Okeroa Mahara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Okeroa Mahara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10967] 
MAHARA OKEROA (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 A ka tu tenei tu tuatahi kei mua i a koe ka tukuna atu he mihi rangatira ki a koe i a koe e noho mai i runga i te tunga Kaiwhakawa o te Whare Paremata nei. Mr Speaker I begin my presentation by making reference to the office you hold in this House and the acknowledgment we pay to you and your kuia. Tena koe. 
I have listened very intently over the last 2 days to this debate. In doing so I have considered myself enormously fortunate; fortunate that as part of the Labour Party I have a leader who is not only a visionary but also has the commitment the integrity and the political courage to articulate those policies that are absolutely essential with regard to the tangata whenua and the Crown in terms of their treaty partnership and the courage to go beyond mere articulation of policy and translate it into a range of very positive initiatives for Maori. I initially plan to highlight some of those initiatives and to be very positive about doing so. I have the absolute belief that without those initiatives with regard to strengthening our families our relationships with our Polynesian people and their celebration of diversity Aotearoa New Zealand would be a less pleasant place to live in. The unpleasantness I shall refer to later. 
Maori are a highly innovative people. They make a unique contribution to this country. Our contribution is vital to the successful development of this country’s economy and society—that is absolutely right. We have engaged ourselves in a programme of positiveness for our people. It ranges even to include Maori television. Although Maori television has had a chequered career and it did so under the last political regime we have had the courage to continue to develop it. Maori television is going to air this year. 
John Key 
: You hope. 
MAHARA OKEROA 
: I say to John Key that what it does is contribute to the preservation of te reo and also the promotion and development of Maori culture. It is not just about doing the haka boogie. A whole range of aspects of Maori culture are being positively promoted. Why? Because this Government is positive about developing all people in Aotearoa New Zealand under the leadership of our Prime Minister. It is going to add a further layer of rich fabric to our society. We are not only very good at playing sports as we know but also very expert in the arena of politics. 
We are going to move further on to deliberate on another issue and that is the allocation of fisheries. It has been around for a long long time. We are taking the first positive steps towards addressing it. 
I listened to someone say that there is a solution to the seabed and foreshore issue. The solution promoted by Dr Lynda Scott was that we legislate immediately. Well if that characterises the policy of the National Party with regard to the place of the treaty partner in Aotearoa all I have to say is that it is a bit like the hammer and the anvil. It has no positive outcome. It is just like what Dave Hereora was talking about—Maori seats. They have been called an anachronism. The only thing that is an anachronism is the attitude of that party in respect of political participation and the contribution of Maori seats. That is the only anachronism. Again a solution was offered by the honourable member Wayne Mapp. He adopted the same view. It is the hammer and anvil approach to our relationships between each other in Aotearoa. Well Government members are not going to do that. We choose what is the most difficult path to go down. The honourable member opposite was talking about fear before. The reason that the member’s party wants to legislate is that those members do not want to be put in a position of fear or debate or honesty or integrity. 
So we have the Maori achievements to date. Strengthening the management and governance of Maori organisations is a huge achievement. I do not want to hear someone talking about a Maori health provider losing a quarter of a million dollars. There is nothing in Maori history that could go anywhere near the debacle of the Bank of New Zealand let alone that of the board of Air New Zealand. So let us get some perspective about that. We have of course released our proposal on the foreshore and seabed for comment for discussion—and that is the polite word. Maori radio is going to go global and that means we have the ability to tune in. [ 
Interruption 
] That includes I say to Mr Key our whanaunga in Australia and anywhere else in the world because after all Maori are part of the global village now. They are not just stuck in their little kainga wearing their piupiu. We are well past that. That was in the age of the policy of assimilation that some Governments promoted and I will get back to that later. We are far beyond that. We have whanau in London Australia Europe England and America who can tune in. Brilliant! We are even trying to address very positively Maori literacy; that is part of  
Te Kawai Ora Report 
. It is excellent. It is about reading the word reading the world. We have a whole range of very very positive things to talk about. 
In terms of the Leader of the Opposition although I am very positive about our contribution I am hardly equally positive about the limp contribution that that party over there is making towards race relations. Here is a quotation: “… the voice of ignorance narrow political advantage and selfishness: the voice of Don Brash.” How is that? Let me read something else. If the political fortunes had gone another way that party would have had one of the most outstanding candidates politically and that was Hekia Parata. Here is what Hekia said in the  
Dominion Post 
 on 29 January: “I am ashamed to have stood for a party that has departed so far from its founding principles.” Here is another quotation from Wira Gardiner a good man—formerly the Maori vice-president of the National Party. This is what Wira said: “Nobody has consulted me. Don certainly never spoke to me. I think disappointment is a significant understatement. I am somewhat saddened because instead of looking forward to the 21st century we in the National Party are looking back to the 1960s and the 1950s to the assimilation policies of the past.” Those assimilation polices have effectively and spectacularly failed. Shame!