8. Crown/Māori Relations—PrioritiesHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) to the Minister for Crown/Māori RelationsCrown/Māori Relations—Priorities8. Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) to the Minister for Crown/Māori Relations: What are his priorities for the Crown/Māori Relations portfolio?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Crown/Māori Relations): As the Minister my priority is to strengthen and grow the relationship and partnership between the Crown and Māori now and into the future. An announcement on the final scope of the portfolio will be made soon.Hon Christopher Finlayson: What is his understanding of the term Crown" in the phrase "Crown/Māori Relations"?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The Government.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Sorry what was that?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The Government.Hon Christopher Finlayson: I couldn't hear it.SPEAKER: The Government.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: The Government.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Well has it been a priority since he became the Minister to ensure that State-owned enterprises Crown research institutes and Crown entities are aware of their obligation to contribute to a positive Crown/Māori relationship and if so what precisely has he done?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: What precisely we have done is go around the country holding engagement huis with Māori and anybody who is involved in those organisations that he spoke about was welcome to attend.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Has it been a priority since he became Minister to work out what his role in Government is and if so what does he do?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: An announcement will be made very shortly about the scope of the portfolio and let me say I spent some two months engaging with Māori all across the country. They're very happy with the approach of the Government. One of the big things that the previous Government did wrong was that they thought consultation with Māori involved meeting with 73 iwi leaders three or four times a year when the feedback we've received from across the country is that we need to actually—[Interruption] SPEAKER: Order! Order! I'm going to interrupt the member. The rest of this answer is going to be heard in silence. I think that there are some interesting aspects to that reaction.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted one of the mistakes that the previous Government made was thinking that consultation with Māori was restricted to about 73 iwi leaders when what we were told—the feedback we received from Māori across the country—was that we should be engaging with all Māori. It's consistent with article 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi which says "Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangatira ki nga hapu—ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga". The words there that were most important were "nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani"—all of the people of New Zealand of whom in 1840 99 percent were Māori.Hon Christopher Finlayson: What particular policies and programmes has he initiated in his portfolio in the 10 months since he became the Minister?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: There's been quite a lot of work. Let me start to rattle a few off: working with kōhanga reo to sort out their claim working with wānanga to sort out issues that they've had and working with various iwi on matters that the previous Government stuffed up—just as an example.Hon Christopher Finlayson: Was his role as chair of the Labour Māori caucus good preparation for his work in the portfolio and if so does he think his experience in "organising the feeds while we had a yarn" is being put to good use now that he's the Minister?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: No because in our engagement huis there are officials who organise the feeds and they were actually very nice thank you very much."