Turia Tariana: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Turia Tariana: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1075] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Last week the nation held its breath as a young man went missing presumed drowned. The moment of his discovery was marvelled at right across the country as we appreciated the deep faith and courage in his story. It was a pure Maori moment: his whanau gifting and calling to Tangaroa to return their taonga; the young man drawing on the love and faith of his whanau and his God to sustain him during his ordeal. The nation stood in awe of the quiet assurance of that whanau which believed in its own power and which believed in a spiritual power—which believed. The Maori Party seeks nothing less than that for any other family in this land: the faith in ourselves to believe in our own potential. Ma te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai tatou. In unity we have strength. If we can revive the ability of families to believe in their own potential we will be invincible. 
We have seen that potential just over a week ago with the new spirit that has embraced the nation regarding Waitangi Day. Of the 765 people surveyed in a nationwide poll 77 percent thought Waitangi Day should remain New Zealand’s national day. The increasing significance of Waitangi to New Zealanders must put to rest any grumblings about the need to create a new national day or indeed any unfounded fears of scrapping and unrest. The obvious presence of an independent Maori voice in this House serves to remind us all that diversity and unity can work well together. Waitangi Day celebrates that diversity and unity—that sense of kotahitanga that is possible if we demonstrate respect for each other. And it is respect founded on knowledge of the unique contributions that we each make to the state of the nation. 
It has not been an easy journey to get to this point. The realities of racism inequalities poverty political expedience and power imbalance have left their mark. We cannot un-know that reality but we can appreciate the resilience of tangata whenua to endure. It is a resilience built on histories as voyagers in the Pacific who had the intellectual capacity to accumulate knowledge to make adjustments to change and to develop essentials for survival. Under vastly different climatic conditions our tupuna learnt how to thrive in this land how to guarantee protection and sustenance and then how to record for future generations the whakapapa of their environment. 
Last weekend I attended a hui where a young girl and her brother of Indian-Maori descent astounded us all with a waiata that traversed geographical and social histories in a technically complex performance that would exceed any National Certificate of Educational Achievement standard. The knowledge of nga taonga tuku iho demonstrates a vast capacity for sharing experiences through waiata whaikorero moteatea and karakia. 
The entrepreneurial legacy of our matua tupuna came to the fore recently at the international entrepreneurship research exchange. The  
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 
 released last week revealed that Maori are the world’s third most entrepreneurial people. In fact an incredible one in three Maori aged 35 to 44 years are business entrepreneurs just as Maori were in the 1860s before the Land Wars. A particularly interesting result was that 18 percent of Maori entrepreneurs claimed to be using the very latest technology compared with 10 percent of the general population. Let us just imagine the impact we could make if all homes had access to computers let alone the world of the web. 
The birth of Maori Television the resounding popularity of iwi radio and the impact of our Maori artists in film and design provide an abundance of examples of the creativity of today’s voyagers. Success such as  
Two Cars One Night 
 an 11-minute black and white wonder earned director Taika Waititi an Oscar nomination and Best Short Film award in Berlin Aspen Melbourne and Hamburg. We should not be surprised at those results. One has only to consider the multitasking managerial skills required on the marae to see that expertise in abundance. The Time Use Survey reported that Maori were more likely to do unpaid work for people and organisations outside their own household than non-Maori. That huge investment of unpaid time and skill is given without question. 
Of course it is one thing to be talented to be successful to be world class—and it is quite another to be able to capitalise on that. Only 37 percent of Maori entrepreneurial start-ups survive 3½ years compared with 62 percent of the general population. Why is it that those world-class entrepreneurs lack the sustainable support to get out there and make a mark on the world? We must be bold as a nation and invest in our future. Sitting in the wings is a huge pool of talent. This House should be aware of the impact of a non-profit group of young leaders calling themselves the Advancement of Maori Opportunity or “AMO”. Part of the Advancement of Maori Opportunity programme includes export opportunities for Maori exporters and businesses through indigenous networks. It promotes leadership through its Maori Ambassadors Programme which has seen many young Maori policy advisers tax consultants environmental analysts solicitors parents and even an obstetric registrar share their skills with other nations. 
There has never been a better time to be reaching across the globe for those international connections. The Maori Party celebrated the triumph of Aymara Indian Evo Morales who was elected as Bolivia’s first indigenous President. We admired the remarkable rise in political influence of indigenous peoples throughout Latin America. The voiceless of Bolivia have been given a voice. We have celebrated the victory of a man of the people Oscar Manutahi Temaru elected President of the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Moorea. 
In Aotearoa too we saw in our recent election the momentum of the indigenous voice with a turnout of electors on the Maori roll rise up to 67 percent—10 points higher than at the 2002 election. The recent election was a watershed for our people. Seventy percent of Maori voters surveyed in a study by the Chief Electoral Office followed the results on election night with 97 percent of them following the results on television. We know that the same hunger for political influence is a driving force for Maori as we prepare for the Maori electoral option kicking off on 3 April. 
Tangata whenua are demanding an independent voice—a voice for transformation a voice that is kaupapa-based a compelling voice. It is a voice that has been nurtured over some 25 years through the resilience and passion of more than 60000 kohanga reo graduates. Ko te tamaiti te rangatira mo apopo—our children are the leaders of tomorrow. Today I honour those kaumatua those koroua and kuia who nourished a Maori movement of change who fought to keep our language alive who believed in the kaupapa and who led the way in turning around an education system in order to ensure that our mokopuna thrive in the language and tikanga of our ancestors. The voice of transformation under kura kaupapa whare kura and wananga has assumed the validity and legitimacy of Maori language and culture. It is a voice that articulates our aspirations as central to our cultural well-being. 
We are planning for our future—a future of enormous growth and prosperity of our cultural assets. Like our voyaging tupuna our sights are set on the horizons. Our past is our present and our future. In my electorate the Raukawa Trustees have a 25-year tribal development strategy known as Te Wakatipuranga Rua Mano. The strategy enforced that Maori language is a taonga that people are our greatest resource that the marae is the principal home of the iwi and the principle of rangatiratanga. It is about vision it is about commitment and it is about belief. It is about people power. Much of those visions have come from whanau who have dared to dream. Some have been supported by the Government and some have not. The Maori Party will continue to ask “Why not?” when so many of those ideas are of such benefit to the nation and we must invest in potential. We see whanau taking small steps to improve health and well-being or hapu looking at wind turbines or solar panels to create an environmentally friendly marae environment. 
We are proud that our nation is slowly but surely developing a deeper respect for the distinctive identities of all cultural histories and practices of all peoples of Aotearoa. That is what it means to walk together on our pathway forward. We are the designers of our own destiny. Tangata whenua throughout Aotearoa are flourishing in their expression of an authentic voice. In doing so we seek to grow the mana of Maori promote the diversity of Aotearoa and support the restoration of strength trust and confidence in all people who call this land home. 
Waiata