7. Vote Māori Development—Initiatives Funding and PlanningKELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau) to the Minister for Māori DevelopmentVote Māori Development—Initiatives Funding and Planning7. KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau) to the Minister for Māori Development: Is he satisfied that all Vote Māori Development initiatives were adequately funded and planned in Budget 2017?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Finance) on behalf of the Minister for Māori Development: Yes in the context of the stage of development of each initiative. Budget 2017 contained over a dozen Vote Māori Development initiatives spanning housing to sustaining Māori culture and it has received more than ever before to deliver improved outcomes for Māori. In addition Budget 2017's $2 billion Family Incomes Package puts more money into the pockets of Māori by increasing the personal income tax thresholds increasing Working for Families payments and boosting the accommodation supplement. Kelvin Davis: How can the public have any confidence in the National - Māori Party Waka Oranga mobile health clinic pilot when Te Puni Kōkiri stated this month that there was no needs analysis it does not have a design it does not know how it is going to operate and it does not have targeted outcomes?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: International research shows that mobile health clinics can improve individual health outcomes advance population health and reduce healthcare costs compared with traditional primary healthcare services. Māori make up approximately 15.6 percent of the rural population nationally and experience poorer health outcomes than non-Māori. This is an innovative proposal and I suspect the member is indicating he is against it.Kelvin Davis: In that case what are the targeted outcomes for specific conditions including rheumatic fever diabetes and renal failure which disproportionately affect Māori?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Those desired outcomes are currently being set. As the project is rolled out as yet another of the innovative initiatives that this Government has come up with all those details will be finalised.Kelvin Davis: Is it this National - Māori Party Government's style to allocate funding for initiatives like Marae Ora which also has no operational plan and has no criteria for marae to meet to get funding and when asked how many marae will benefit the answer from the Minister was a number"—does the Minister realise that zero is a number?Mr SPEAKER: The Hon Steven Joyce and again there are two questions. The Minister can address one.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I am thrilled that the member is raising these Budget initiatives in the House today and giving them a little bit of extra publicity. The Sustaining the Marae initiative is $10 million over 4 years for a contestable fund to improve restore and revitalise the cultural and physical integrity of marae including investments to meet earthquake and health and safety requirements particularly where physical restoration projects are a catalyst for strengthening knowledge. This is a wonderful initiative. I thank the member for highlighting it and I am sure that iwi in his area will be interested in applying to it to strengthen and sustain their marae.Kelvin Davis: What kind of Minister bids for initiatives that have no operational plan no design and no targets?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: It is important to bid for initiatives that actually create new opportunities in the future. Just for example we could find that there was a marae that actually had broken showers or perhaps limited accommodation and we might want to invest in sustaining that marae particularly if a political party had brought people there on false pretences and tried to tell them that it was a good place for accommodation. That is why you have these sorts of initiatives: to cater for the opportunities as they come up."