9. Question No. 9—Ethnic CommunitiesMELISSA LEE (National) to the Minister for Ethnic CommunitiesQuestion No. 9—Ethnic Communities9. MELISSA LEE (National) to the Minister for Ethnic Communities: Does she stand by her statement that The Government is committed to the wellbeing of New Zealand's ethnic communities"?Hon JENNY SALESA (Minister for Ethnic Communities): I stand by my full statement that the Government is committed to the wellbeing of New Zealand's ethnic communities and we are providing ongoing support to our Muslim families and brothers and sisters in the wake of the 15 March terror attacks. I'm proud that as a Government we have made an eightfold increase in the Ethnic Communities Development Fund to $4.2 million per year for direct funding of community groups; driven the largest expansion of the Office of Ethnic Communities in its history to ensure the Government works on the ground right alongside our ethnic communities; provided around $1.4 million immediately after the March 15 attacks to Muslim community groups and projects activities that built connections for Muslim and non-Muslim communities through the Ethnic Communities Development Fund; co-hosted with the Prime Minister imams and Muslim leaders from all mosques across Aotearoa New Zealand; personally hosted 12 dialogues with Muslim women and Muslim youth and community leaders across New Zealand to develop a plan to address their key concerns; worked to deliver an employment action plan for ethnic communities which includes tackling barriers to employment for ethnic communities; co-hosted with the Prime Minister a meeting with faith and interfaith leaders in Auckland. I also hosted four faith and interfaith hui in Auckland Wellington Christchurch and Dunedin to discuss ways of improving social inclusion attended by over 300—SPEAKER: Order! Order! At the risk of appearing insensitive that answer is far too long.Melissa Lee: Does she agree with the comments of Narendra Bhana of the Auckland Indian Association that "Shane Jones' comments on [the] Indian students are racist. Period."; if not why not?Hon JENNY SALESA: It is my responsibility as Minister for Ethnic Communities to ensure social inclusion in Aotearoa New Zealand. You would have heard from the list of things that I actually stated before how the Minister for Ethnic Communities and the Office of Ethnic Communities are addressing social inclusion. The Prime Minister has already said that his comments are both "wrong" and "loose". He was not speaking on behalf of the Government and as Minister for Ethnic Communities I can only be responsible for my own comments. When it comes to supporting ethnic communities there is no question that our Government supports ethnic communities strongly.Melissa Lee: Are statements such as "I think the number of students that have come from India have ruined many of those institutions." and Indians "have no legitimate expectations in my view to bring your whole village to New Zealand" representative of the Government's commitment to the wellbeing of New Zealand's ethnic communities?Hon JENNY SALESA: I do not agree. I strongly disagree with those comments but as I say the Prime Minister has already been clear on this. The comments that were made were absolutely wrong and it is not clear to me whether my responsibility as Minister for Ethnic Communities extends to being the "racist police". I will be held accountable for my own comments but I am not actually responsible for other people's comments.Melissa Lee: How does the Government expect to achieve its "plan to build healthier safer and more connected communities" for multi-ethnic New Zealanders when the Minister for Ethnic Communities and her office have no influence over the racist statements of other Ministers?Hon JENNY SALESA: As I said earlier on the Office of Ethnic Communities and I as Minister for Ethnic Communities do not agree with those statements. There is a lot of work that we are doing. In terms of the reports when we went and consulted with Muslim communities we have come through with a lot of things that we would need to do to improve in a lot of areas. In terms of what we heard from the communities they said that when they come through from overseas—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member did address the question. The honourable Michael Wood—sorry Michael Wood. Premature; I apologise.Michael Wood: I thought it was OK Mr Speaker. Does the Minister reject all statements of a discriminatory nature including references to two-for-one ratios in respect of different ethnicities and comparing Indian students to fridges?Hon JENNY SALESA: Absolutely. I reject all of those statements.Melissa Lee: Has the Minister for Ethnic Communities personally asked the Minister for Regional Economic Development to apologise to Indian New Zealanders for his comments; if not why not?Hon JENNY SALESA: The Prime Minister has had a lot of conversations with the Minister for Regional Economic Development and I have had a conversation with the Minister myself but it is actually up to all of us as individuals to be held to the statements that we make."