Rurawhe Adrian: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8788. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru):Ā tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te W’are otirā ki ngā mema katoa o Te W’are nei tēnā tātau katoa.[Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker but at the same time to all members of this House. Acknowledgments to us all.]It is a pleasure for me to rise in this debate. I think there are some really important issues that have been raised and need to be addressed as well. A number of people have mentioned Rātana Pā. That is where I come from. That is my marae—the centre of my universe. It never ceases to astonish me to see the number of politicians who come to Rātana Pā say what they have to say but do not listen to what we have to say. And I have to say that some of the comments from the Government benches today about what was said at Rātana bear only a resemblance to what they said not what they should have heard.I endorse the words of Rāhui Papa who spelt out quite clearly why Māori are against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The Government benches would do well to take note of that. It is not every day that you get 20000 to 30000 people walking up Queen Street and a large proportion of them were Māori. They were expressing their disappointment with the Government because we as Māori know what partnership is. I can tell you that the process that was used for so-called engagement with Māori on the TPP agreement was sadly deficient. That was spelt out by Rāhui Papa and I endorse those words. He also talked on behalf of not only Rātana but also the major Māori movements that were on that paepae and I think that the Government members have misread what they have heard at Rātana and they would do well to start doing some listening because if they do not then I think that the actions of the people who expressed their frustration on the roads of Auckland will become more common. As the people who participated in those protests have said it is not over yet.I think that that is a warning to the Government that any Government that thinks that its policy is so great that this partnership deal is so wonderful should be able to take the people of New Zealand with it and it has failed to do that. It has failed Māori and it has failed ordinary New Zealanders who not only do not see any benefits for them but are happy to come out and express that. If the benefits are so good then why is it that the Government cannot convince ordinary New Zealanders that there are benefits for them? I will tell you why. I think it is because say if you ask the ordinary people a simple question like “Are you better off since a National Government came into power or are you worse off?”—I can tell you that as my colleague Jenny Salesa has spelt out in her speech about poverty there are huge numbers of our w’ānau who continue not only to live in poverty but to have a decrease in their spending ability at the local supermarket and these are the things that really matter for them.I also want to look at one of the fundamental building blocks to ending poverty and that is education. That is why we believe that our Working Futures Plan and having 3 years of tertiary education is good for all New Zealanders. It is fair it addresses issues like access to education and I personally have received a lot of good feedback from our people on this issue. So I think there is some positivity coming into the future and I will leave it there—2017 bring it on. Kia ora.