Ngaro Alfred: Budget Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ngaro Alfred: Budget Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2628. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ALFRED NGARO (National) 
: 
 Manuia le fa’amanatuina o le vaiaso o le gagana Samoa. Manuia le fa’amanatuina o le lima sefulu tausaga o le tuto’atasi o Samoa. Blessings for the celebration of Samoan Language Week and blessings for the celebration of Samoa’s 50 years of independence.  
I stand in support of this Budget of 2012. But I want to read from the words of Sir Apirana Ngata who in the early 20th century told his people that they could not expect support from the culture and Government that had deprived them from their land. Instead they would have to use their own resources to make a living within the dominant culture of New Zealand in order to create prosperity for themselves. These are wise words from our tupuna who told us that we need to ensure that when we plan we plan responsibly. That is the Budget that we have been given by the Hon Bill English. It is responsible for managing the Government’s finances as one of our priorities in very difficult fiscal times. Sir Apirana Ngata gave us this wisdom and so it tells us this. How do we show a nation that we truly do care? Often members on this side of the House have been labelled as the Tories who do not care who do not have a concern for the ordinary everyday people of our communities.  
Well this is how we care. In our Budget of 2012 we have freed up $4.4 million to reinvest in better results from front-line services. We are lengthening educational achievement and increasing participation in early childhood education with better quality teaching. We are balancing our investment at tertiary level between student support and greater investment in teaching and research. We want all our kids to leave school with the knowledge and skills that they need to reach their potential in the 21st century. This is what concerns me having been involved on a board of trustees for 20 years and having been involved in schooling improvement over 25 years and this is the thing I want to tell the people on the other side of the House. I have seen many times when education is talked about and we support our educational system but we also know that there are some who are in there who need a wake-up call. I have seen people take the funding for Maori and Pasifika students but they are not willing to do the work. They are not willing to be held accountable. We have seen the Minister of Education stand up and say: “Why is it that we have increased teacher numbers but we’ve not increased the performance and achievement of our children?”.  
Our children—they are what this Budget is about. They are what this Budget is about. Four out of five kids are getting the qualifications they need but under National’s plan we want to lift that standard. National’s plan is about getting five out of five. We want all our kids to leave school with the skills they need to reach their potential in the modern economy. You can talk all you like but here are the results that are coming through. We are firmly focused on raising student achievement and to do this we must invest in the biggest effect possible. The quality of teaching and practice and professional leadership are what truly make the difference. We have set two ambitious targets in education. One is increasing early childhood education participation by 98 percent within 5 years. We know that early childhood education is a way of increasing literacy and numeracy in our schools for our children. [ 
Interruption 
] That is right Ms Moroney—our children.  
The other target is having 85 percent of all 18-year-olds achieving the minimum of a level 2 qualification for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement. We have heard members on the other side say: “Oh but that’s too high a standard.” How can members on the other side say that it is too high a standard for our children? It is not too high a standard. This is what happens. It is members on the other side who keep our children Maori and Pacific in poverty. This is the thing. I stand here as a person who has come from this community and who has worked in community development. You find it hard to speak to me because I am the same person who has been there. I know the results and I know what we need. I stand here proud of this Budget because it truly does make the difference.  
But what about welfare reforms? Too many of our New Zealanders have become dependent. As Sir Apirana Ngata said this State is not where our dreams and our moemoea are and our vision is; no it is not. It is trapping our families in poverty and it is costing too much. We believe that those who can should have the opportunity. Work is not a means to it. Work in itself is an ability to get us to a vision and a dream of where we want to go to. We will hear the rhetoric though. Where are the jobs? It does not matter how many times you keep pulling out the statistics you will keep hearing the same thing. There is an old saying: “Do not throw your pearls before the swine.”—do not throw your pearls before the swine. No matter how much of the statistics and the results we give them it will not make a difference. But we will keep telling them why because it is not the people on the other side whom we want to hear what we are saying. It is the people at home. 
Sue Moroney 
: Out of touch with New Zealanders. You’re out of touch with their problems. 
ALFRED NGARO 
: It is the people at home who need to hear this message so we will keep preaching it Ms Moroney. We will keep telling them this is what we are doing. So it is about a better life and better opportunities. Twelve percent of our working-age population is on a benefit and 220000 children are in a benefit-dependent home. That is an indictment on any nation and this is what we are doing. We are taking responsibility under the honourable Minister that we have the Minister for Social Development who has a vision. Twelve thousand people have now cancelled their unemployment benefit 13000 people went off the DPB and into work and there are $17 million of savings overall that we can reinvest into our youth and our young people.  
We will undertake further reforms during the term of this Government. Our changes are significant. They will introduce two stages and one includes supporting sole parents with children 5 years and older into part-time work. This is not just rhetoric. When I have gone into my communities of Glen Innes and Panmure this is what they have said to me. They have said: “Alfred this is what we need. We need opportunities. We have heard the one-trick pony over and over again.” But this is the thing they have forgotten about. I am a first-generation-born Pacific Islander and this is what you have forgotten about. We are now first second and third-generation. We have become more educated more mobile and more articulate but your message is this: you still want to keep us in poverty. This is not a message for poverty. This is a message for hope. This is the message—that I stand as a Pasifika person first generation and say that this is what we are doing to make a difference for our people and for our communities. You can keep talking but after 9 years you had not made a difference—you had not made a difference. So this is what we are doing—this is what we are doing. We are helping those who can work to find a job. We are removing barriers to work through childcare assistance. We are targeting resources to those most at risk of long-term dependency and helping young people make better choices. 
 But what about health? What about health? I really do want to take my hat off and acknowledge the support of the Maori Party as our coalition partner. We have $6 million in a Pacific Innovation Fund—$6 million. Let me tell you this. I have researched what happened under Labour and you did not give any innovation fund to our Pasifika for health—not once. Your funding was all in the mainstream vote for health. But this is what we have done. This is what we have done under the honourable Minister Tariana Turia Associate Minister of Health. She has allowed for $6 million to be invested in innovation. What is that for? So that our own people can be self-determining—our own people can make the choices about what we need to do to improve our health. It is not State-dependent but dependent on our own people. And we will see more innovations that will come out of that.  
I am proud of this Budget. I am proud that what this Budget does is put the resources in the hands of our people to be self-determining. This Budget not only does that but it says this to us: there is a hope and there is an opportunity for us to be self-determining so we can make the choices for our children. I stand proud to be here today so that my children will look at me speaking in this House and knowing this: that we are not dependent on anyone else but ourselves. Sir Apirana Ngata who was in this House at one time said this: “We are not dependent on the State. We are not dependent on anyone but ourselves. We will find the answers for ourselves.” What this Government is about is allowing our own community to be self-determining to make the choices for itself and to be caring for the concerns that we believe are very important. This Budget is such a good Budget that it allows for great opportunity in health education and welfare reforms.  
And I want to say this; this is the last thing I want to say. As the honourable member from the Maori Party Te Ururoa Flavell said research is important. It concerns me that members of the New Zealand First Party talk about Whanau Ora and condemn the work of Whanau Ora. They say things about the work that it is doing and all those members are doing is grandstanding. But what is it about? They have not seen the impact that Whanau Ora has had on many of our whanau and family. What is it doing? It is allowing Maori to be self-determining. Instead what do we have? We have the nitpicking. We are accused of being penny-pinchers. We are accused of taking from the paper boys. There is a lot of nitpicking that comes from over there on something that truly is making a difference. If they really felt that they supported something that was indigenous for Maori then they would give it an opportunity to do its best and that is what it is doing. It is doing the best that it can. We hear all these inflammatory remarks but there is no truth in them. I am proud to be here today. This is a great Budget for our country for our nation and for our community.