Harawira Hone: New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:665;Page:12641] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. The Maori Party will support the New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill which will establish a commission to ensure there is a greater emphasis on productivity in both the private sector and the public sector. We do so because Maori society is traditionally based on the principle of collective commitment and hard work. 
One of our better known whakatauki is “Me moe i te tangata ringa raupa”—marry a man with blistered hands—that is marry a man who knows how to work. There were no politicians back then. Indeed on sheer numbers alone the ability of marae to handle major events with responsibility for the catering accommodation entertainment safety health and hygiene of large-scale crowds is an impressive demonstration of the productivity that carries over into other spheres of Maori activity in tourism farming forestry aquaculture business and even politics. In fact we kicked off our 2008 election campaign with the slogan that we wanted to make the nation great again by investing in productivity on a grander scale to promote social cultural and economic development for Maori and for the wider public and we said that that was in the best interests of the nation and economy as a whole. 
A key interest for us is the non-profit sector. We note that the Government currently invests $3.5 billion in this sector every year through contracting out services to non-profit organisations. Whanau Ora aims to take that principle to another level again. At the moment providers survive on multiple contracts with multiple funders which means that they spend more time writing up contracts and trying to get them approved restructuring the operations to meet new standards trying to meet the compliance requirements and then worrying about whether they will get the next contract all of which limits their ability to respond to the needs of whanau. 
I commend Tariana Turia for Whanau Ora and her work on trying to reduce the logjam by collapsing contracts into one and ensuring that whanau actually get the help they need from the best people in the business. It looks like the Productivity Commission will be using the same model by pooling together its funding from the budgets of 29 Government agencies rather than by costing taxpayers new money. 
Mind you as with a lot of other things we are also interested in we ask who and what will define exactly what productivity is. We see that the Public Service Association supports the idea of having a body that can provide regular reports on efficiency effectiveness and service delivery in Government agencies across the whole economy. But like us it is also keen to know how State sector productivity will be measured and by whom. 
The Maori Party is also keen to know what the balance will be between the economies of scale going through the central administration and the benefits of contracting into local communities which understand local issues better than central government ever can. I say that because uncoordinated actions taken by different Government agencies are widely known throughout the country to be costly time-consuming effort-wasting inefficient and confusing and they often duplicate actions taken by other Government agencies. 
Finally talking about definitions of productivity we would also like to see the terms of reference include an audit of all service providers for their commitment to kaupapa Maori and an audit of all legislation for its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Some great things are happening out there such as the Maori Health Innovation Fund which has invested $20 million in developing innovative Whanau Ora - based health services and in developing Whanau Ora itself. But there is also a need to put some focus on what works in other areas what does not work and how at the end of the day the Government can support services and initiatives that deliver high-quality outcomes for whanau everywhere. 
On that basis the Maori Party will support this bill at its first reading.