Ririnui Mita: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Ririnui Mita: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1170] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Minister of State) 
: 
Kai te Kaihautu tena koe. Mihi ake ana ki a koe me te ataahua hoki o to neketai. Hoi ano ra huri mai ki tena tangata nana nga korero i enei meniti tekau. Mihi atu ana ki a ia me tana maro ki te tu i roto i te Whare nei ki te whakapaoho i ana korero.  
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker. I acknowledge you and your beautiful necktie 
.  
Indeed I turn to that person who has been addressing us during these past 10 minutes to acknowledge his contribution in this House and his boldness. 
] 
Perhaps I should give my own interpretation. I congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on your choice of tie today. I also congratulate the previous speaker on his valiant attempt to demonstrate to this House that he is going to achieve something. He made it very clear that the Maori Party members are the only ones who talk about things. Well I say that the Maori Labour caucus has a history of delivering things and that is the record we stand by. Otira koina te korero kare te kumara e korero i tana reka. 
[ 
Indeed there is that saying: the sweet potato does not talk up its sweetness. 
] 
The previous speaker brought up three important points that I want to respond to. I want to thank him because previously I had decided to talk about something else but he has shifted my focus and just as well. I can give the member a guarantee that Judge Williams will not be replaced on the Waitangi Tribunal—in fact I saw a document signed by the Minister of Maori Affairs 2 weeks ago confirming that. I think the member has been misinformed. 
The second and very important matter— 
Hone Harawira 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not say that Judge Williams would be replaced as the chief judge of the Waitangi Tribunal. I said that he would be replaced as Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will be seated. The member should look at Speaker’s ruling 36/4 covering misrepresentation. 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: The second matter I want to talk about is the member’s assertion that this Labour-led Government intends to remove all Treaty references from legislation. I can tell the member that there is absolutely no intention to do that. In fact there is still an ongoing commitment to ensure that the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles are recognised in legislation. But I do share his concern about that particular matter because it has become a political sore point with the Opposition during the 6 years that I have been in this House. 
I also issue a challenge to that member. I distinctly recall that when I was at Ratana this year—and the member was there when his party arrived—his co-leader stood and made a statement about those principles. He said: “Kare au i te whakaae kia whakaurua atu te mana o te Tiriti ki roto i nga ture katoa.” 
[“ 
I am not in favour of the Treaty’s mana being included in all laws.” 
]  
The member’s own co-leader does not agree that the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi should be included in legislation. I wonder why there is such a difference of opinion between those two members or perhaps I misunderstood the co-leader. If I did I apologise but I do not think I did misunderstand him. 
The member raised another important matter and it concerns prisons. I have spent some time in the Department of Corrections and I have some concerns about the way and the manner in which the department conducts its business today. I congratulate the Minister of Corrections Damien O’Connor on making the bold move and making the statement publicly that changes are needed. The Minister talked about offenders who are a low risk to society. He was not talking about violent offenders. He was not talking about home invaders. He was not talking about abusers and dangerous offenders. He was talking about low-risk offenders. There are a number of reasons why people should be imprisoned. 
The Minister was generous when he said that 30 percent of inmates serve fewer than 6 months. In fact 30 percent of inmates serve fewer than 11 weeks. We have to ask ourselves: are we are building prisons to lock people away for 11 weeks? I do not think so. I do not think the 1999 referendum on zero tolerance on crime said that to us but we—particularly the Opposition—seem to have accepted that we are going to lock everybody up. We are saying that some changes need to be made. 
I said that there are a number of ways in which a person can wind up in prison. A person can appear in court on an offence that does not carry a prison term and he or she might receive a fine or community service or maybe something a bit stronger. A person’s ability to serve that sentence to pay the fine or to do community service or periodic detention depends on the person’s circumstances—whether the person can afford to pay the fine whether the person has the time to go out into the community and do community service whether the person has the weekend available to do periodic detention. A minor crime has been committed and we must always remember that but if the person is not able to meet the court’s instructions that person could end up in prison. In the end a breach of court orders could eventuate in a prison sentence. Those are the people we are talking about. 
As the previous speaker said many of those people are Maori who cannot pay an enormous fine. But there are other ways of dealing with these matters and that is what we as a Government are looking at—alternatives to imprisonment. So the question has to be asked about the role of the Community Probation Service. Is it advising the courts accordingly so that judges can make the appropriate decisions on minor offences or is it not? There is a whole issue around the role of that service. 
 I want to talk about all the achievements of this Government since it came into Government 6 years ago. I agree with previous speakers who said that 7.5 percent Maori unemployment is not good and that it could be better but it is a helluva lot better than 20 percent which is what it was when we came into Government. Something like 40000 more Maori are now in work. The rate of Maori unemployment has dropped by more than 74000. Many Maori are now involved in tertiary studies. Regardless of the problems experienced with Te Wananga o Aotearoa last year at a bad time for us by and large there have been results. The business of the wananga in providing tertiary education to Maori and others continues in a meaningful way. The focus of this Government’s policy has always been to ensure that Maori have access to tertiary studies and that remains our policy. Unfortunately for the previous chief executive officer that has not been a very good experience. 
I want to touch on the Prime Minister’s speech as well. The points she made were quite straightforward— 
Paula Bennett 
: Oh we missed it! 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: I am sure those members opposite do not agree but then again they have just arrived here. They are back-benchers in the National Party. Its front-benchers have been sitting in Opposition for 6 years and by the time they draw breath again they will have been there for 9 years. Prior to that they were in Government for 9 long years which was the worst experience New Zealanders have ever had. That Government implemented harsher policies than any other Government has. I hear that National back-bench member desperately trying to interject unsuccessfully. She needs to take a look at the track record of her own party. It is not something one would go around boasting about. 
I come back to the main points in the Prime Minister’s speech. She talked about growing the economy. Confidence in this country is high. Regardless of the criticisms that come from Opposition members business confidence is high. Businesses accept their ups and downs. [ 
Interruption 
] Has the member been in business? She should not talk until she has. Most Maori in this House run a business of some sort so if members want to know about business they should talk to us. We will tell them about it. We will tell them about being on the disadvantaged end of the business scale and working through all the issues. Seventy-four percent of Maori businesses are successful. The average statistic for people who are in small to medium business is that their businesses do not last 5 years. That is not the case for Maori in business. They go on and on. 
Paula Bennett 
: What about  
River Queen 
 the movie? 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: I saw the shorts of the movie. I did not think much of it really. I sympathise with Tariana Turia. Her tupuna was depicted in that movie and the person playing the part was my whanaunga. We have an issue with that. Titokowaru is the person she was talking about the great prophet the great leader of the Maori cause from up the Whanganui River—and the member talks about  
River Queen 
! Give me a break—drag queen! 
To get back to Labour’s achievements in Government highlighted in the Prime Minister’s speech the economy has been very strong and unemployment has come down. Social services and tertiary education were highlighted. Maori health is on a positive climb there is no doubt about that. Over 480000 Maori are now enrolled in primary health organisations. That has to be good news. 
So I ask members opposite when they are going to stop running down their country. When will you acknowledge the successes of the last 6 years? When will you accept that every poll on leadership in the last 6 years has put Helen Clark way up top? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Please do not bring the Speaker into the debate.