Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti): Tēnā rā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Ahakoa kua tae tātou ki te marama o Pēpuere e tautoko ana ahau i ō mihi ki a tātou mō te tau hou nā reira huri rauna i tō tātou Whare tēnā rā tātou katoa.[Greetings Mr Speaker. Although we have reached the month of February I support your New Year's greeting to us all and I also greet everyone in all parts of the House.]I've reflected on the speeches of those who have stood before me this afternoon and I have to say it's only been 12 months since I've heard a more lacklustre speech than the one from the Leader of the Opposition. It was forgettable. He did miss his cue and the debate just about ended before it started but what was amusing was that within two sentences he said that the National Party's ready". Obviously when you miss your cue the National Party is not ready whatsoever. But what concerned me most of all in his speech was his lamenting of our incredibly low unemployment rate. This Government has done superbly well in making sure people do have incomes and are able to feed their families and yet what sort of politician what sort of political party laments a low unemployment rate? The National Party and the ACT Party as well.I was also really disappointed to listen to David Seymour because somehow he buys into that whole theory that Māori are privileged and have greater rights than other New Zealanders. It's interesting Sir James Hēnare said "Unity doesn't mean to say we have to be the same". We're not the same and I speak often about crossing over the bridge that is Te Tiriti o Waitangi from the Pākehā world into the Māori world. And I ask David Seymour does he want to cross that bridge from his Pākehā world into the Māori world? Because he sees New Zealand and everybody in New Zealand being equal if they are equal in his mould in his vision of Aotearoa. And what's really sad is that David Seymour has Māori whakapapa but he was born into the non-Māori world and he wants everybody to be equal in his image. The reality is Te Tiriti o Waitangi in article 3 guaranteed equity. And if equity means that Māori have lower life expectancy have lower employment rates have lower education then that's not equity and what he's doing is actually going against the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He has proved that he does not want to cross that bridge that is Te Tiriti o Waitangi and learn more about his own whakapapa.He spoke about healthy and thriving communities but then he disagreed with every single thing that this Government has done to make sure through this pandemic that we have healthy and thriving communities. We have had 53 deaths over two years because of the pandemic. Just 53. That's averaging one every fortnight. Not 53000: 53. Some countries around the world have had 53 deaths before lunchtime each day. This Government has done an incredible job at keeping New Zealanders alive. They lament a few other things and they are upset about a few other things but what is more upsetting than losing a family member unnecessarily? This Government what we have done has worked.I reflect on the Prime Minister's statement and I want to just quote a few parts from it. She says "In a pandemic that moves swiftly where new variants emerge quickly no country has perfected the playbook."—and we are saying we're not claiming to have had a perfect response but—"At every turn our goal has been to do what is right." and that everything we have done has been right because it has kept New Zealanders alive. Those political parties across the way they don't put the same value on human life that this Government has.We have acted early and decisively to prevent the worst effects seen elsewhere and ensure our health workers haven't had to carry the burden alone. It is an approach that has worked. Our confirmed cases hospitalisations and deaths have been the lowest in the OECD for each of the past two years. That is something to be celebrated and to be commended on. Unemployment is at record lows. Record numbers of New Zealanders have moved off a main benefit and into work. The measures we have taken have saved lives. Our policies protected jobs and saved businesses. The plan we followed has worked and it has worked in saving Māori lives. I talk about my great grandmother who passed away in 1919 as a result of the influenza after World War I. And I talk also about the urupā in the cemeteries and marae across the country just like ours up north in Ngāti Manu where there is a stretch of ground that is full of graves and the bodies that are unmarked because people were dying so quickly up my valley that they didn't have an opportunity to actually record who was dying. We avoided those sort of circumstances.We have engaged with Māori since the start of the pandemic in 2020. I meet three different groups a week on the pandemic response—and they don't make it easy for us I'll tell you. The Iwi Chairs Forum those iwi chairs who are not affiliated to the forum and then also other Māori organisations. There has been unequalled access for Māori to Ministers to CEOs to officials. We have listened and responded to many of their requests. We haven't agreed all the time we haven't put everything in place that they've demanded but we have acted on what Māori have asked of us.The Prime Minister also talks about securing our economic future and over the course of the pandemic the Government has invested $8.8 billion in their health response. Over the past two years we have invested $22.9 billion in saving jobs and businesses and we've always said that a strong health response is our best economic policy. New Zealand has weathered the COVID-19 disruption better than many of our key trading partners. New Zealand's economy grew by 4.9 percent over the last year and outperformed most of the OECD led by our significant investment in keeping and creating jobs which the leader of the National Party disagrees with. We have record low unemployment which the Leader of the Opposition party disagrees with. What's the alternative to lift unemployment? To have people out of work? That is the most preposterous idea in the history of this Parliament.Record numbers of New Zealanders moving off a main benefit and into work; over 100000 more people employed now than 12 months earlier; our primary sector obtaining record export prices; and a construction boom underpinned by the Government's infrastructure programme—our plan as this Government has worked to keep people alive and the economy running. As I said 53 deaths over two years not 53000 not 53 before lunchtime.I just want to touch on some of the other work that—because each Minister has a work programme and I want to talk about some of the things that I'll be doing in my portfolios. The first one is Oranga Tamariki. As we know Oranga Tamariki for too long has put themselves up on a pedestal. They have been directing the state of play in communities and really what's happened is things haven't worked for our children. The future direction for Oranga Tamariki is going to put resources and decision making into the hands of the community. We have a future direction plan that will take three to five years to implement which is going to change the way communities get to look after their children. The Māori medium / kaupapa Māori education programme: I hear that the Te Rūnanga nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa are going to the Waitangi Tribunal because they don't believe that they have got their way; they want a Māori education authority and they're comparing it to the Māori Health Authority. Now one of the things I say is that the difference the big difference between the Māori Health Authority and the Māori education authority that they are wanting is a Māori Health Authority looks after the health needs of all Māori. One hundred percent of Māori across New Zealand. The Māori education authority that they are talking about will look after about five percent of Māori learners and I will never ever agree to that. If we're going to do something in Māori medium / kaupapa Māori education for Māori learners it has to be for 100 percent of our Māori children.Matariki is a holiday that is fast approaching. For the first time we get to celebrate a uniquely New Zealand Aotearoa holiday. New Zealand history in schools starts being taught later this year where the true history of New Zealand not a vanilla history of New Zealand is going to be taught. There is a lot the Government is doing."