Jones Shane: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 08 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:192. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou. This has been a miserable start for Maori politics in Parliament in 2012. We have had the unedifying spectacle of the three members of the Maori Party who claim to be the mantle of iwi scurrying from this House and refusing to face the music on the first sitting day of 2012. Now it might come to pass that they will use the excuse that they were opening schools saving the language finding the stars and launching rockets but the reality is that they did nothing to save the education system which suffered grievously under Anne Tolley. If there is one small thing that can be said about Hekia Parata it is that she has got every prospect of improving on the dismal record of her predecessor but that is another matter.  
It is very difficult to take the Maori Party members seriously when on one side they are saying to some iwi leaders “OK we’ll try to find an opportunity for you to buy into the shares in this sell-off in this creation of a new economic cast of commercial mandarins within Maoridom.” That is the first message they are giving. The second message they are giving is that they did not know about the most signal elements of Maori jurisprudence—section 9 and the Lord Cooke pronouncements of the late 1980s—and they did not realise it was so important that it should have formed a key part of their negotiations as they scurried back to the leather seats of the chauffeur-driven cars in order to prop up this Government. That was the second thing. The third thing was that they have then turned round and quietly mentioned to a number of our leaders “We can’t actually do much. Can you take the issue to court? We can’t actually do much.”  
There are members in this House who never particularly got on with those four totara trees Sir Tipene O’Regan Matiu Rata Sir Graham Latimer and Sir Bob Mahuta. I will put my hand up for having the odd stoush with he of Irish extraction in the south. But I will tell you what: those totara trees were a massive contrast to these weak timid and ill-grown pieces of scrub we see representing our people in the Maori Party. If they have any integrity about the Treaty— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: All members are honourable members. The member is actually making some assertions that could be interpreted as bringing disorder. I just caution the member to reflect on his language. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I was just showing my botanical prowess Mr Deputy Speaker. Coming from the north we know that tumatakuru and gorse do not generate wealth. There are very few totara trees and they are in slim—modest—supply here in the House. That is not to mention anything about the bulky puriri kauri or rimu trees on this side of the House. But that is another matter. Your admonition is taken on board Mr Deputy Speaker.  
I want to come back to the Maori Party. Part of the reason it was away yesterday is that its members are negotiating with Hone Harawira who announced the formation of a new entity: Mana-Maori. So just as John Key watched the unedifying spectacle of Don Brash trying to take over the ACT Party I fear that what we are going to see is a collision between Hone Harawira and the Maori Party before the Maori Party members as a consequence of betraying the people who sent them here on this issue of State-owned enterprise sales. You cannot say “We don’t agree with the State-owned enterprise sales but we expect to be a part of the Government that is going to gorge at the trough as a consequence of the proceeds that will come from this foul policy.” You cannot have it both ways.  
It could be that a number of Maori whanau look for some sort of remedy in Whanau Ora but you cannot say that you are entitled to run a Whanau Ora programme beyond the purview or scrutiny of this House. That is not how the system works. There have been a number of criticisms that perhaps a number of the Maori on this side of the House have been a tad too mute. Well we are now into a competitive struggle because with the arrival of the hammerhead shark from Ngati Wai obviously there is a big act to follow in that regard. But the man has laid down a kaupapa. If you are going to drive Maori development outcomes and you are going to rely on the budgetary allocation of money on a year-by-year basis unfortunately these sorts of challenges will come to pass. When Dr Cullen originally made those sorts of invitations for an explanation from Tariana Turia in 2009 she was protected. But this time there is no protection. So if we are going to run with these various policies—and elements of Whanau Ora have found some support from our side of the House. But once those challenges are made you cannot scurry from this place and not respond to them.  
I want to talk a little bit about Te Puni Kokiri. Te Puni Kokiri is a modest-sized organisation. It actually held a very important role with the ability to arotake—to audit—or to check on what other Government departments were doing in the pursuit of Maori outcomes. I think it is very disappointing that the regional managers are telling members of this House that they did not know they were about to be either extinct or liquidated prior to the arrival of the information into the media. That is the first thing.  
The second thing is: what is to happen with the functions—and a lot of them are very valuable functions—currently located in that institution as they are dissipated through other parts of the State? Those other organs of the State will themselves probably identify their Maori programmes as some of the first programmes that need to be shelved as they struggle to deal with the costs of running their department under this very odious approach that Bill English has taken. It is very bad news for a number of the people working in that particular area and it is an invitation for Dr Sharples who in certain aspects of Te Ao Maori is a peerless leader. But on this question it is not right for him to put Leith Comer up to face the political music. He is a paid civil servant. I do not remember Tau Henare putting up Ngatata Love although he had considerable bulk that Tau could have hidden behind had he chosen that course of action. I do not remember Luxton or those Ministers hiding behind Wira Gardiner—no sir. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: That’s right. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: And I certainly do not recall Parekura Horomia inviting anyone to stand in front of him so that he could hide. Unfortunately that is a physical impossibility but that is a term of affection. The key point is that Leith Comer has to front and suffer the derogatory language from Hone Harawira—which unfortunately is his political dialect—as he calls him a variety of names. The target was Dr Sharples.  
Let us talk a little bit about this constitutional review. At a time when Maori boys are not being well trained far too many are going to jail and those who have got some money from the whanau are going to Australia and not finding jobs the focus of this man’s talk is the constitutional review. Now I do not want to deprecate the importance of language etc. but if you want language to survive use it at the kitchen table. If you want language to survive use it as an ordinary part of daily life. Do not use those projects to obfuscate the fact that very little if anything is happening to deal with the real tragedy facing our whanau and facing New Zealand: there are far too many brown young men ending up with a poor set of skills which is sending them only one way to Ngawha. And that is not for a hot bath; that is into hot water which scars them for the rest of their lives. Let us hear some plans; let us hear some commitment from our friends in the Maori Party to deal with that particular issue.  
It might be said that you should not raise these issues because you can end up either being negative or diminishing the status of Maori. The diminution is taking place and this diversion into a debate about a section regarding the Treaty overlooks the fact I say to our colleagues from the Maori Party that if there is no privatisation the issue does not arise. Find the courage and find the technique to stop the privatisation! The economic rationale has been laid out—by the co-leader of the Greens much to my disappointment but that is another matter—that there is no upside to the overarching structure of the Crown statements for the sale of these assets. We know that in the event that these assets do get sold—as we learnt in the Finance and Expenditure Committee; it took the Audit Office using an enormous amount of power to get Air New Zealand to come and front before that particular committee—once the 49 percent transfers to a host of Kiwi and possible foreign owners rest assured that control and influence will lie there and it is only one small step further along that inexorable slope towards full privatisation.  
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Come back!  
Hon SHANE JONES 
: He has no doubt gone back to Kawerau which actually means “to carry too many things at once”.  
This reflects the fact that this is an opportunity to have this policy stop. The key people who can prevent that sit over there. They will not do that because they mistakenly believe that there is a host of social concessions and a host of other cultural opportunities but I say that the real opportunity which is being overlooked is to grow the human capital. You can have a million Treaty reviews and you can have a million constitutional reviews—because you cannot change the constitution via fiat; you have to actually enable it to come as a consequence of organic change and of people being willing to focus on it because their other needs have been addressed. Like that famous Ngapuhi saying goes “Pluck the tender shoot of the flax bush and where will the bellbird call? It will say from the coast to the land the greatest gift of all is people is people …”—it is time for the Maori Party to remember people. Kia ora tatou.