Okeroa Mahara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Okeroa Mahara: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:606;Page:3467] 
MAHARA OKEROA (NZ Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Ko toku nei tu tuatahi he mihi aroha atu ki a ratou ra e piupiu ai te rau o te kawakawa mai i te wa e whaka kapi mai tenei pouwhare o te motu nei tae noa mai ki te whakatuwhera ano i tenei wa i roto i runga i nga ra e rua. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
Firstly I stand to pay a tribute of sadness to all those who passed away in the period that this illustrious House has been in recess up to the time it re-opened 2 days ago 
.]  
I stand here today proud to be a member of a Government that demonstrates both stability and strong leadership. I ask that honourable member not to go away as I want to comment on and analyse what she said. All that I can say is encapsulated in a phrase which is that I thought it was a dance of verbal desperation. We understand that Georgina te Heuheu the only Maori member on the National bench is over there as part of that party. In a way I say aroha atu matou ki a koe. [ 
we pity you 
] I am pleased to be part of a Labour - Progressive Coalition Government that is committed to the well-being of all New Zealanders and that recognises little people and gives voice to the voiceless. It is a Government that is prepared to ensure that the democratic processes and procedures enable all its citizens to participate in and to contribute to their communities if they so wish and is a Government that is prepared to look at the structural impediments to that and remove them if necessary or alternatively to create more liberating and participatory institutions and systems.  
Once again we have been reminded by the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Helen Clark of the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi and of the importance of having a well-educated informed and knowledgable public that can participate in informed discourse and debate. I look forward to that. During the time I have been here in the House I have listened to uninformed and ill-informed debate from a member who was once the whip of the New Zealand First Party and who made some disparaging remarks about our two whips who will be here for the whole term. Treaty education is essential to the smooth running of our society. We cannot continue to be subjected to the emotive and ill-informed rantings of the current temporary captain of the National Party. He is a man who in an act of counter-transference appears to be holding the Treaty of Waitangi responsible for the division and the disunity within his own party. It is little wonder that our people are getting browned off.  
I have just learnt that the temporary captain of the National team has talents that were previously unrecognised. I suppose in some societies they call it the third eye but in our society we call it the gift of matakite which means the ability to foresee. For example Bill English has stated that this coalition Government is a three-term Government although the election is at least 30 months away. On the other hand which leader of a party concedes defeat before a contest takes place? Does that mean my interpretation should be that quitters never win and winners never quit but that those who never win and never quit are idiots? Is that how I should interpret that? Sitting around and lying in wait are a number of heavyweight wannabe captains who must be girding their loins in glee and anticipation. The Rt Hon Winston Peters’ smile has a gloss more brilliant than his normal glow of confidence. It has been demonstrated that the leader of the Opposition could have damaged himself as he attempted to gerrymander a caucus vote to enable him to box his way out of a paper bag that has enveloped him—a big brown paper bag that is also known to pack a punch.  
We have been subjected to the brain-damaged bleatings of the leader of the remnants of the National Party who describes any attempt to redress inequity or injustice as apartheid. His use of that word is inappropriate. That does not bother him; he is more interested in appealing to the insecure and the ill-informed and in strengthening his very tenuous hold on his captaincy. What a sad commentary it is on us as politicians that people have to appeal—and I suggest members over there on the Opposition benches listen to this—to base human instincts in a desperate attempt to cling to power.  
Bill English seems to have forgotten that it was a previous National Government that supported the establishment of kohanga reo when our people identified a solution to a need. Was that an act of apartheid? No it was not. It was a recognition underfunded though it was by that Government of a need to support a solution to a problem identified by Maori. It was support of a “for Maori by Maori” initiative—an initiative that we in this Labour - Progressive Coalition Government continue to support because of its positive outcomes and its demonstration that people are able to meet their own needs. The support for kohanga reo continues to be the recognition of tangata whenua world views policy systems and practices.  
The Maori world is tired of the myth of privilege that has been peddled around by members of this House every time that a Maori initiative is supported. Where is the privilege in having disproportionately high rates of unemployment school failure poor housing poor health and incarceration? If those are indicators of privilege then I am sure our people will give up those privileges for the burden of full employment academic success adequate housing good health and freedom from incarceration. That myth of privilege is what indigenous people like the Australian Aboriginals the Hawaiians and the First Nation peoples of America and throughout the world have always had to endure—that is all peoples who have been colonised. 
I now turn to the contribution that Maori have made to our economy. A recently published report by Te Puni Kokiri and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research identified the benefits of the Maori economy to the New Zealand economy. It stated that Maori production contributes $1.9 billion per year and about $826 million in operating surpluses. But are we complacent about that? Absolutely no way!  
Finally I refer to something that I saw on television from the very astute constitutional lawyer Mai Chen. She stated that this Government has been upfront and totally transparent in putting its policy initiatives before Aotearoa to be monitored and evaluated in terms of its progress. That takes heaps of courage good teamwork and good team support from the members of this Government. What do they have over there in the Opposition? Those things have all disappeared. The Opposition members have no fresh ideas no leadership and no future. Kia ora mai tatou.