Turei Metiria: Budget Debate 
Turei Metiria: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5955] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 In my view there are two serious omissions in the Budget. The most significant omission is the failure to provide any additional funding for the Waitangi Tribunal but perhaps the Government’s recent response to the two latest tribunal reports is a clear explanation of that omission with those responses being characterised by arrogance and a dismissal of Maori views. 
The Office of Treaty Settlements has received a huge boost in funding in the Budget. It will get about $10 million more which will be directed toward pursuing direct negotiations on the Government’s terms but it is the tribunal that is best placed to give an independent assessment of the historical injustices and the Crown’s complicity in those injustices. The Green Party supports increased resources for the Waitangi Tribunal including adequate resources for claimants to prepare and present their cases and for increased transparency and accountability. That is necessary if the tribunal is to develop a diversity of models for restitution and nationally sustainable compensation over time. It is those roles and the tribunal’s independence along with its contribution of extensive research quality assessment of external research and hearings of complex legal and historical information that give the tribunal the legitimacy that is essential in such a charged area of governance. But there is no new money in this Budget for the tribunal. 
I personally am appalled that Murray Smith from United Future can stand in this House and with a straight face claim credit for the funding of the Office of Treaty Settlements. But it is not only that; he also claims credit for funding of the tribunal that does not exist. I believe that that is an example of extreme patronising arrogance. The tribunal funding this year includes a drip feed of money that was set out in last year’s Budget. So unfortunately for Murray Smith he is wrong despite his sincerity. The money that the Government has committed to treaty settlements that it often talks about is directed to its own agency not to the tribunal which advocates for a fair and just assessment of the wrongs committed in the past. The tribunal has been deserted by this Government. 
A second great omission is the total lack of support for children with special needs and with behavioural difficulties. No new funding has been provided for special education despite the Court of Appeal ruling this year that the Government had failed properly to provide for those children. That is a disgrace and a smack in the face for those families who are struggling to meet those children’s needs. 
In addition despite the rhetoric from the Government about suspensions and stand-downs no money is being directed to helping those students or the schools that have to manage and provide for those students’ needs. Suspensions and stand-downs have a huge impact on a child’s education. Research shows that the punishment generally arises out of problems to do with drugs assaults and continual misbehaviour. Some of the schools with the highest levels of suspensions and stand-downs are having to cope with extra levels of security for students are dealing with low-level drug use and are having to provide counselling and other support services to try to keep those children in school. Indeed it would not even be very expensive to provide for those schools given that the problems are concentrated in only a few schools—1.5 percent of schools are responsible for 24 percent of the suspensions and stand-downs and low-decile schools are more likely to have those problems. But this Government has paid no attention to the needs of those children and those schools which are seeking more constructive ways to manage the children’s behaviour that do not leave the students isolated demeaned and labelled as bad kids. Those children have also been deserted by this Government.