Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Before I get to the substance of what I'm going to talk about I'd just like to address some of the discussion points that Simon O'Connor the member who just took his seat raised: 92 percent of the country agree with the approach that the Government has taken to dealing with COVID so he's obviously in the 8 percent that disagree and he speaks about the Government's response to COVID-19 with a degree of sadness or concern. It's almost like he was wanting our approach to be less effective than it was and that more people would get it. We know from projections that we were looking down the barrel of maybe 3000 deaths in New Zealand if we didn't go hard and we didn't go fast—as we did—and countries around the world are only congratulating New Zealand on the approach we have taken. We've now had 12 days in a row without any new cases of COVID-19 and we need to be patting ourselves on the back and saying thank you to the team of 5 million people who have contributed to that. But what we're hearing from the member who's just spoken is that he would have preferred that we relaxed our approach and potentially risked us going back up the alert levels which of course is the worst thing that could possibly happen to New Zealand and the economy. So we have taken steps to make sure that we have protected New Zealand and New Zealanders. Our best economic approach was our strong health approach and I think that the National Party just need to tone down their opposition to the way that we've approached this because it has had the best impact economically for New Zealand as well as health-wise. We've heard all the stories about those people who lost loved ones during the lockdowns and how difficult it was for them to mourn and grieve not being able to attend their funerals. Now just imagine if there had been those 3000 COVID-19 deaths and there would be 3000 more whānau 3000 more families potentially who could be affected by that and could be grieving by themselves. My cousin in fact in the early days of lockdown at level 4 lost his mother. Because he's a grave digger at our marae he was one that had to dig her grave and just a handful of them buried our auntie. It sounds like members opposite are almost disappointed that the situation wasn't worse but I hope that's not the case. This Budget delivered $900 million for Māori. Now I have to admit that in the Māori caucus while we're happy that $900 million is a lot of money we're disappointed we couldn't—for the first time—get to the billion-dollar mark for Māoridom. It sends a signal to Māori that this Government value Māori and we value the relationship we have and it shows our commitment to continuing to work with Māori to make our country better for everyone. Now gone are the days of previous Budgets under the previous Government where the National Government would under-invest in Māori. I recall in one of the last Budgets that they put out that there was some scheme where they would have a van driving around the Waiariki electorate. The member for Waiariki at the time was a member of the confidence and supply partners to the previous Government. It was to drive around the Waiariki dispensing—I don't know; I'm not quite sure what it was meant to dispense—Disprins Panadols. It was meant to be there as a health response for Māori health. It would have been ineffective and it didn't get off the ground but that is an example of what the previous Government did. They just paid and walked away—pay Māori walk away. Now one of the things that I'm most proud of is the $200 million we got for the kōhanga reo but it's actually not the $200 million that I'm most proud about; it's the relationship that we have created between the kōhanga reo and the Crown after a decade of neglect. Now under the previous Government the kōhanga reo didn't get a bean they didn't get an audience with Ministers—they were left out in the cold—and as a result Te Reo Māori education for our youngest babies was absolutely neglected. The first thing when I spoke to Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust when I became the Associate Minister was I sat down and said that I am committed to kōhanga reo. I grew up in a monolingual home not being able to speak Te Reo Māori and I still remember the shame of going on to our marae and not understanding what was going on and I don't want any other Māori child to grow up in that same situation that I grew up in. So I expressed then my commitment to work with the kōhanga reo to make sure that all Māori children if they wish can have the opportunity to grow up speaking Te Reo Māori. We had to work hard first of all on just the relationship. I said to them that when we work on the relationship then we can start talking about their aspirations for the next 30 or 40 years and we can put those aspirations into a plan and we can start to address those aspirations over time. Last year in last year's Budget we got them $32 million and we said that that's a start. This year we managed to get them $200 million. Now $232 million in two years is still just the start. We are still committed to that relationship with kōhanga reo and to Māori education. Now there was another $200 million that went towards Māori education as well and that was going towards other parts of the education system. One of them was $50 million going towards working with whānau. Now for years and years we've invested in the principals and schools and the boards of trustees and teachers with professional development but there is one component of the education system that's been consistently neglected and that's the relationship between whānau and the education system. So we've put $50 million in there to help Māori whānau to engage with the education system and to be demanding consumers. Te Ahu o te Reo is our programme. We started four pilots last year and those pilots were to help teachers to integrate Te Reo Māori throughout their curriculum. Now I went to the pōwhiri for one of the cohorts up in Ōtaki and when I got there I saw a whole heap of really shy people participating in this pōwhiri quite to the side very quietly and I thought Oh my gosh what's going to happen here? Is this going to be a success?" because these people very few of them who were Māori seemed to be lost. Roll forward two or three months later when they graduated and I was waiting outside I could hear this singing coming from inside the hall where we had the graduation. I said to the organiser when he came out to greet me "Which group did you bring in for the pōwhiri?" He said "No that's not a kapa haka group. That is the cohort of people of teachers and educators who participated and who turned up two or three months earlier at that pōwhiri." Such was the success of that professional development that teachers who previously had had very little if any exposure to Te Reo Māori were engaging with me in Te Reo Māori after the pōwhiri. It was quite an astounding success. Like I said very few were Māori—70 percent were non-Māori. Such is the success now we're looking to expand Te Ahu o te Reo Māori so that more and more teachers will be able to engage in and integrate Te Reo Māori into their classrooms by 2025 so that all Māori students regardless of whether they're in mainstream or are bilingual will be able to engage with their culture. We've also launched Te Kawa Matakura this year. We launched it up in Tai Tokerau at Waitangi during the Waitangi week. Te Kawa Matakura is a leadership programme for Māori. What it does is it is brings in the old-time learning that schools don't teach. It is growing our Māori leadership and they leave that programme with a degree. We're also investing $14.6 million to increase Te Reo Māori curriculum resources. That's because there's been a dearth ever since I was teaching. When I was a principal I always said that we needed Te Reo Māori resources to support the curriculum and the programme and it's great to go from being a teacher and a principal saying "I wish we could be able to do these things." to now being the Associate Minister and actually making these things happen. But what's great—just to start to wind up—is that the $900 million again is just the start. We'll have many more Budgets in the coming years to grow on that and build on that so that our people know that we've got all these Māori Ministers and we've got a ton of Māori MPs who will become Ministers in their time who are going to continue to fight the good fight for our Māori people. As I said gone are the days when it's acceptable for National Governments to just pay and walk away from Māori. Those days are gone. Those Governments are gone and good riddance to them. Kia ora."