Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister for Māori Development): Kia ora Mr Speaker. I want to thank that Māori—oh no that's right he's not a Māori—the man I think he's from Ngāti Porou? No the National Party thinks he's from Ngāti Porou! The poor member doesn't know where he's from or who he is and that was pretty evident in today's speech.I want to talk about all the great Māori things that are happening Māori initiatives and the great Māori economic development that's happening out there. You would have heard some of that in question time today but I want to first of all address Rawiri Waititi and how disappointed I was with his kōrero today. I could not believe he was talking about asking for the resignation of someone who is so committed to a kaupapa in terms of children and in terms of our people and I am very disappointed with him given his background—Nicola Grigg: He's not here.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: —having worked with him. It's all right I'll ring him up afterwards—don't worry. I'll message him. I just could not believe it given the changes that have happened with this Minister. This is a Minister who's committed to devolving to the community—absolutely committed. Sack the whole board for goodness sake—sack the whole board? Replace that board with a totally Māori board? Take it from me too and others here who've worked on the ground these problems they're not solved overnight. They're terrible. I've seen it in my own community. I've worked in my own community on the ground. I've gone in and taken babies off families.We have watched families mistreat kids and babies—terrible—through the years. And so you need a strong leadership at Government level—whether that was Labour National or whoever. It doesn't matter if you have a Minister who was committed. That's what you wanted and we've got that here. And I'm as I said really disappointed with the approach from the Māori Party on this given I thought they would have seen all the changes and their people—their people—on the very boards that are overseeing this. And we've still got problems. So I want to mihi to my mate Kelvin Davis. Well done. Yes his commitment—I know how taumaha [burdened] he is at the moment—but he will with the support of people in the House from all sides get there. Marama Davidson is working closely with us in terms of Te Aorerekura. We know the work going on in that area. She's just been brilliant. So I mihi to him.I want to move now though to the wonderful things that are happening in terms of Māori economic development; the unemployment rate for Māori down to 3.3 percent. When I was employment Minister I talked about the day when—sorry down to 5.5 percent; general rate is 3.3 percent. That's happened because of the investment in kaupapa Māori initiatives: programmes like Māori trade training Mana in Mahi He Poutama Rangatahi Progressive Procurement. This is about programmes targeting and investing in our people. There have been partnerships with Māori right across the country so the unemployment numbers are not accidental. They've come about because of the investment and the targeting in terms of Māori across the country—partnering with communities partnering with organisations working with Pākehā too at ground level who have a real investment in communities. We're not choosy; if we have Pākehā people who have worked alongside Māori all their lives we will partner up with them too so they can be involved in Māori trade training He Poutama Rangatahi Progressive Procurement. And we have started to turn around some of the terrible statistics. So I'm pleased in terms of Māori economic development.I'm pleased in terms of Māori housing: $730 million invested in Māori housing has created economic and employment opportunities right across the country. With papa kāinga we're building 1000 new houses. And what's the National Party's response? Well we hear it—we heard it in the last couple of days: they want to privatise welfare by setting up a social investment fund that will allow wealthy New Zealanders to donate to welfare. Someone needs to tell the National Party we already have a social investment fund that their wealthy mates can pay into: it's called the taxation system. I know that's hard for them to contemplate but maybe we would have more of a fund to spend if the National Party didn't keep trying to lower the top tax rate. That's the problem. Why is the National Party embarking on this strategy where they're sort of rolling out the old economist Milton Friedman? You know they base everything on these types of economics. There's a real ideological problem going on. That's why we have to set up this wonderful TVNZ-RNZ merger which is going to be the future for all of us. We'll see ourselves hear ourselves. What a future we have. Kia ora tātou.