Henare Peeni: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: General Debate[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4721. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to finish certainly the debate from this side of the House. As I start I would like to acknowledge Norm Berryman and his passing and pay my respects to him. I played club rugby with Norm Berryman in the far north and he will be sorely missed amongst the people in the north. Our prayers and our thoughts are with him and his family. Norm Berryman was able to slice through the middle of some of the best rugby teams in the world. He was able to pick out some of the smallest gaps and exploit their weaknesses. You do not need such a keen eye as Norm Berryman’s to find the weaknesses in this current Government.What we are seeing from this Government is confusion. The campaign picture of all rowing in the same direction is but a distant memory. Housing—let us take housing for example. We have two Ministers in particular engaging in what seems like an icy cold stare. That icy cold stare is around the right of first refusal. It seems to me that what this Government is doing is trampling on the integrity and the so-called good faith that was entered into with the iwi of Tāmaki-makau-rau in making sure that they have the right of first refusal on land to allow them to develop it for the well-being of their people. You do not need to look too far to know that it is probably strategic that Minister Smith is behind Minister Finlayson so that they are not able to engage further in that long cold icy stare.You throw into the mix into that whole right of first refusal the Māori Party—the Māori Party which since getting into bed with the National Government has claimed that “We are at the table; we are able to influence these decisions.” Well what happened when the right of first refusal came around? All those members could say was: “Well we’ve written a letter to the Prime Minister.” What happened to this solid relationship that they claim out in our regions? What happened to this “We are getting the benefits for our people.”? What it showed me is that they just like anyone on this side of the House only have the power to write a letter to the Prime Minister. And what has been the answer? Silence—exactly.I want to talk a little bit about poverty too. Just not long ago all this Government talked about was how it was focusing on poverty how it was pouring all of this money into identifying what poverty is and how it was going to fix it. Well at the moment just like the previous question I just asked what is the answer and what is it doing now? Nothing. It slipped entirely off the radar. The Government has forgotten about poverty. It has forgotten about the regions. Why? Because it does not know how to invest in them. It does not know how to solve these issues.To some of the more positive economic things—tourism. Just before I came down here I was in my office with the chief executive of Tourism New Zealand who was giving me a great conversation and a great presentation about how well tourism is doing. So then why when members of this Government attended particular seminars and conferences with the tourism industry which clearly said to them: “We do not want a tax for people who are coming in and out of this country.”—what did this Government do? It turned its back on that industry. It was a complete surprise in the Budget announcement to the tourism—Hon Annette King: They deceived them.PEENI HENARE: They deceived them. It was a complete surprise to the tourism industry when that announcement was made during the Budget. In fact I have received numerous complaints about this Government not listening to the tourism industry. It is such a valuable industry in this country and this Government turns its back on it. This is not a Government with a plan or a future or a hope. I have already mentioned the campaign picture of rowing in one direction. Well it looks like not everybody is wearing a blue T-shirt. In this case they are all rowing the wrong way.Finally we talk about the holes and the party falling apart. If there is one thing that sticks together in this party—I am reminded of a dag on the rear end of a sheep. We know just how sticky that can be and just how unified that can be but we know just how important sheep are to this particular Government. A little bit of sand might be able to help with those dags on the back of a sheep. We hope that this Government actually wakes up to its own arrogance but it is a little bit difficult when all you do is talk to yourselves about all the important matters facing New Zealand.Finally we here on this side of the House have a positive look for the future. We are looking with aspiration for the future of New Zealand. Māori Television will see better days. Housing will see better days. Tēnā koe.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.