Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
[Volume:639;Page:9370] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I was thinking of previous Budgets previous Governments and in particular a former Minister of Maori Affairs. We call him he Tipua—one of a kind—a leader of Maori who was able to advocate for and achieve the transfer of State resources to assist the Treaty partners in the path to self-determination. 
The leadership of Sir Apirana Ngata established the benchmark by which we can assess all subsequent Budgets—as we do today. Not for Ngata a Budget in which Maori are denied as in 2005. Not for Ngata a Budget in which the Minister failed to bid for any new funding for Maori as in 2006. Not for Ngata a Budget in which funding for Maori projects is allocated but not in any amounts of any significance as in 2007—the add-on Budget. 
The Maori Party will be the first to say we support any appropriation to advance Maori development. We are relieved that the Crown appears to have finally recognised the innovation and initiatives led by Maori even if that recognition is at best tokenistic. This Budget allocates some $3.3 billion of which $19.9 million is new funding specifically for Maori. That equates to a grand total of 0.6 percent of the funding. Wow! But forever looking for the silver lining we welcome the investment in the proud and independent voice of Maori being enhanced through $1 million a year for iwi radio and $5 million a year for Maori television the voice of our nation—matatou for everyone. 
We welcome the move towards reconciliation promoted with another $2 million a year to the Waitangi Tribunal. We are pleased that the initiative that Tariana Turia pioneered—the Mauri Ora framework—to support whanau in the prevention of violence has been extended to include another 60 workers. We congratulate those hard-working heroes in our community—Maori wardens—who are today rewarded with $2.5 million of support. 
We come to this House saluting the spirit of enterprise and entrepreneurial vigour that has defined tangata whenua. We think of the whanau who gathered in an old factory at Pukeatua in Wainuiomata some 25 years ago to set up a language nest te kohanga reo. That initiative grew into a movement of some 513 kohanga reo to nurture te reo rangatira. Today that initiative is rewarded with the equivalent of $6000 a year for every kohanga. That is not a lot but every bit counts. 
But we also recognise that one of the main difficulties facing both kohanga and kura kaupapa Maori is the challenge of finding trained and experienced teachers who are fluent in te reo. Although the Budget provided for some support for kohanga and funding for year 1 teachers we are mindful that some 30000 students are currently receiving Maori-medium education and we were disappointed to see that there was nothing explicitly allocated for kura and wharekura other than the capital funding for property. 
Indeed I would call this Budget the add-on Budget. It adds little trinkets for Maori to sprinkle in and stir little gems like $30000 a year to conserve Maori taonga. That does not sound like much when we know that Sotheby’s has valued the Treaty of Waitangi at $32 million. Although we are of course mindful of being grateful for small mercies a number of things just will not go away. For a start there are some 9000 Maori students who woke up last Budget day to the news that the manaaki tauira fund had dried up leaving them under financial strife to buy textbooks learning resources and study materials and to pay their fees. 
Yes there will be another $150000 a year for the Ngarimu scholarship and we are pleased to see the $6 million in research capability for wananga. But the unknown factor of course is how this will increase retention and completion rates in tertiary education for Maori. Although some might be happy enough juggling the small change we cannot ignore the grim reality of other statistical pressures that are literally in our face—facts such as that although 21 percent of the school population is Maori Maori account for 41 percent of all stand-downs and 47 percent of all suspensions. Another fact is that 53 percent of Maori left school without even a National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 1 compared with 20 percent of Pakeha. This is a picture of total system failure for Maori in general stream education a system in which 91 percent of Maori children are enrolled. This Budget does not include the Maori education strategy that Maori have been calling for. 
So perhaps the picture might be brighter for health. The Maori Party has long been concerned that Maori infant mortality is also significantly higher with 7.2 deaths per 1000 births compared with 5.6 deaths nationally. We are thus well pleased to see a $124.2 million investment in child and youth health over 4 years. But again we come to the crunch. We know all the determinants facts such as that 40 percent of Maori are expected to develop type 2 diabetes with 5 percent of that number dying each year or that life expectancy for Maori on average is 8 years less than for Pakeha. PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that $50 million per year would be a good start to avoid the massive future cost of preventing and treating diabetes such as that involved in heart failure blindness circulatory problems and amputations. This Budget allocates a quarter of that giving $50 million over 4 years. 
We do not see much in this Budget that will address the rise and rise of poverty; that will satisfy the 120000 New Zealanders who petitioned Parliament to “make poverty history”. They must be heard. Indeed our preliminary analysis suggests the gap between rich and poor just continues to grow wider. An offering of peanuts will not do much to address the pervasive assault of poverty that afflicts so many in our whanau. All of these figures give us every reason for arguing for the management of appropriations to be in the hands of the Maori partner. The Crown has failed in its capacity to fulfil the promise of article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi. Insufficient funds for Treaty settlements including quantum mean that attempts to address article 2 breaches remain unfulfilled. 
Governments speak of “what the country can afford” despite successive years of accumulating surpluses—a whopping $7 billion dollar surplus. It appears to us that the price of justice for Maori—the price of citizenship which Ngata wrote of in 1943—will always remain a debt. It is a debt that the mean-spirited appear unwilling to pay. On the basis of human rights and Treaty jurisprudence a compelling case exists for an independent and adequately funded approach that unbundles funding to be redistributed fairly. 
The Maori Party believes that Maori social aspirations have been poorly served by the mismanagement and policy neglect inherent in a mainstream bureaucracy. Mainstreaming from its very genesis was never about Treaty justice or enhanced citizenship rights. It was about savings; savings for the Crown sliced off the backs of Maori. As a consequence of mainstreaming Vote Maori Affairs was reduced back in 1991 by $212.4 million. Of that $114 million was retained by the Crown as savings. These are savings that could well have prevented a reality in which 36.5 percent of people receiving the unemployment benefit are Maori. They are savings that may have addressed the stark face of poverty extreme income inequalities and the rising proportions of Maori families in severe hardship. 
This Budget does not address that stark reality. The Maori Party believes that the only way we will truly achieve change is to instigate the unbundling of funds to assess the effectiveness of money spent for and on behalf of Maori. The way to do this is painstakingly simple. It requires a technical amendment to the Public Finance Act to enable Te PuniKokiri to monitor all Crown agency expenditure on Maori. At this current point in time the Treaty partner is being denied the information to be able to reliably gauge the effectiveness of the Government spend on Maori. If we are to truly recognise two parties to the Treaty we must also agree on how the Budget allocation is to be shared managed monitored and reported upon. 
The Treaty Tribes Coalition has advised that the greatest shortcoming of our present constitutional arrangements is the failure to recognise the fundamental significance of the Treaty. The Treaty Tribes Coalition is a major force amongst Maori. We want to see that all legislation introduced to this House is able to maximise the fulfilment of Maori aspirations. A starting point to how such a strategy will be achieved is found in the genuine progress index. This is a system of accounts that gives priority to an alternative economic system—a system driven by kaupapa—by measuring the true costs against the benefits. Under such an index we welcome the EnergyWise package: $20 million a year for energy-efficiency initiatives and $7 million a year to enhance sustainability. These are real steps in preparing for climate change. 
We believe that if the State were to unbundle the funding we would be in a far better position to assess social economic and cultural policies and programmes to determine what effect that spend is having on Maori. We do not want any more piecemeal adhockery. We seek progress on a grand scale progress and prosperity and the outcomes that really would achieve meaningful change. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.