Sio Hon Aupito WilliamAUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): In this week the Cook Islands Language Week may I say kia orana tatou katoatoa to all members in the Committee. In reference to Vote Pacific Peoples I note that the report has additional money for this Budget. It is seen as an increase of $750000 per year. Sadly if one looks through that report and looks at what the Ministry for Pacific Peoples intends with that increasing funding it does not have any support for Pasifika languages and that concerns me.I want to make it quite clear that I am not necessarily pointing my finger at the honourable Minister Mr Alfred Ngaro because he became a Minister only last year. But I am saying to this Government: why is it that this Government is so determined to not support Pasifika languages that even in this year's Budget not one dollar—zilch money—is allocated to support them? In fact if you divide the additional money $750000 per year amongst the 350000 Pasifika people that works out to only $2.15—$2.15. You cannot even get a bag of chips at $2.15. I want to state that I am not pointing the finger at this Minister alone but certainly he has responsibility to step up and either support Pasifika languages or follow what his colleagues in the National Party are saying.I want to say that in 2008 when National came into power it cut all references and strategies supporting Pacific student bilingualism from the Pasifika Education Plan. In 2009 this Government forced the then Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs to abandon its plan to publish in its statement of intent for two pilot bilingual schools.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to interrupt the member and that is to remind him that we are currently considering the Estimates and that is something that is forward-looking. He can make passing reference to things from the past or he can say that things should be in there but to focus on previous cuts is not appropriate.AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: I appreciate that Mr Chairman; it is just that my style has always been to provide some context. None the less let me just provide for the performance improvement framework review by the ministry in May of 2017. You will find that in this report the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs is saying that the new May 2017 strategic direction drops the ministry's commitment to Pacific languages policy drops the ministry's commitment to its Pacific languages framework and drops the ministry's commitment to language weeks and language rejuvenation in favour—this is what the report says—of moving from language to culture so that we can be more aligned with the New Zealand - born demographics and furthermore for communities increasingly to take a hands-on role in the delivery of Pacific language weeks.Pacific language weeks were started by the communities anyway but this Government—in an effort to try to make it look as if it was doing something—decided to get behind them. Now it is going to drop them—now it is going to drop support. International best evidence shows that three generations is the time that minority languages among local-born populations can survive. If this Government does not get behind Pacific languages—and in this report there is failure to show any support for them—then Pasifika languages will be lost in the years ahead.Forward-looking again in the years ahead it will be the islands of Niue and the Cook Islands that will suffer the most. At least with Samoa and Tonga we continue to bring in cohorts from the Pacific through the Samoan quota and the Pacific access quota who speak those languages. But for Niuean and Cook Islands communities that is not the case. I want to put that on the ground and say to the Minister the Hon Alfred Ngaro—a person who speaks Cook Island himself—that in this environment this could be one of your legacy tasks: to show that you care about the languages and to not simply follow what the National Government has said because $750000 with nothing allocated for languages—