Jones Shane: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Jones Shane: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4307] 
SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairperson. Obviously I stand to speak in favour of the recommendation in the appropriations in respect of Vote Maori Affairs. It is good to see that the Ngati Hine health budget is working because although there was some physical distance between my whanaunga from Ngapuhi and the Minister and I talking very quietly up here while he was on his feet he heard part of what we said. However the part of the Ngati Hine health budget that deals with his sight needs improving because he mistakenly referred to our other Ngapuhi whanaunga Mr Simich by the wrong gender term. 
I follow on from Pita Paraone and his words about Te Puni Kokiri and this particular vote. Firstly let us bear in mind that the Maori population is comparatively speaking a youthful population. As we wander forward as a country never quite knowing where we will end up on race relations we are being dragged to the side and dragged backwards by the Opposition which has no clear sense of where it is taking the country. Unfortunately a large number of confused voters belonging to the Brethren church and other such obscure sects fell for the rhetoric. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: They didn’t vote. 
SHANE JONES 
: They did not vote but who did they fund? Did they waste their money funding a leader who today decided that because he cannot make any traction in here he will go out and insult every democratically elected local government official? I will have more to say on that later. We have a very clear policy. The policy is in relation to the advancement of our people—Maori voters; iwi—who are going forward economically speaking and are major and welcome contributors in relation to identity. That is something we have never heard from Opposition members. 
Where do they want Maori to fit in relation to our overall identity? They want them in the outhouse. They do not want them to enjoy a position of pride or a position showing forward thinking—no they want them to the side and forgotten about. Fortunately a vast number of voters saw that this was a backward divisive stigmatising negative way to think about the future which is why those members are in Opposition and long they will be there. They sought to demonise the most vulnerable members of our modern society of our modern economy and they were tossed out. 
Opposition members have been unable to recover from that mortal blow. They have fallen upon themselves. Not only are they destroying the person who thought he could idly walk from the Reserve Bank into this House and claim the top prize but also they have taken the toki to him. He is history and now they have got the mere out—no the mere is for the high chief and there are no high chiefs over there. They have taken a bit of four-by-two—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes Pita Sharples gave them a manuka stick and our voters will have much to say about that in the future. They will regret the day they gave a sliver of support to Pita Sharples who immediately raced over to that side of the House and signed an ill-fated document of which we have a copy. They seek to deny it but it will surface in good time. 
But let us go back to why this is a reasonable programme. Although it is attacked by Tau Henare and others it shows that the officials and the Minister in particular were willing to get a better return for the same amount of money. That is excellent thinking that is reflective of a very prudential approach to using the available amount of money. 
While members opposite rail about wastefulness the Minister has come with a programme that is a reprioritisation. The first one is rawa. Rawa means resources but rawa also means to choke and Opposition members are choking on it. The second thing is whakamana which means to uplift and to ensure that people enjoy self-esteem and are held in a position of esteem which is something that members opposite have failed to advance. Fortunately the result of the election demonstrates that they have much more heartache to come. 
Matauranga is the name of our vessel. It is the third point. Matauranga knowledge is the final reprioritisation. Who with a sliver of intelligence could argue against the Minister’s fine reprioritisation in giving knowledge and education top billing? Not only is it education that will enrich the whole country but we must focus on young people. By and large they will be a hugely more important proportion of New Zealand’s working population in the future. Knowledge will ensure that they are not trapped in the Kahui end of town. Rather they will enjoy the fruits of bilingualism they will have enterprise and industriousness and they will be supported. That is why the manaaki tauira reprioritisation was very clever thinking. Mr Ron Mark had a fantastic success for the Wairarapa landless natives or whatever they are called in that part of the country. They have a fantastic scholarship scheme; they do not need to fall back on the taxpayers and get further money. 
So the manaaki tauira was reprioritised to deal with the third-formers the fourth-formers the fifth-formers and the sixth-formers because unless we prevent them from slipping through the cracks there is no point in just growing the number of university students. 
 So I say to all the people who unwisely unfairly attacked the Minister over the reprioritisation of manaaki tauira that we are investing in the area of secondary school students which is where unfortunately we have all inherited an enduring problem. Nigh on 30 percent of all Maori school leavers continue to leave without adequate qualifications. I say to our Maori and Pakeha colleagues on the other side of the Chamber that such a statistic must not be used as it was in the recent election as a device to divide people. We should all join in common purpose to ensure that young Pacific Islanders and in particular young Maori men are not only adequately skilled but are endowed with the right education so they do not represent a social problem of the future but are a key economic ingredient. 
I think it is a very sad day whenever we proceed to talk about Maori affairs or race relations. The standard response from the Opposition is a very negative one. It is based on a rather devious and quite sinister agenda which is to choose people who can be demonised and stigmatised and make them and the population feel that they are responsible for a whole host of amorphous ill-defined woes. I am happy to say that this approach—not only through Te Puni Kokiri but at a wider level throughout the Government—is challenging that and is going to stand against that. It was a bleak day when our political opponents chose a type of politics—I understand that it is called wedge politics—to drive a wedge between good keen hardworking Kiwis and tried to convince everyone that Maori are the authors of their own problems that Maori have nothing constructive to contribute and that the sooner that both the Treaty and Maori are moved by them to the margin the sooner the country will be enriched. That failed; it always will fail. The Minister has brought a very clever reprioritisation forward. Admittedly the budget is not as large as the Maori Party would like but there are significant resources available through other Government departments to deal with the enduring problem of Maori under-achievement. Kia ora tatou. 
Vote Maori Affairs agreed to.