Sharples Pita: General Debate 
Sharples Pita: General Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3154] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 As we approach Budget day the Maori Party has been asking questions of anyone who will listen as to whether the Budget will make a difference. Will tomorrow’s Budget improve the cultural social and economic wealth of the nation? A boom for whom? The irony is of course that although United Future Progressive the Greens and New Zealand First have been asked for an input Labour has deliberately ignored the fact denied or just plain forgotten that tangata whenua may also have something worthy to contribute to the Budget. Why should we be surprised when the Government produced a Budget last year that failed even to include the word “Maori”? 
The Maori Party is committed to a true and accurate account of the economic picture of our nation for the connection of truth and accuracy is particularly important. Whose truth are we telling if we are counting only part of the picture? How accurate can predictions be if only a partial account of wealth is conveyed? The million-dollar question for all economists and analysts is why if GDP is up Aotearoa is so down. Why are we experiencing crippling rates of poverty escalating trends of convictions unprecedented growth in police numbers and the breaking of all international records in child abuse and youth suicides? Where is the pleasure in evaluating the impact of new technologies if they are accompanied by jobless growth—growth of economic activity without any subsequent impact on employment rates? 
Another riddle to stifle all laughter is that the more fossil fuels we burn and the more greenhouse gases we emit the greater GDP grows. The problem is not with GDP per se. GDP was only ever intended as a measure of activity—as a quantitative count of the goods and services used to make the economy grow. One would think that no politician in his or her right mind would argue that higher poverty rates dirty air increased stress or the loss of first language speakers are signs of a successful nation yet that is exactly what GDP does. It measures the quantity of the fishing haul without even stopping to count the cost of the destruction of the seabed. It counts the profit of felling logs without assessing the damage to the eco-environment and measuring what is left behind. The Maori Party knows that just because one does not count something that does not mean it does not count. The Maori Party also knows and believes that some of the things that are counted as happens with GDP do not count in making this society of ours a better place for all of us. 
For years New Zealanders have watched MPs turn up to give certificates to community workers talk about how much they value a safe neighbourhood and praise the volunteer workforce who care for the elderly the young the sick the poor the vulnerable and the lonely. Yet that volunteer work is never included in the national accounts. It is time to make a difference and to make it count. We need a dramatic shift in the political vocabulary to take account of all those who are locked out of the Budget sidelined from the discussions left behind and alienated. That includes the Maori Party which is the only independent Maori voice in this House. 
Maori know better than most the impact of measuring things right. Tangata whenua live by kaupapa that remind us that if we are not caring for Papatuanuku mother Earth and if we are not feeding the wairua and sustaining our spiritual growth then our mauri our life force will be compromised. We understand that the revival of te reo Maori te reo rangatira and the advancement of matauranga knowledge will not only ensure the survival of the people as Maori but also increase our nation’s prosperity and cultural capital. 
We know that indicators already exist as stated in a social report of the Te Hoe Nuku Roa study undertaken at Massey University. That study assesses a range of quality outcomes that provide a wider assessment than GDP. Currently these frameworks are seen only as interesting additions—add-ons—to conventional measures. While GDP is misused to represent far more than it was ever intended to these social indicators are reserved in separate asides that can be pushed away. The Maori Party wants to bring to the core a framework of indicators that account for our human social and cultural assets alongside our produced and manufactured wealth. At the centre of all our policy thinking is the genuine progress index as a measurement of our pathway to a truly healthy and prosperous society.