Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): It's going to be a hard act to follow. But I want to congratulate the National Party and particularly a Māori member who's been very critical of our Budget—over there very critical of the Māori members too; said some terrible things about us actually—Jo Hayes. She's the Māori development spokesperson for the National Party and she's said things about Whānau Ora in the last couple of weeks and she's said things about Māori members that I just find very hard to take. However she did say today though—I need to say this because we're talking Budget—that she'll be questioning the leader of the National Party Todd Muller about the seniority list in terms of the National Party. She said on that very famous radio station Radio Waatea—she said This is not good." This is from Jo Hayes. "We need to remedy this or you need to front up." That's what she's saying about Todd Muller. "You need to give a better explanation of why you've left us out. We have a party full of challenging people"—la la la—"and you need to actually say what is it you wanted and it's up to him as to whether he'll come up with a response and why Māori have been left out"—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): And if the Minister could relate his comments to the bill in front of the Parliament—Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well no absolutely. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Well you haven't yet and you should do that.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Absolutely. Because I'm talking about Jo Hayes because she's been talking about the Budget and she's been criticising us and you know when you criticise us about the Budget I think "Well done Jo Hayes." You know I've got to congratulate Jo Hayes. I'm just mentioning how she's put a vote of no confidence in her leadership—a leadership that's collapsing already and it's sad. Like I was listening to Nikki Kaye who doesn't know how to identify a Māori from a Pākehā and clearly has problems in identifying—she's part of the dream team that is actually turning into a nightmare team. Hon Shane Jones: Yeah Ngāti Kāpō—Ngāti Kāpō.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Yeah tino kāpō. And so you know I have to respond because this is a crew saying we've got no plan. We've got plenty of plans but we're a little bit upset by the so-called "dream team" that's really turning into a nightmare team and the Māoris are revolting—they're revolting. You saw it. [Interruption] Yeah revolting? Revolting against the Opposition. And we saw Shane Reti today. Only one of them in the House. Ka aroha ka aroha taumaha. [Sympathies to them sympathies to them it is tough.]You know watching him today and he's lost—poor Shane. He's lost. And Paula Bennett totally upset because the other problem is with their spokesman in terms of finance who made some criticisms of Grant Robertson today—Mr Speaker coming back to the Budget—and you will have heard his criticism of the Budget and our finance expenditure and as we've heard today this is from a person who's totally confused: another leading member of the dream team.But the campaign manager of course of the dream team who's come back as we all know doesn't actually know how to board a plane. Who will ever forget the way he just walked through security and jumped on a plane? We also know his respect for ethnic minorities. Can we all remember the aroha he showed to the Finnish people when he called them murderers and he said that we've got nothing to learn from the Finnish? This is the person in charge of the National Party has-been nightmare team who they're trying to sell to everyone at the moment. [Interruption] And I'm glad that the Opposition are finding it funny because they're very divided at the moment. They're divided because they've seen the amount of resourcing coming towards Māori: $900 million coming towards Māori through this Budget. As a Māori caucus we're very pleased that we've been able to address certain areas. Kōhanga reo—I want to mihi to my good friend the Hon Kelvin Davis for a wonderful job: $200 million appropriated for kōhanga reo. Let's not forget the history here. The National Party aligned with the Māori Party wanted to get rid of kōhanga reo or relegate kōhanga reo. They refused to address the equity argument in terms of kōhanga reo. You'll recall the arguments for a number of years. Kelvin Davis put that to the side and decided to work with our kōhanga reo whaea Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi and the result is $200 million. That is a kaupapa as I said the National Party refused to support.Whānau Ora—very controversial kaupapa. As I said Jo Hayes has been particularly ruthless on us here. My mate JT has been horrible to my mate the Minister Peeni Henare but the Minister's put that to the side: $136 million for Whānau Ora. Why? Because they're delivering out in the regions they're delivering everywhere they're reaching whānau—funding that the National Party could never dream of. They only gave them breadline funding and I was very proud of the funding that he was able to acquire in that area. Minister Nanaia Mahuta in the housing area has done a terrific job in terms of papakāinga housing. We're talking $40 million going out there. Right across the spectrum we see the funding happening. In my own area we heard this nonsense from Mark Mitchell in terms of what are we doing for businesses: 1.6 million workers. That's what we're doing for businesses. We're looking after businesses and the question today is: where does that money go in terms of wage subsidies? It goes to the businesses. That's where it's going and they pass that sort of pūtea on to their workers. That's something that I'm very proud of. We came to the aid of the people of this country at a very very stressful time and as members on this side quite rightfully say that wage subsidy is something that we treasure very much.In other areas we've been able to extract $121 million for He Poutama Rangatahi a kaupapa that myself and Minister Jones over here have supported very very much in the regions. I've been very lucky in the past because I've been able to get pūtea out of the Provincial Growth Fund and that's been a wonderful kaupapa. Anyone who says there hasn't been a change in the regions because of it doesn't know what they're talking about. So Poutama Rangatahi has been great courtesy of Minister Jones over here for a while. Now we've moved on. I don't need his pūtea any more but I thank him for his support of the kaupapa. And his original kōrero about getting the nephs off the couch is something that has always been an aim of this Government. So Poutama Rangatahi's been exceptional.Our Māori trades training is another kaupapa that our people have talked about for some years. A lot of us have fathers uncles and grandfathers who've been involved in Māori trades training and the hope is that we can partner with our iwi and with our Māori groups right around the country as we try and activate and motivate rangatahi into turning their lives around. So we've got our Māori trades training. We've got He Poutama Rangatahi. We're also expanding in our Mana in Mahi area—an area that the Opposition seem to have a few problems with but we have an 81 percent success rate in terms of Mana in Mahi as I said today; young people not returning to benefits so we're on track on terms of success. There's been a lot of kōrero about what's going to happen in terms of the unemployment rate. If we can cushion the blow as much as possible incentivise different industries incentivise iwi look at apprenticeships look at retraining look at redeployment I think we're on track. We are doing that. Minister Robertson is doing the business as our finance Minister. Minister Jones is doing some terrific work out there. All of us as Ministers are committed to turning things around. So I think that we're on track in terms of employment. This Māori caucus is on track in terms of delivering for their people. Don't believe the nonsense being trotted out by the National Party's mates the Māori Party. Don't believe their nonsense for one moment. We know that we're on track at the moment. But again I want to finish by saying we are worried very much for the Māori members in the National Party and we are here for Jo Hayes and Shane Reti if they want to come and have a kōrero with us. We will support them because clearly there are divisions in the ranks of the National Party at the moment as they struggle to identify just actually who are the Māoris but we'll give Nikki Kaye and other members a hand if they ask us. Kia ora tātou."