Harawira Hone: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHarawira Hone: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17585. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HONE HARAWIRA (Leader—Mana): Kia ora maianōtātou katoa. Way back on 14 September 1972 a petition with more than 30000 signatures was presented to Parliament spearheaded by the Te Reo Māori Society andNgāTamatoa calling for Te Reo Māori to be taught in schools. That petition led directly to the creation of Te Tau o te Reo Māori—which later became TeWiki o Te Reo Māori—and to Māori being included in the school curriculum. That love for the language also led to the establishment of the world-leading initiative to teach Māori to preschool children that is thekōhanga reo movement. Fromkōhanga we got kura kaupapa and from kura we got wharekura and eventually we saw the establishment of TeWānanga o Raukawa TeWānanga o Aotearoa and Te WhareWānanga oAwanuiārangi.In fact the 1980s was a big time for Te Reo Māori. The Māori language claim was lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal in 1985 byHuirangiWaikerepuru andNgāKaiwhakapūmaui Te Reo Māori which sought official recognition for Te Reo Māori in places as diverse as the courts Government departments local authorities and even Parliament itself and for the Reo to be made compulsory in schools a claim widely supported by all corners of the Māori world. The tribunal ruled that the Crown had failed to protect the Māori language and recommended that Te Reo Māori be legally recognised as an official language that a statutory body be established to foster the use of Te Reo Māori and that a broadcasting policy be formulated to help promote the language. In 1987 the Māori Language Act was passed making Māori an officiallanguage and Te TauraWhirii te Reo Māori was established to promote the use of Te Reo Māori as a living language.Those initiatives were further enhanced by another claim led byHuirangiWaikerepuru andNgāKaiwhakapūmaui Te Reo Māori stating that the Māori Language Act had failed to address radio and television broadcasting and a claim from Sir Graham Latimer and the New Zealand Māori Council calling on the Crown to recognise Māori interests in the radio spectrum. The Crown opposed both claims and Māori were forced to take their case to the High Court the Court of Appeal and ultimately to the Privy Council where they won support for an amendment to the Broadcasting Act in 1993 to establish TeMāngaiPāho to fund Māori language television and radio programmes under the Minister at the time the Hon Maurice Williamson. Today we have 21 Māori radio stations around the country and Māori Television finally went to air on 28 March 2004. But in case anyone thinks that things are all OK with the Reo now please note that just 2 years ago the Waitangi Tribunal ruled that the Government had breached the Treaty of Waitangi by systemically failing to fund and support thekōhanga reo Māori language strategy that the Government should apologise for its failings and that it should appoint an independent adviser to oversee an urgent programme to overhaul policy increase participation improve quality increase funding and provide the support necessary for the upgrade and maintenance ofkōhanga facilities.That is just a snapshot of the last 40 years of the struggle that Māori have been through to get Te Reo Māori recognised and to get resources committed to keeping it alive. In all of that it is worth noting that the struggle was led by those who cared for the Reo those who had a deep and abiding love for the Reo and that they often did so at great personal cost to themselves and their families. Many of those early pioneers either could not even speak Te Reo or were themselves just taking their first tentative steps along the pathway of Māori language revitalisation. They were often castigated by older more conservative native Māori language speakers for daring to lead the charge for the Reo. But their passion and their commitment and their refusal to take a backward step marked them out as true champions for the language.And that is the reason Mana opposes the Government’s plan to take the language away from those who care for it and to give it to those who would corporatise it. The plan led by the Māori Party is to scrap Te TauraWhirii te Reo Māori and TeMāngaiPāho and to put the language into the hands of corporate iwi leaders. We oppose its plan because the grim reality is that iwi leaders at that level are simply not capable of managing such a taonga. They were not there when the people needed them to lead the fight for the Reo. Their corporate statements speak glowingly of the importance of the Reo but their financial statements suggest that they have other priorities.