Coffey TamatiTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): That was a great contribution just then from my colleague Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki and it's great because she actually highlighted some of the things that are in this Budget for Pacific peoples. For the last week I've been travelling around my electorate talking about the great things that are happening for our Pacific peoples but also for our Māori peoples as well. So in my travels I've been everywhere from Ōpōtiki to Kawerau and from Welcome Bay to Whakatāne to the Whakarewarewa rugby club to talk about this right here—the Wellbeing Budget—and it's long overdue. People were really pleased to hear what we were doing. They were pleased to hear that we were looking at our success as a country differently because up to this point you know it's been quite easy to say We've measured our success according to how much money we make." But in fact that's not everything because actually what we realised especially in the run-up to the last election was that there were a lot of people out there that had jobs and were contributing to the economy but doing it really rough. The term out there being "the working poor"—those people the parents couples are earning their money but it's still not enough to live on especially in places like Tauranga where they're earning good money but actually they're spending a heck of a lot of it on their day-to-day living on their rents if they're fortunate enough to even have a house. We talked about when I was out there the direct Māori spend because we were criticised in last year's Budget about not having enough targeted money for Māori spend. I'm proud to say that this year our Budget has allocated $570 million to targeted Māori initiatives. That was music to the ears of the people that were holding us to a very high bar and asking us to step up to the plate. Well I was proud to stand there and tell them that we have stepped up to the plate—$32 million of that was announced to go towards our kōhanga reo. Now our kōhanga have long been in a bit of a state and they've been looking for some support. I was fortunate on Friday to be standing at Te Pākira Marae down at Whakarewarewa where 72 new Māori graduates were graduating and they were going to go out there and to be on the front line of our kōhanga reo. I had it told to me by one of the kuias who was sitting there. She said "You know what? The Māori Party when they were here we swung in and we supported them but actually they never did for us what you guys have done for us. So thank you for the money." Also just remember this is just the start because this isn't the end of the story for our kōhanga reo. Our kaiako that go in there our kuia our kaumātua our koroua—they're out there at the front line. When we talk about child poverty amongst Māori children it's our kaiako that see it first. So they were pleased to hear that and I was pleased to stand there and see 72 new graduates going out into our kōhanga all across the Waiariki. They'd come in from all over. That there is a win for our Reo Māori which is a win for our kuia and our kaumātua that started the kōhanga reo movement and it's also a win for those kaiako themselves. I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to one of the graduates. Her name was Patience. She was a young girl. She'd been through quite a bit in her life including having a few kids but she's actually managed to turn herself around because she's found her calling in life which is kōhanga reo. I'm proud to say that through this Wellbeing Budget we have actually put our money where our mouth is and we've gone and supported that movement. Let's just remember that it was back in 1987 that the Māori Language Act was passed and still to this day we're fighting the challenge as a country as a nation. Although Māori is an official language it's still really hard for lots of people to pronounce. Lots of people haven't taken it up as the challenge and I wonder when that time will come. Hopefully as a result of this spend that we've put into Te Reo Māori through the Crown's initiatives—the Maihi Māori; the Maihi Karauna—we'll be able to get to that point a whole lot faster. I'm proud to talk about the Wellbeing Budget but I also have a whakataukī "Kāore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka [The kūmara does not speak about its own sweetness]." The kumara doesn't talk about how sweet it is; we leave that to other people. We have canvassed some of our biggest critics and I stand here and say that it was the Māori Party themselves that off the back of the Budget were quite quick to point out that "the Labour Government's recognition of a fundamental change to the system of the national account—acknowledging that GDP is not an accurate measure of success—but that the oranga the hauora the 'ora' of whānau is worth investing in." They were pleased to see what we had done through this Wellbeing Budget. Just a comment from a colleague of mine who told me the other day that when he was down in Christchurch talking to Ngāi Tahu about the Wellbeing Budget one of the koroua leaned over and said "Welcome Government. We've been doing wellbeing for quite a long time now." Kia ora Madam Deputy Speaker."