Tamihere John: General Debates 
Tamihere John: General Debates 
[Volume:617;Page:12646] 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Associate Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 Mr Speaker e aroha ana ki a koe e te rangatira te whakaruruhau i a matau. A kei te mihi nunui ki a koutou mo nga iwi whanui i waho mo te Paremata. He aroha ki a koutou i waho. Mohio ki a koutou e te iwi whanui e tu ake au mo te mema Maori kei te tautoko te Ropu Reipa a pai koina. No reira kaua e wareware ki a matou te tipuna ratou a takoto tonu takoto tonu a takoto tonu. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
Mr Speaker I sympathise with you the one with whom we seek refuge. I extend a huge greeting in respect of the huge number outside of Parliament. The public must understand that I am actually getting up for the Maori member who is supporting the Labour Party and that is that. However we will not be forgetting them the ancestors. Lie there rest there and continue to rest there 
.] 
I want to address a number of things about leadership this afternoon in light of the fact that the Maori members did meet with the hikoi. We are the ones who go out on to the forecourt to meet with our people. In no circumstances will we ever allow our Prime Minister our leader to face off with our people in light of those circumstances and the mana of the members Maori ill behoves us ever to place our leader at risk or in difficulty. Never again will we place her at risk or in difficulty from people who have already indicated that it is good for the Prime Minister to get the bash. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Stop putting a gloss on it. 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: Mr Brownlee interjects. Ms Turei advises this House that the Prime Minister should go out into that situation. I think not. In no circumstances should a leader and a Prime Minister of this nation ever be subjected to that form of risk—to be spat on as people were doing out there today. 
If that is what Mr Brownlee wants where was he? Where was he as the National Party spokesperson on Maori? He was hiding up here with a telescope. That is where he was. He sits over on that side of the Chamber interjecting all sorts of idiotic comments over to this side of the House but he does not have the mana to go out there and front. He does not have the mana after the Don Brash attack on Maori people. Maori people are out there in large numbers not against this party or this Government but against a Parliament that year in and year out has continued to use the portal of the ability to go out into our communities to disavow our rights and to have a go at us as a people. The people—large numbers of them—are out there to protest against Parliament per se. My aunties cousins nephews and nieces who are out there still like and respect me thank the Lord but they have come down here to send a message to Parliament that they count that they have some dignity and humility and that there is integrity and credibility in our communities. 
Don Brash chooses to continue to deny that with a type of attack that has been carefully crafted by the National Party to fester race relation problems in this country. That is the problem. I make an impassioned plea to the National Party today that it is about time we started to build bridges. It is about time we started to see some leadership in this country. It is about time for those things when my boy comes home after listening to a Don Brash retort that my degree in law earned earnestly at Auckland University is a lesser degree and that I am more incompetent only because I am a Maori. When the debate shifts to that level and that extent is it any wonder that Maori people have a sense of angst and frustration? Is it any wonder that they come together outside here to have a say on an issue that has brought them together the foreshore and seabed? 
Is Hone Harawira right or is Don Brash right? Well I think both of them are wrong. We have said it in this House today and we will say it tomorrow. Huge pressures have come on Maori members—the stress the duress and the threats—but we will see them off because the legislation that this Government will table and speak on tomorrow is one of the greatest pieces of work in terms of knitting this nation together that we will ever see. When the debate goes out into my communities we will see the truth—not the passion not the emotion—of what we are endeavouring to do here which is weave our nation together rather than dividing it merely so that National can get control of$40000 million. It is about money not mana for the National Party.