Heatley Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Heatley Phil: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3411] 
PHIL HEATLEY (NZ National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I open by saying I am delighted to be back this year in your company the Hon Clem Simich. It is always a great pleasure to be working alongside you and other members. Other members will most likely rise to their feet and cheer when I say that I acknowledge the Hon Clem Simich and thank him for the call. I am delighted to be back in the House. I want members to know that I thoroughly enjoy my job. They will never hear me complain about the remuneration or anything like that. I am an enthusiastic member of Parliament and am pleased to be entering 2003 although I must say I have some reservations about it. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Tell us why. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: Members want to know what those reservations are and I will tell them. We are entering 2003 and I have had my nose to the ground so I know how many New Zealanders feel. Because I met many Northlanders and people from throughout the country at Waitangi this year I know people are genuinely concerned about race relations in this country. So I am pleased to be back here this February. I am pleased to be a member of Parliament and I am delighted to start the year but I have certain reservations about the state of race relations within our country.  
That concern includes the fact that many Maori have been consistently put down by leaders in this country. Those leaders have talked consistently about failure instead of about success and have commiserated consistently with Maori instead of celebrating their success. I tell the House there is no mana in that and there is no mana in the leaders of the Labour Party consistently talking about failure and commiserating with Maori. In fact Labour Party members are using Maori as the equivalent of a depressed illiterate underclass that requires constant funding in some form or another. That is how they consider Maori. I have picked up on that from people from throughout the country and it is very very condescending.  
I was interested in Pansy Wong’s comments earlier about Chris Carter’s speech to the Indian community last year when he had stood up unprepared for his speech. That is what Pansy Wong has just said and she has huge credibility in this Parliament. She said that Chris Carter in his unprepared speech told the Indian community that Ghandi was a great man and that the Prime Minister enjoyed curry. That is very embarrassing. That interested me because I was one member who made the effort to go to Waitangi this year. Granted I live very close to Waitangi in Whangarei. Waitangi is only an hour’s drive from my home and even if I did not have a car thousands of my Whangarei constituents would have given me a lift. So I went to Waitangi this year where Chris Carter made another speech. I will tell members that I was chastised by fellow members of the National Party because I told them after returning from Waitangi that during Chris Carter’s speech I felt so embarrassed for him—for him and that is why I was chastised—that I wanted to crawl under a rock.  
Chris Carter’s speech at Waitangi was very embarrassing. But I could not get under the rock—because Dover Samuels was there! First of all Chris Carter stood up and pranced around a little bit; members can picture that in their mind’s eye. He stood on the Maori unity flag and people shuffled him off— 
Simon Power 
: The great liberal. 
PHIL HEATLEY 
: The great liberal; they shuffled him off. The other members who were there saw that. People shuffled Chris Carter off trying to keep things low key. Chris Carter made a speech about spilling blood—on Waitangi Day on a marae! To end it all—and this is almost as bad as telling the Indian community that the Prime Minister likes curry—Chris Carter did something else. But first I will tell members what Bill English did. At the end of Bill English’s speech when there was a huge silence out of respect we stood up and supported Bill English with a waiata. This is what Chris Carter did: he pranced around and when he had finished his speech he invited Labour members to sing a Maori song. That is what he did and members from throughout the House can imagine him doing it. Chris Carter said the Labour members would sing a Maori song so three Labour members joined him in singing the Maori song “Pokare Kare Ana”. Dover Samuels scuttled under a rock. My first complaint of this year is that that was my rock because I as a National Party member have consistently opposed Chris Carter for 3 years yet I felt stink for him because that song was so condescending to Maori.  
The point of all that is simply that I say such condescending speeches and talk have hurt the many Maori who continue to go about their daily work committed to their families just like everybody else. Many many Maori leave the rest of us for dead in all the abilities and talents they express throughout this country—in fact they leave for dead Labour Party members not the least of them being the last speaker who talked about the success of the Maori economy. Why is it that Labour Party members cannot talk about the success of Maori instead of commiserating with them and constantly talking about their failure?  
My hope on entering 2003 was that this Government would rebuild race relations and would not turn its back on genuine grievances—historical treaty grievances—but would meet need wherever it exists regardless of race. That was my wish. This is my message to Helen Clark: she should improve on her poor record of settling genuine historic grievances righting historic broken promises righting land confiscations and righting the dispossession of people in various parts of the country. She should be doing that not granting special privileges to Maori and not sending the very able Chris Carter north to win friends and influence people. She should not be funding councils having special Government representation and changing the tax laws to suit Maori. She should be settling genuine historic grievances because the National Party supports that. We started settling genuine historic treaty claims but we do not support cash for votes. In terms of social spending it is whether families are in need that should be important not people’s race. As if New Zealand has enough money to support the cash for votes philosophy! 
Labour has had the best tailwind in a generation has it not with low interest rates a low exchange rate for the New Zealand dollar good weather up until now and high international demand for commodities? Labour has had a great tailwind. Any Government can govern when the going is good but I want to see those people govern when it all turns to custard—and it will.  
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Before I call the member I point out that the 10-minute slot for the Green Party will be shared with 5 minutes each. There will be a bell at the end of each 5 minutes.