Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister for Māori Development): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. E mihi ana ki a koe e te tuahine mō tō kōrero ātaahua. [Thank you my sister for your beautiful words.]Although I don't support your party obviously I support your journey and your struggle in terms of what you've done in your life. Well done congratulations. Te Ao Māori is proud of what you've done. E mihi ana ki a koe. [Thank you.]That kōrero sort of sums up a lot of what I want to say. I remember coming to Parliament in 1999 and sitting on the Māori Affairs Committee. I should have been the chairman but sadly John Tamihere ended up as the chair and I ended up as the deputy chair. I wasn't too happy about that but we all know what happened to JT. But it was a fascinating time for me because we went on to this Māori Affairs Committee and we looked across at the Opposition and I came in as bit of a lefty and I couldn't stand Tories—Hon Simon Bridges: Look at him now!Hon WILLIE JACKSON: —not like now you know. Simon Bridges and I get on OK. In those days you know we—no seriously I was young and a bit militant and just wanted to bash the Opposition all the time.So we came on to this Māori Affairs Committee and we looked across the other side and we saw Richard Prebble and Murray McCully. And these guys are the Ministers of everything as you well know. We saw John Luxton we saw Doug Kidd and we saw Georgina te Heuheu. And JT and I thought we were going to have a ball you know smashing into the Opposition. The problem is we started agreeing with a lot of their kōrero. In fact Prebbs was making a lot of sense in those days and it really got our Prime Minister Helen Clark very worried about the Māori Affairs Committee at the time because every time we'd sit down we'd be going you know here we went in wanting to deal to the Prebbles of this world and the McCullys of this world they made so much sense we started putting inquiries in to every Government agency going. And it wasn't a good look for the Labour-Alliance Government at the time but it was an example of the whanaungatanga that Harete Hipango talked about. Here we were sitting down but we could actually respect and embrace the knowledge. And even though we had different politics there was experience there from these guys. So sadly we put in too an inquiry into my own agency Te Puni Kōkiri the Crown Forestry Rental Trust fisheries commission education board—I mean it just went on and on and on. Doug Kidd and then John Luxton were so clear with their kōrero. So it was a fascinating time for me as sort of my politics changed—they didn't change completely but I also realised that you could all work together in that sort of whanaungatanga-type space.It was a time of course that was a bit feisty at times too. Richard Prebble threatened to punch out JT because JT wasn't wearing a tie one day. So that wasn't a good look in terms of the Māori Affairs Committee at the time. JT threatened to punch out Mahara Okeroa who was on the same side as JT's and I got promoted to chair that day. Then the select committee that John Tamihere had defamed a kaumātua of ours a guy—you'll remember this—Dennis Hansen and JT very bravely in the House called him a drunk and a liar. And Dennis Hansen demanded the opportunity to come back to the Māori Affairs Committee so that he could have that opportunity to respond. The letter was put to the Māori Affairs Committee that the kaumātua could come back. Of course unanimously we supported his request to come to the Māori Affairs Committee and so he came. And the kaumātua walked in and of course I got to chair the Māori Affairs Committee that day. We had a totally full room it was absolutely packed out and John Tamihere had to sit behind me. The kaumātua walked into the room and he said to everybody there must have been 50 there There's only two things that I would've done in my day if anyone had called me a drunk or a liar and that would've been me hitting that person and that person hitting the ground." And of course the room burst into laughter and we all clapped showed JT no loyalty whatsoever. Audrey Young after that said that at every Māori Affairs Committee there should be a charge put on because it was so entertaining.It was a great day. But believe it or not you learn a lot off some people—as you know Mr Speaker—and whether it was McCully or Luxton or Doug Kidd or Prebble I learnt something off them. On our side everybody else became a Minister—Dover Samuels Mahara Mita Ririnui John Tamihere and even I got there in the end. So they were wonderful days and as Harete Hipango talked about a wonderful example of whanaungatanga and how this Government and Parliament can get on at different times.Tēnei te mihi ki a tātou katoa mō koutou kaha ki te tautoko ki te whakanui tēnei komiti i tēnei wā.Anō ki a koe e te tuahine Karen mihi ana ki a koe e hoa mō tō kaha ki te kōrero e pā ana ki Te Ao Māori. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā anō tātou katoa.[This is an acknowledgment to us all for your energetic support to commemorate this committee today. Again to you my sister Karen I acknowledge you my friend for your courage to talk about the Māori world. Therefore greetings greetings once again one and all.]"