Henare PeeniPEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Ā tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Tuatahi māku ka noho ahau ki roto i Te Reo Māori. Ka tangi apakura tēnei ki tōku whaea. Kua tau te kapua pōuri ki runga i Te Whare o Te Kīngitanga ki tōku whaea ki a Tōmairangi Paki kua ngaro atu ki Te Pō. E tangi ana tēnei ki a koe otirā ki a koutou. Ka tāpae atu ko te matenga o tōku tupuna a Pā Hēnare Tate ka ngaro atu i te rua kōiwi o ngā mātua o ngā tupuna i te rā nei. Nā ka tāpae atu ko taku tupuna a Lou Tana i ngaro atu i te ata nei ki roto i a au ō Ngāti Hine—koutou o Te Pō haere haere! Ka whakahokia mai ngā rārangi kōrero me ngā kaupapa o te wā ki tēnei Whare ō tātou tēnā koutou katoa.[And so my thanks to you Mr Speaker. The first thing for me is to remain speaking in the Māori language. I mourn keenly for my auntie. The cloud of darkness has descended upon the house of the Kīngitanga; Aunt Tōmairangi Paki has gone to the void. I grieve for you and indeed for you collectively. I add the death to that of my ancestor Pā Hēnare Tate who is being buried today. Lou Tana a grandparent of mine lost from within me of Ngāti Hine this morning—you collectively of the void depart farewell go forth! And so I bring the focus of my contribution and relevant matters of the moment back to this House of ours; I commend you all.]Just first of all I wanted to pay my respects to some of the losses endured by Māoridom in the past few days. I farewell those who have departed and now I come back to some of the losses Māoridom has suffered in the world of the living. I am actually referring to the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill which was debated strongly last night with a lot of passion around particular parts. Those are parts carved out by the Māori Party.One of those in particular is about Mana Whakahono ā Rohe—it was a bit of a mouthful for a few of the members to say last night. Mana Whakahono ā Rohe—trying to declare a space for Māori involvement and Māori participation in the new proposed resource management legislation. Yet upon further inspection after we had pulled the words apart and looked deeper into the meanings of the clauses in that particular bill we found then that actually it has not done much at all. Actually what it does do for most parts is isolate and in fact exclude some tribal authorities: (1) those who do not have the resources to be able to engage with local authorities to organise Mana Whakahono ā Rohe and also (2) other recognised tribal authorities. In that respect I am talking about urban Māori—urban Māori. They are recognised as a tribal authority.In fact the census data tells us that urban Māori are one of the largest tribes in New Zealand—behind Ngāpuhi who funnily enough were not included in much of the debate and conversation from the Māori Party and from the National Government in the debate on the bill last night. That is a big concern (1) because I represent urban Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau and (2) because I am of Ngāpuhi descent—the largest tribe in this country. The Māori Party has claimed to carve out these rights for Māori. First of all is Mana Whakahono ā Rohe. The second one is around GM—genetically modified crops.The word crops" it is an interesting one. To advise my debate my contribution today I read Wai 262 a claim taken to the Waitangi Tribunal a number of years ago. Actually the recommendations from Wai 262 have not yet been addressed by this Government. The Māori Party is carving out a space here for the exclusion of genetically modified crops yet has not properly defined what that means. If it had only looked at Wai 262 and used the technical mātauranga Māori that you will find in Wai 262 I think it may have changed the words in that particular part.I think about the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill and I think: what are the concessions? What are the actual concessions that the Māori Party is getting for our people? I need only look over some of the statistics to point some of those out. The Māori unemployment rate is twice the national average. A $1 billion prison forecast by this Government for our people. Why? Because we know Māori make up large numbers of the prison population. What else is there? Cuts to the health system of which I am sure the Hon Annette King knows a lot more about than I do. What else have we seen? Plummeting Māori homeownership rates. These are all important factors that I think actually measure the success of Māori in today's world—important factors that tell us whether or not we are actually succeeding. It is not just about the money that you might secure for something—it is what it means on the ground.In closing my contribution I am reminded of a saying my grandfather used to say. He used to say: "Ki te tara o tetahi me te poaka ka hari te poaka ka paru koe."["If you roll around with the pig the pig will be happy and you will be dirty."]"Son there are only two things that will come about by rolling around with a pig: the pig will be happy and you will end up dirty.""