Paraone Pita: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is subject to correctionParaone Pita: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 29 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2977. Text is subject to correction.]PITA PARAONE (NZ First):Tēnā koe Mr Chair tēnā anō tātou ēngari i mua i te haere tonu o tōku kōrero i te pō nei he tū wāhi poto tēnei ki te tautoko ngā kōrero i a taku tuakana a Peeni tana mihi ki a Parekura nā te mea i te wā e ora ana ko ia tētahi o ngā tangata o te ’harenei i tū kaha ana ki te kawe atu i ngā kaupapa e pā ana ki ngā take Māori.[Thank you Mr Chair and greetings again to us. But before continuing with my address tonight this is a brief call to endorse the statements by my elder kin Peeni in his tribute to Parekura because when he was alive Parekura was one person in this House who was strong on addressing policies about Māori matters.]Just by way of explanation I stand first of all to support the comments made by my elder brother Peeni Henare in terms of acknowledging the work of the late Parekura Horomia on promoting and advancing the cause of Māori as Minister of Māori Affairs. My comments are in relation to the 2013-14 financial period and I will refer to the Ministry of Māori Development. I will also touch on matters concerning the Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill and the Treaty claims.We have heard that the debt owed by this country at the moment is $85 billion. Over the past 7 years we have ended up having a deficit. I make that comment wondering why is it that the Ministry of Māori Development over a similar number of years has underspent their allocation and wonder whether or not they have been asked to contribute to reducing that debt by underspending their annual allocation. If in fact that is the case then I am very disappointed to hear that given that the very people they are set up to serve—apart from their political masters—Māori youth the elderly and the dispossessed given their needs I would have thought that the department would not have enough money to spend.I want to give you an example. During the course of the review of that department the Māori Affairs Committee heard that for the Māori wardens their budget was underspent by 10 percent. They have received the same allocation for this particular activity since 2008. And in every year the department has failed to expend the full amount and I wonder why. We asked the officials as to why this was the case. Their response was that the administration funding had not been paid out. I find it rather strange that for 7 years in a row the same budgetary item was not paid out. Hopefully as time goes on we will learn more about the reason why they had underspent.Let us look at some of the other examples where I believe that the department is having difficulty. We heard that they underwent a restructuring of their staff and the way that they would operate over the next year or so. We found that a number of experienced staff had been let go. It seemed to me that this was a clear example of allowing institutional knowledge to be lost by that department. I will say to this Committee that over the next 12 months or so we will see the effect of the loss of that institutional knowledge. The Minister when he took a short call on Treaty settlements made reference to—[Bell rung] Mr Chair?The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): No sorry the member’s allocation is completed.PITA PARAONE: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I inquired of the Chair before you—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): My apologies. There is one supplementary.PITA PARAONE: Thank you. I just wanted to make comment on the issue around the reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. The Minister made quite a statement that there had been enough consultation around the reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. I would suggest that there may have been a lot of consultation but the people were told that it was a review of the Act. The review of the Act and the reform of the Act I believe are two different matters. I am not arguing against the reform. I think the time has come for the reform of the Act but to suggest that there has been sufficient consultation then I would suggest that the people have been misled because they were told during the course of that consultation that it was going to be a review and not a reform of the Act.The other point I want to make concerns the issue around Whānau Ora. A lot of money has been expended bringing this programme up to where it is today. One of the challenges that we were advised that the ministry would have to face was ensuring that the people knew what Whānau Ora was about. I am really surprised that it has taken this long given that it was introduced 3 years ago by the former Minister of Māori Affairs and co-leader of the Māori Party at the time. I am really astounded by the fact that given the amount of money that has been allocated to Whānau Ora the ministry is still talking about ensuring that people know what this kaupapa is about. I think that some monitoring should really take place in terms of how Whānau Ora funding is being expended.Finally I want to make comment about the Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill which the ministry has a purview of responsibility for. One of the changes that has been mooted is the removal of the status of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori—the Māori Language Commission—from being a Crown entity to being just an ordinary entity. When we spoke to officials they told us that the responsibility of a Crown entity was to report to its board. The proposal under the bill is that the Māori Language Commission will be responsible to a group called Te Mātāwai. I believe that there is no change no serious change in the set-up that the commission has now and that the commission itself should retain its status as a Crown entity. We in New Zealand First will certainly be pushing for that to be retained when the bill comes before the House.I just want to conclude by saying that overall Te Puni Kōkiri appears to be doing what it was set up to do but one of the things that I believe it should have taken a lead from its previous Minister on is making more contact with the people whom it is set up to serve. Kia ora.