Davis Kelvin; Mallard TrevorGENERAL DEBATEHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. The Opposition says that they believe in equality that Māori should be treated the same as all other New Zealanders. And do you know what? There isn't a Māori who disagrees. That's what we've been calling for for over 180 years. We've been wanting equal education outcomes. We've been wanting equal employment outcomes. We've been wanting equal health outcomes. We've been wanting equal housing outcomes. It would be nice if we could live as long as non-Māori and enjoy our superannuation for as long as non-Māori given we too paid taxes for our entire working lives although I hear that Shane Reti wants us to be happy that we don't die in our 30s as we did 182 years ago at the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He and his party's top aspiration for Māori is for us to be grateful that we are alive.Equality means that we should start on the same playing field and that we should all have the same shot but history has meant we don't start on the same playing field. There is neither equality nor equity in Aotearoa and the Opposition's goal to slash and burn the Ministry of Māori Development the Office for Māori Crown Relations the Ministry for Women the Human Rights Commission the winter energy payment and the fees-free scheme are all examples of agencies or policies designed to create equity for those who haven't benefited by a system historically designed and propped up by and for the benefit of predominantly privileged Pākehā men. The Opposition want to protect the status quo because the status quo is their system that looks after their needs and they like to think that if only more people were like them all the world's problems would fade way. They conveniently overlook the fact that their wealth their privilege and their authority were built off the backs of other people's misery and the entrenched inequality across generations.So my tupuna four great-grandfathers back was a rangatira who signed He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and at that time he was a businessman who was in the hospitality and entertainment industry such as it was back in the day. He was the owner-operator of two alehouses. He had market-sized gardens that fed the hapū. He collected customs duties off trading and whaling ships that came into the Bay of Islands. He was setting his hapū my hapū up to be productive and successful both socially and in commerce. He signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the mistaken belief that his valued possessions and resources would be his for ever. But that was a lie. His property rights were forgotten. He was told he couldn't collect the customs duties; only the Crown could. His pā and gardens were torched. He was arrested and imprisoned without trial or charges. He was told he couldn't operate in the hospitality space because he needed to be licensed but all of his means of revenue were confiscated. He was a chief who was made destitute by the system that created intergenerational poverty and inequity. He was made to relocate to a small area of the Bay of Islands. The pā that was torched and confiscated was recently sold for millions of dollars privately.His descendants who could have had lives of prosperity if Te Tiriti o Waitangi had been honoured now number in the tens of thousands and I would estimate that 80 percent of them live on the breadline. The Opposition fail to acknowledge that their prosperity was made off the back of my whānau's misery. My hapū in the day were left with nothing. They could have done with a Ministry of Māori Development to help them get back on their feet. They could have done with Te Arawhiti the Office for Māori Crown Relations because I can tell you at that point the relationship between the Māori and the Crown was pretty sour. They could have done with the winter energy payment because they were made homeless when their pā was razed to the ground because they were made homeless at the start of winter. They could have done with the Human Rights Commission because their human rights were horribly violated and as most of us are a product of our upbringing the lack of equality through the generations has led to gross inequity.SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member's time has expired.