Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brownlee Gerry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:12703] 
1. GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Maori Affairs 
: Does he agree with the Prime Minister’s statement that she has “always been there for Maori.”; if so why? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 Yes. Labour Governments have always been there for Maori and always will be as they will be for all New Zealanders. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: What sort of a man goes into bat for a Prime Minister who thinks Shrek the sheep is better company than hikoi marchers whom she labels as “wreckers and haters” and is forcing the Minister and his Maori colleagues to vote for legislation that people clearly do not want? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: This is a great Minister of Maori Affairs who knows about fronting up to his people—having been out there yesterday—who understands tikanga and who is an old shearer who has tossed grubby sheep around and put them down the porthole. 
Jill Pettis 
: What has this Government achieved for Maori? 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Ha ha! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I ask that member to listen very carefully. In recent times over 40000 more Maori are now in work. Unemployment is at an all-time low and for Maori it is at a 16-year low. Almost 900 Maori are involved in Modern Apprenticeships. We have delivered on Maori television. Members should know that a lot of Kiwis are watching it and enjoying it and our reo will survive. So that is the thing—we have delivered. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Can I ask the Minister as to whether the Prime Minister’s statement was motivated by the comment at Orewa this year made by the leader of the National Party that the Maori people were not—to quote him—“a homogeneous race”? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I tend to suspect most certainly— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Very clear ministerial responsibility is needed for such a question. The member’s question was clearly out of order. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not think there is any ministerial responsibility. The member might like to phrase his question so that he can bring it in. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I was very careful in constructing that question. I asked the Minister whether his Prime Minister’s comments were motivated by the comments at Orewa—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is the only warning. The next member is out. Points of order will be heard in silence and members know that. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: In a political debate which is what this Chamber is about how a Prime Minister might be motivated to make a comment is one of prime ministerial and ministerial responsibility. After all this is the key issue surely of the Orewa speech; or are we to find now that the National Party intends to withdraw that very serious comment? I am asking whether the Prime Minister’s comments were motivated by that statement? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If the member was asking the Prime Minister that it would be fine. But the Minister of Maori Affairs is responsible for his comments not for the Prime Minister’s comments in that way. But what I would prefer—and I have invited him to do so—is for the member to rephrase the question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Did the Minister find in any of his discussions with the Prime Minister since the halcyon speech at Orewa any comment from her that she was concerned about the speech at Orewa to the effect that the Maori people to quote Dr Brash were not “a homogeneous race”? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I am certain that divisive and scurrilous speech at Orewa led her to think that but in respect of the comment on the sheep maybe she was referring to the bleating of those people in the benches opposite. 
Metiria Turei 
: Does the Minister believe that he has always been there for Maori; if so why is he not following through and voting against the proposed foreshore and seabed legislation? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Because for a long time I have spent a lot of my life trying to make sure that our people get the best shot. That is why I am going with this legislation at this stage. 
Stephen Franks 
: Does the Minister think that the hostility he faced yesterday was his fault the Prime Minister’s fault the fault of both of them or neither of them? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I want to commend the people in the hikoi—even my whanau who were there—because I think that they progressed and managed it very amicably. They were humbly honest. Certainly it is nothing new to me to be sitting on the paepae out there in front of our people and having to stand whatever they want to dish up to me. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: How can the Minister stand in this House and proclaim himself to be a truly great Minister of Maori Affairs one minute then a couple of hours later fail to vote against legislation that his people are so opposed to? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Because that member who has spent a lot longer in this Chamber and understands the process better than I do—and a whole lot of other Maori people out there—knows that this will take 6 or 7 months to get through. I have enough nous to understand that today is the start and there is a whole lot of finishing to it. Wake up! 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am a little concerned about that answer. Although it appears that if a Minister stands up in this Parliament and says anything then that can be considered as addressing the question. I think the Minister of Maori Affairs has misrepresented the question that was asked of him. He was asked why he will vote for legislation that his people do not like. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister addressed the question quite specifically in my view. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Does the Minister agree with the Prime Minister’s statement that some of the hikoi marchers were “haters and wreckers”; if so why? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Sometimes I agree with the Prime Minister; sometimes I do not. There were people who were hell-bent on doing that yesterday but the majority of them conducted themselves in fine form and there were good people in there.