Donnelly Brian: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Donnelly Brian: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10844] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 Much has been said about the unsavoury events at Waitangi last week and justifiably so. But I want to say this. New Zealand First caucus members were there and we were there in numbers. In fact we were there in numbers proportionally greater than any other caucus was. Members would not know that if they read the media reports; they would not know it at all. Our leader was there and I have to say that he was there for longer than the leader of any other party. But the fact is we were not embroiled in any controversy. There was no mud thrown at Winston Peters nor was he jostled nor was he threatened. But nor again did he seek the limelight. If Winston Peters did not seek the limelight we can be assured it was a deliberate strategy! 
In fact from my experience and from the experience of my caucus colleagues Waitangi Day was a brilliant day. It was a really enjoyable day. In the morning we looked along the beach as the waka departed. The weather was just magnificent. The sun was beating down. The sea was azure. There were all the kayaks and the waka ama and the  
Te Aurere 
 was going along with them. It was just majestic. It really made one think how lucky we are to belong to this particular nation. I also thought how thankful I was that our tipuna on 6 February 1840 decided to set up a rough blueprint for our nation and decided to set it up at such a majestic spot. The words of an English poet “Earth has not anything to show more fair;” spring to mind. 
The reason New Zealand First was not involved in controversy and has not been involved in it year after year—and I ask people to think back on the years of controversy there—is that we go to Waitangi deliberately to celebrate our nationhood not to grandstand not to get the limelight and not to get our pictures in the paper. Our time was spent interacting with ordinary New Zealanders who were enjoying themselves in celebration. We respected and acknowledged all participants in that occasion. It was wonderful. There were kids jumping off the bridge music and people just enjoying themselves and as I say celebrating. 
Did Don Brash truly believe he could hold a press conference outside the gates of the Te Tii Marae and not provoke some outlandish and oafish behaviour? If he did believe that he has to be ignorant. In fact Don Brash could be charged with inciting the crime of violence. But he would probably get off the charge by pleading ignorance. It was fairly obvious in the circumstances that that was not the place to hold that particular press conference. It could just as easily have been held in the Copthorne Hotel. The only reason one can think of that he held it outside the marae was that he deliberately was trying to invoke or provoke bad behaviour. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: The journalists were banned. 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: No they were not banned from the Copthorne Hotel or from outside Te Tii Marae. But from talking to a wide range of Maori at Waitangi over those 2 days I can say that the resentment that was certainly being shown towards Don Brash was not because of the Orewa speech. In fact many Maori defended his right to make that speech. It was the treatment of Georgina te Heuheu that made people absolutely livid. The fact that this person who has always presented herself with such dignity and is a daughter of one of the most pre-eminent Maori families in New Zealand the family that gave the Tongariro National Park to New Zealand for free should be treated so contemptuously was what created the bubbling anger towards Don Brash at Waitangi last week. I say to Don Brash that Maori will not go away; nor will their aspirations to participate fully in the political economic artistic and cultural development of New Zealand. 
However I also say to the Prime Minister and to Government members that they have created the conditions that have allowed Don Brash to have his moment in the sun. I say it is a “moment in the sun” because that is all it will be. They have created the conditions that resulted in the poll tonight on  
Holmes 
. The result is significant. Of the 34000 polled 90 percent said they support the direction that Don Brash has stated we should be taking. That is significant. Helen Clark and her cronies have ignored the tensions that have been building in this nation at what is seen to be favourable treatment of one group. The attitude of this Government has been that if the people do not like what it is doing in these matters they must be ignorant; that the ones who are feeling the tensions must therefore be ignorant and this Government will ignore them. 
Let us have the ignorance removed. Let us explain the principles of the treaty. Instead of just saying we have to react to the principles of the treaty let us have them explained so that we will not be so ignorant so that there will not be the same sorts of tensions. Let us explain what the responsibilities are under the treaty. If we are only talking about the responsibilities and not doing something about the ignorance then we will continue to have the tensions and that will play right into the hands of Don Brash. 
I say to the Government that the silent majority is feeling sidelined it is feeling excluded and it is feeling resentful. What the people see is bullying behaviour by Maori being rewarded and they resent it. This Prime Minister does not have a vision of a unified nation; she has a vision of remaining in power at all costs. New Zealand First will not resile from the challenges ahead. However we accuse both Labour and National of divisiveness of tearing the nation apart. We believe that the path the Government is taking us down is the road to Zimbabwe. 
But for now I wish to focus on a critical area of policy that received scant mention in the Prime Minister’s speech today and that is education. The issue gaining the headlines these days in respect of education is the school network reviews. I want to give the Minister of Education a bouquet. The reorganisation of schooling in an area is a painful process. The closure of a school is even more so. I cannot say I have agreed with all the decisions thus far but I want to commend the Minister for at least fronting up to the local communities. He has eyeballed them he has announced his decisions and he has stood by them and justified them. I give him credit for that. 
It is something I have had a bit of experience with. Regardless of what Bill English is telling us even when New Zealand First was in coalition with the National Government the same sorts of network reviews—they were called education development initiatives—were taking place. They were one step better than the one-off changes that Lockwood Smith would put in place. The only difference was that the Minister would not front up; the minions had to. In one particular case Gavan Herlihy asked me to come to Oamaru and front up on behalf of the Government which I did. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Which Minister wouldn’t front? 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: I am saying that the Minister at that particular time did not front. It was not the policy to front up. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Who was it? 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: I did not say “wouldn’t”. It just was not the policy. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Who was it? 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: I am not going to say who it was. If that member does not know who the Minister of Education was there is something wrong with her. 
However this has been ongoing for decades—that schools have been reorganised. There are a number of reasons for that but one of them is very simple. It is the responsible use of taxpayers’ money. Therefore I find it somewhat problematic because whether or not we like it the per unit cost of small schools is much higher than that of larger schools. That is economies of scale. The ACT member is running a campaign to allow parents to make the decisions about how taxpayers’ money should be spent but that member knows full well that under the voucher system that ACT is talking about virtually all those small schools would be closed apart from the ones in communities where the parents are so rich that they can pay—[ 
Interruption 
] Only the rich parents can have that particular choice. 
 I want to finish off with what I believe is the major challenge to the Government in education this year and that is the field of industrial relations. The situation is such a mess at the moment and has never been so bad. There are some serious challenges to the Government to start getting the whole issues about pay parity and qualifications sorted out. In fact the industrial model itself that is being used to settle teachers’ pay—and we saw the shambles in 2001 and 2002 the lost learning time etc.—is wrong. I do not believe that the Minister himself has approached that particular issue proactively. Sadly I fear that as we go into the industrial rounds again this year we will see the same sort of turmoil—in fact I can guarantee it and would lay money on it—not only with the Post Primary Teachers Association but also with the New Zealand Educational Institute this time and the same amount of lost learning time. It is up to the Minister and the Government to sort out the mess it has created. There is no doubt that that mess has been created by the Minister in the inept way in which the last industrial round was handled.