Yang JianDr JIAN YANG (National): Madam Chair I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the Māori Other Populations and Cultural Sector of the Appropriation Bill. Previous speakers tended to focus on Māori affairs. Of course I'm not expert in that area; as an ethnic Chinese I intend to focus on other populations particularly the Chinese community.In New Zealand we have over 200 ethnic groups. We speak over 150 languages. So this is a genuinely multicultural society and the Chinese community is one of the largest ethnic communities in New Zealand. According to the 2013 census there were 170000 ethnic Chinese in New Zealand. Of course today our community is much bigger. Now every year the Parliament will celebrate the Chinese New Year. It has been so for 16 years and the Government also partially funded Auckland's Chinese Lantern Festival celebrations. That has been so for 19 years and that celebration has become one of the largest Chinese Lantern Festival celebrations outside of China. Auckland Harbour Bridge this year was lit to mark the lantern festival for the very first time. Of course many other cities in New Zealand are also celebrating the Chinese New Year and the lantern festival.Cultural diversity is particularly important to us because cultural diversity enriches our society it strengthens our relations with other countries and it attracts talented high-quality immigrants from other countries. So it is important for us to continue to cherish our cultural diversity in New Zealand and our Government agencies have been working very hard to facilitate and to encourage the public sector to accommodate cultural diversity in New Zealand. Many agencies provide language services to our communities. For example we have Language Line. We provide services with over 40 languages and many ethnic community people use Language Line to do their business to communicate with the Government or Government agencies.Also the internal affairs department each year will provide funding for various sorts of ethnic community events. I understand we have about half a million dollars which is not big funding however it does help. I have come across many ethnic community leaders and they appreciate the funding from the Government. Although the funding can be very small—for example $1000—a little bit of funding really does a lot for these ethnic community associations. So we hopefully in the future will be able to have more funding to support our community affairs and community events. Statistics New Zealand in this year's census have recruited a large number of volunteers and staff from different ethnic groups. They have also prepared printed material in different languages to help our communities. These services are crucial for New Zealand because we are such a diverse society. Last year during the campaign the National Party had a plan to teach second languages in primary schools which would actually facilitate cultural diversity in New Zealand. We were planning to invest heavily in this area. But unfortunately of course in the end we did not come back into power and therefore that policy was abolished.Having said that I genuinely believe living in New Zealand is very fortunate for ethnic minority people. As I said as a Chinese in New Zealand we have one of the largest ethnic communities in New Zealand. We have seen the cultural diversity we have seen the Government's support for multiculturalism and we have seen the growth of communities not only Chinese but also many other ethnic groups.These ethnic communities are very helpful to our economic growth because cultural diversity means we'll be able to communicate with other countries through business so that we can have economic relations. For that reason we'll continue to support our communities. We'll continue to encourage multiculturalism.Reports relevant to the Māori Other Populations and Cultural Sector noted.