Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): Ā tuatahi e tika ana ki te huri i ō tātau whakaaro ki taku tuahine kātahi anō ka hinga i roto i Te Tai Rāwhiti nō reira e te tuahine Heeni: moe mai moe mai moe mai rā!Ki a koe e Te Māngai ā ngā mihi ki a koe i roto i tō tūru hou pai ana ki te kite atu i a koe. Ā tekau mā rima ngā tau mai i te wā mutunga i kōrero au i roto i Te Whare nei; nōku te hōnore mō taku hokinga mai.[So firstly it is apt that we turn our thoughts to my sister who has passed away just now at the East Coast therefore to you the sister Heeni: sleep slumber and rest there indeed!And so to you Mr Speaker acknowledgments to you in your new seat it is so nice to see you. It has been 15 years since the last time I spoke in this House; the honour is mine for my return.]It's been 15 years since I've had a bit of a kōrero in the House so it's great to be back. It's appropriate today that I salute our Māori caucus—a Māori caucus that has done the business despite all the lies and all the stories from the Opposition on the other side.Mr SPEAKER: No. No. No.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: No? Got that wrong sir?Mr SPEAKER: Yeah. Not lies if you're talking about people who are currently in the House.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Oh stories—all the stories sir. All the stories that have come from the Opposition about this wonderful Māori caucus over the last few years. Despite all this nonsense we cleaned up in the election—13 Māori representatives—13 Māori representatives: seven Māori seats four list seats and two general seats. You've got to ask the question why. Why did we clean up? Because we concentrated on the issues that resonate with our people: housing health education—core issues for our people; not goobledegook stuff like tino rangatiratanga nonsense that was being spouted out in an independent Māori party that the National Party talked about. The nonsense that they talked about that you could get Māori independence sitting at the table and all you were getting were crumbs and the National Party were giving tax cuts to their rich mates. No sir we concentrated on the issues.You can't expect your people to support nonsense. I am proud of what we did. I'm proud of what we did in the health and education areas. Some of these wonderful Māori MPs who you see in front of you today: Peeni Henare Kiritapu Willow-Jean over here—we're adding something to the House. We had a National Party supporting nonsense—absolute nonsense—in the last few years. So today I want to thank the Māori nation for supporting our Māori caucus. The Māori caucus the true Māori party for this Government for this Parliament. E tika ana ki te mihi ki a mātau i tēnei wā.[It is only right that a tribute is accorded to us at this time.]At the same time I want to say that it's only right that we mihi to the Māori Party for their effort. It was hard sitting with the National Party we know. But despite our disagreements with them we salute them in terms of at least trying to advance kaupapa Māori every day. Yes things went wrong. Things went wrong for sitting by Jami-Lee and others but it was hard for them and today I say thank you to Te Ururoa and his partner Marama—Marama wasn't it?—Marama Fox. Well done for the effort. It must've been tough sitting at the table getting crumbs from the Tories.I want to say today also that I've been lucky enough to be given this employment ministry. It's an honour and a privilege to be given it. When I came into the position we got the results: 4.6 percent was the unemployment rate—4.6 percent—and the problem is—Jami-Lee Ross: Why couldn't he get elected to Cabinet?Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well why are you sitting there? Because you're stupid. All right?So in terms of the unemployment rate of 4.6 percent the problem with that is there's a crisis in the employment strategy. The crisis is Māori Pacific Islanders women and the disabled have all missed out. And they've missed out because of the greedy selfish policies that were being put out by the last Government. As an employment Minister I'm going to try and get a strategy in where we get collaboration with the Government agencies; where we focus on communities; where we fund our people directly instead of them getting crumbs. We know what they can do. We know what they can do but they must be given an opportunity.We can't have an employment strategy where you get 4.6 percent of people unemployed and Māori and Pacific Island rates at three times that rate. That's a crisis. That's a crisis that's been created by this previous Government and it's a strategy that I want to address over the next few years. I'm sure I'll be able to do that it with the other Ministers like Shane Jones and Carmel Sepuloni and Peeni Henare as we get the strategy the correct strategy for our people. Ā nā reira ki a koutou kia ora anō tātau katoa.[And so to you collectively therefore an appreciation to us all once again.]Mr SPEAKER: I want to acknowledge and welcome the member back. I didn't want to interrupt him because he was in full flight but the member did address at least three members in the House by their first names. While I know he was being caring about it except to Mr Jami-Lee Ross he must use members' surnames as well. I'm sure the member will catch up.