Harawira Hone: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:2939] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 In Helen Clark’s 1984 biography she joked that if she were elected the whole of our society would change overnight. Well today we live in a society where the importance of parents children and whanau is constantly being eroded by Government policies—policies that have deprived 230000 children simply because their parents cannot work that have ruthlessly cut the lifeline of PlunketLine which many mothers and babies rely on and that punish 63000 Maori families by denying them the benefits of the Working for Families package. Twenty years on the Prime Minister’s joke has worn thin. 
A month or so back Labour’s Maori caucus called a media briefing to promote the Working for Families package to the media. Unfortunately for that caucus though one of the journalists was so underwhelmed by the presentation that he was moved to say to us as he passed by that no one could explain how many Maori would benefit from the package. The fact that Labour felt the need to trot out its Maori MPs to sell a package that denies nearly 100000 Maori children the support they so desperately need is an indictment on Labour’s discriminatory policies and is a sad commentary on those Maori Labour MPs who willingly gave their support to that denial. 
Members should make no mistake—the Maori Party will support this bill because we want people who are self-employed to be able to receive paid parental leave we see parents as being critical players in a stable society and we have always believed in the importance of financial security for whanau. We also support this bill because it will benefit Maori women who make up an increasing proportion of Maori with jobs. However like John Tamihere I too wonder what adverse effects the fall-off in employment for Maori men may be having on whanau hapu iwi Maoridom and society itself. 
A recent Ministry of Economic Development report revealed that Maori women are still very under-represented amongst the self-employed. It also noted that the gains Maori women had achieved in the workforce were just as quickly being worn away through a lowering of their quality of life. In fact Maori women interviewed in the report admitted that they had spread themselves too thinly and were having to wear too many other hats. 
One of our biggest concerns is the promotion of employment initiatives without the role of the whanau having been properly recognised protected and enhanced. Whanau is what counts. We count the cost of parents being forced to work at low-income jobs and we count the cost to society of a generation being brought up without the support that we enjoyed as children. 
Economically the benefits of self-employment are a significant feature of Maori business success. In fact a report to Hui Taumata stated that businesses owned by self-employed Maori are valued at over $5.7 billion. That is an impressive statistic in anyone’s estimation. Those assets constitute 63 percent of all Maori-owned commercial assets and are largely invested in tertiary industries such as wholesale and retail trade property transport social services hospitality and tourism. We commend those Maori business people for their energy commitment and willingness to take risks. 
However despite that success other factors need to be considered particularly those relating to how to improve workers’ work-life balance. Is paid parental leave designed to support child health and child development or is it designed to keep women hooked into a paid workforce? What is being done to prevent poor health in mothers and their babies caused by mothers feeling the need to return to the workforce earlier and earlier? What progress has the Government made in eliminating poverty? 
The Maori Party is particularly aware that for many Maori a return to work is increasingly becoming an economic necessity in a society where profit has become more important than the needs of its members. If our society is to truly value the importance of parents we should look to provide support for parents in casual work and for those forced to hold more than one job as well as to provide paid parental leave for self-employed parents. Furthermore if we truly valued the importance of parents we would also give special consideration to the needs of Maori and Pasifika who are the people most affected by any changes to employment legislation. That is especially so given the fact that the Polynesian populations are growing more rapidly than others because of a higher fertility rate—go whanau go—and will make up an increasingly large component of the workforce including the self-employed. 
Another issue that has been brought to our attention is the legal status of matua whangai who are the caregivers of children—often their own mokopuna—whom they have chosen not to adopt. Those people have been excluded from recognition under this bill. Whangai are an integral part of Maori society. Indeed our party co-leader Tariana Turia has a whangai of her own as do I. Neither of us has bothered to adopt our mokopuna but we simply raise them in the time-honoured Maori fashion. Including whangai in legislation is a vexing issue for Maori and is one that Maori are still not completely resolved on. Suffice it to say that the Maori Party finds it difficult to accept that those who take care of children under any terms may be denied support because of their different cultural practices. 
In conclusion Maori have a saying: “He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata.” It means: “What is the most important thing in the world? It is people it is people it is people.” We in this House are those who would have a say in the governance of our nation. We must guard against allowing economic pressure to force us to devalue the significance of parents and whanau. We have an obligation to hold fast to the importance of those who gave us life who shaped and nurtured us who are the inspiration for what we are today and who gave us the values upon which we base our decisions. The Maori Party will support this bill but we urge all members of this House to give further thought to protecting and enhancing whanau for whanau are the heartbeat of the nation and parents are the heart.