Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3277] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Last Friday Masterton District Council ditched its usual practice of recognising citizenship in favour of a move that accorded respect to the mana whenua of that rohe. About 40 residents who have become naturalised New Zealanders in the past 2 years were welcomed on to Te Ore Ore marae a marae steeped in the rich traditions of that area. The whare whakairo at Te Ore Ore was erected by Paora Te Potangaroa a leader and prophet of Ngati Kahungunu. It is a marae that epitomises the unique character of tangata whenua. It is a marae that reflects our national identity—that is until last Thursday when the Budget 2006 introduced a new national identity one that the minority Labour Government wants us to take pride in. It consists of arts culture and heritage defence foreign affairs foreign aid and our land and environment. Belatedly Dr Cullen’s Budget speech included as an afterthought: “and in some respects the place of Maori in our nation as the original inhabitants”. 
National identity is a concept core to my heart yet this minority Government wants me to believe that our roles in Kosovo Sierra Leone and the Sudan tell me who I am as a New Zealander. It wants me to believe that the $4.6 billion for upgrades of the Orions and Hercules will get my heart pumping with patriotic fervour. It is telling me that I should take pride in Aotearoa as a result of the $4.6 billion defence sustainability initiative and not to worry that not one dollar was assigned to Maori Television not one dollar to Te Whakaruruhau o Nga Reo Irirangi Maori—Maori radio—and nothing to Te Mangai Paho. And while it is telling me about the $305 million part-payment on new helicopters or the $16 million to enhance border security measures this minority Labour Government is forgetting to tell me about the closure of the Treaty of Waitangi Information Unit at the end of next month. 
In April 2005 District Court and Waitangi Tribunal Judge Richard Kearney was reported as saying: “New Zealanders generally had a staggering almost criminal lack of understanding of Treaty issues”. Yet a little over a year later has this minority Government done so well that it can disestablish the very unit it set up to facilitate improved understanding and great public knowledge of the Treaty? This is familiar ground. Just like Te Wananga o Aoteraroa when outcomes are exceeding expectations when New Zealanders are actively seeking to further their knowledge the Government slams the door shut. 
According to what we heard on Budget day we will get a better understanding of our country and our history through excessive expenditure on artillery and armoury. Yeah right! I contend here that nationhood is learning how to understand and speak from the position of strength in knowing our own background our history and our traditions. Te Tiriti o Waitangi provides us with the context that can provide a foundation for living in Aotearoa. I am not talking about the piffling amount of money that the Budget has allocated to its own Government department—$5 million only for the Office of Treaty Settlements. 
The challenge before us is to look to the peoples in this country and celebrate our unique national identity that is grounded firstly in the indigenous story. If we are truly to develop a rich and sustainable national identity we need to understand the meaning of Treaty justice. Every New Zealander has the right to understand the history that shapes our present—a history that talks about colonisation assimilation and self-determination as well; a history that brings the land wars of sovereignty into every living room. The experiences of the coloniser and the colonised of the conquests of resistance of renaissance must be a part of the living imprint of our ancestors yours and mine. 
The Treaty is a mechanism for building relationships not a recipe for destruction which some forces would make it out to be. The Maori Party is tired of the worn-out platitudes that Treaty grievances should be settled “for the good of the nation” and that they should be settled “to meet Government’s target of having all claims lodged.” The implication is: “Let’s put an end to these claims and the Treaty so we can get on with the job of being good Kiwis.” Well what about settling Treaty grievances as a matter of justice? Also what about supporting the claim of successive Governments that the Treaty of Waitangi is the foundation document of this country’s nationhood; and why can we not work positively to embrace our national identity? National identity is much more than border control or even the Royal New Zealand Ballet can offer. A gun is a gun is a gun whether it is in Afghanistan Bosnia the Solomon Islands or Waiouru. An AK-47 retains its spots wherever it is located but a powhiri a marae and a Pakeha are unique to this land—unique to Aotearoa to New Zealand—and we must celebrate that not shy away from it. 
We can build a really strong nation but first we must attend to the disparities that exist between Maori and non-Maori. These disparities involve not only issues of performance but matters of justice. We all have to face these issues. But when I talk of institutionalised racism when I speak of the poverty of 230000 children and when I reveal the horror of Maori prison statistics I watch the expressions on the faces. When I mention the Treaty of Waitangi as being a positive mechanism for building relationships I watch. And when I talk of justice when I describe the legacy of colonisation and when I insist that there is much unfinished business to attend to I watch the faces. I watch the faces because they tell me that they really do not want to know this stuff. The faces say oh no not again. They say oh God Maori this Maori that. The faces want to say to me that I should give it up. I should leave things where they are and go forward. That is what the Government and all these Ministers are saying. That is their party line: “We’re moving forward. We’re not dwelling in the past.” How glib. How easy how naive how ethnocentric how ignorant and how simplistic. 
The fact is that we do reference the past to determine our future. We believe in hope and we believe in justice. We celebrate our ancestors who served in the First World War and all the wars since then and it helps us to value peace and to know justice and to determine our current position within the conflicts of the world. So the Maori Party will continue to raise the issues pertinent to Treaty justice and to the disparities that exist and that inhibit true progress as a nation whether they reference the past and/or the present. I repeat that we can never advance our nationhood without Maori Pakeha and all our communities moving together. 
In summary the Maori community once again will be devastated by this Budget. Dr Michael Cullen has outpaced all his opponents in directing funding away from Maori initiatives as part of his Government’s underlying agenda to make Maori invisible. Is the big question how a caucus can be so arrogant as to ignore its own Maori members’ hopes and aspirations for their people? Or is the question rather how the Maori members of this Government half of whom hold ministerial portfolios can allow themselves to be so blatantly ignored by their Pakeha counterparts. The Maori Party will continue to challenge the logic that permeates the Budget decisions every step of the way.