Tamihere John: General Debates 
Tamihere John: General Debates 
[Volume:608;Page:5486] 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Minister of Youth Affairs) 
: 
 I agree with the honourable member Dave Hereora in so far as the view he expressed about the Hon Bill English. Clearly nail by nail he continues to nail the coffin on what was once a great political machine and a great political party called the National Party. Since 1996 under MMP no one has been able to form a Government unless they have had the Maori vote. That is a fact. Here is another fact. As the Minister of Statistics and from my involvement in the youth area I can tell the House that we have 700000 Kiwis which is nearly 1:5 Kiwis in the youth sector aged between 12 and 25 years and only 16 percent of them are of European ethnicity. 
The Hon Bill English noted that in his speech of February 2000. He indicated to the National Party: “We’re going to have to engage with other ethnics. We’re going to have to engage with other stakeholders.” He has now taken the National Party back to a minority party. In this House and this country we all know—and Bill English has acknowledged it as has his caucus—that National is now a minority party. It has acknowledged that the Labour Party can be the only major party of stable government in this nation. It has acknowledged that it can only ever be on the periphery of this country’s political system today on the basis of that very stupid policy and on the basis of the clear demographics that are going to happen. More so— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: It was more like a suicide speech really. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: That is what it was. It was another nail in the National Party’s coffin and members opposite gleefully took to it. They will be scrapping over a list in the very near future and I regret that. National was once a great party in our democracy but it is no longer. National members will now scrap with New Zealand First United Future and the Greens for a dying minimalistic vote. 
I am proud to be part of this Government. When one looks at this side of the House one sees a Kiwi nation in evolution on the way through. One actually sees Maori members Pacific Island members Asian members and Pakeha people. One can see New Zealand going forward. Bill English’s statement was the most backward we have ever seen from any leader of any Opposition party in this country. 
I now want to move on to a matter in the Tamaki Makaurau electorate. There is a scam working whereby financiers offer low-income homeowners the opportunity to use the equity in their home. These financiers charade themselves as much the same as a reputable bank. The difference is that the offer of financial capability is of an equity in the house that in the normal course of events people could never free because they cannot service the debt. By reporting this matter to the Serious Fraud Office—and it has agreed to investigate—I intend to bring a number of people to justice in that regard. There will always be fraudsters and scamsters in this country we cannot regulate against that but when institutions of integrity and credibility the major safeguards of the vulnerable in this country start to fall over—and I am talking here about a few in the legal profession not all—and when our banks put out their banking accommodations to mortgage brokers who are not accredited we then have other problems. 
I am saying clearly that if lawyers continue to act for two parties if they are instructed by one party that is a scamster by way of a financial arrangement then they have a standard of duty and a standard of ethics that they have to live up to. My people on the street cannot afford the type of civil proceedings required to resume their rights in the houses that have been stolen from them. We are going to have to work hard on that. 
I tell members in this House one thing: I was sent here to do a job and if those people fall down on their standards and ethics if they fall down on their integrity and credibility in performing properly on behalf of their clients by working two sides of the street they will have to be named. They will be named in this House one by one as they should be because that is what the greatest court in this country is all about. Those people are on notice. I look forward to the Law Society the Banking Ombudsman and the Institute of Chartered Accountants putting across the message that enough is enough. They are there to safeguard the vulnerable and to uphold certain standards. They must do that. 
Members opposite laugh as usual. They are probably funded by scamsters—I would not know. But the reality is that we have to do something about this matter. The number of vulnerable people in the Auckland region and outside it who are losing houses through those scams is absolutely unacceptable. 
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.