strategyHe Kai Kei Aku Ringa by investing new funding of $8 million to support Māori businesses to encourage innovation strengthen our economic independence and achieve positive social and economic impact. The Māori Innovation Fund will help establish the support and institutions we need to lift productivity and our collective performance. The Budget sets in place $6 million for New Zealand Māori Tourism to support industry capability and branding and leveraging Māori tourism and trade.I am not one to leave the best for last but I am really excited about the project called Moving the Māori Nation. We have announced $10 million over 4 years to establish a contestable fund to focus on Māori sporting and cultural activities with the goal of contributing to having whānau ora healthy families. It is now accepted wisdom that the Māori world view of well-being is inclusive of physical spiritual and psychological well-being. This project will support a huge range of traditional Māori games and physical activities such as ki-o-rahi and more contemporary sports and physical activities such as Iron Māori and Tri Māori and so on.In keeping with the theme of being real there are still huge areas to focus on. The Māori Party has long advocated for a living wage to lift the minimum income of families. We are proud we were able to negotiate $5 million for te mana o te wai but there are still many other areas of care for our environment that we want to invest in. We have placed enormous priority on cadetships and trade training and are pleased that this Budget adds another $20 million to establish 6000 apprenticeships but we still need ongoing investment to address the longstanding employment disparities between Māori Pasifika and other New Zealanders. And of course there are a huge raft of issues that we in the Māori Party call social hazards and we would like to see more focus on alcohol reform addiction treatment and gambling prevention. In the end these are positive initiatives that the Māori Party is seeing in Budget 2014. We look forward to building on this into the future.