Maharey Steve: General Debates 
Maharey Steve: General Debates 
[Volume:615;Page:11096] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. There is no doubt in the mind of anybody who cares to look at the figures that this country is on a roll. If we look at the figures to do with growth if we go to the regions if we look at the simple fact that New Zealand has the sixth-lowest unemployment rate in the OECD and if we notice that we are healthier better educated and better housed and that our roads are safer than they were 4 years ago when we began the programmes to bring this country out of the deficit created by National then we can see that everybody is going forward. Mr Brash of course does not know that. I have come to the conclusion that the reason he looks so miserable is that he does not get out much and as a result he is not participating in the fantastic surge amongst New Zealanders of confidence in their nation. They are the ones who have gone to  
Whale Rider 
 the ones who have turned up to watch Peter Jackson’s triumph the ones who listen to NesianMystik and the ones who are saying that this country is a fantastic place to live in. 
But across the road we have Mr Misery. Dr Brash has never won an election in his life so we know he is not only miserable but also unattractive. He lost the blue-ribbon National seat handed to him on a plate—he could not get in here to the House with it—to Garry Knapp for goodness’ sake! He came in here finally on the coat-tails of his colleagues. He has walked over them and their bodies are now littered on the Opposition side of the House waiting for him to fall over them so they can come back. But he is a “use me or lose me” kind of guy so he has told them that he intends to make it to the top of the tree and to implement his programmes. 
Over Christmas Dr Brash sat down to have a think. He is a man who is an economist and a reserve banker—a man who has lived a privileged life for the whole of his life. He asked himself what he would talk about to kick off his programme. He decided on that and said sadly he would talk about race. He said he was doing so sadly and reluctantly. But Dr Brash did not actually talk about race; he talked about Maori. He does not talk about any other ethnic group at all—only Maori. Why does Dr Brash not talk about Pacific Islanders or about other groups like women or about regions or about age—youth or older people? Why not? The reason is that over Christmas Dr Brash came to the conclusion that there is a fault line in New Zealand politics. It is called Maori issues and if one scratches those issues and beats them up one can make something of them. In other words Dr Brash is prepared to scratch his way to the top by inciting division purposely. That is what he is doing and he is doing it in a way that is utterly meaningless. 
Let us look at this: kura and kohanga reo are OK because that is choice. They may be Maori immersion environments but that is choice. Maori rugby is OK because Dr Brash had not thought of that as being a problem yet. Maori seats are bad because National does not win them. Treaty references will all go from legislation for as long as it takes Nick Smith to say they will not because that would mean removing them from legislation from 1908 till now and National would not do anything else if it happened to get back into Government. Tangi leave is not OK because it is too much leave. But that disgraceful statement as the  
Dominion Post  
reported was utterly without foundation. Tangi leave and bereavement leave are the same: they are at the discretion of the employer. As the  
Dominion Post  
reported it is disgraceful for someone like Dr Brash to misrepresent things in a way that may lead to people not getting jobs on the back of an untruth. That has been the most disgusting part of the Brash agenda of distorting and misleading on Maori issues for political advantage. 
But it will not stop there. Next will come beneficiaries. Members are used to that on the National Party side of the House so one can bet they will pick on beneficiaries. Trade unionists and State schools are next. Women have already been before the gun because we are not even to have a women’s affairs department any more—it is about creating division so that the real agenda can come through. And what is it? It is tax cuts for the rich privatisation for National’s mates cuts in social spending and the reduction of rights in the workplace. Why? Because Brash stands for privilege. He stands for privilege because he himself has lived nothing other than a privileged life. Those are the people he represents. That is whom he stands for. On the Government side of the House we stand for ordinary New Zealanders and we always will.