Jones Shane: General Debate 
Jones Shane: General Debate 
[Volume:659;Page:8390] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker. That last speaker Aaron Gilmore is the man who is known in his own party by the name “Shagger” largely because it reflects an interest he has in the way that sheep sound. That speech sounded like it was delivered by someone prepared for the knacker’s yard. He did not have either the wit or the courage to stand and deliver that speech other than by rehearsing hour by hour as he looked at John Hayes’ positive transformation and saw his own future. The beginning of that young man’s speech will be back to haunt him when he occupies the seat that will soon be left vacant by Mr Quinn when he leaves to try to fix up Maori rugby in 2011. 
This is the year when a number of holes have been dug as we arrive at the end of 2009. Of course the greatest hole of all was developed by the members of the Maori Party. They developed that hole not to prepare the hangi but to bury Hone Harawira. But Hone Harawira is made of harder stuff. As they put in red-hot rocks clay alluvial soil and peat a hand reaching for Tariana’s throat came from below. That is the first hole. 
National took a little lesson from a knighted former finance Minister as to how to escape from a hole because from the crypt has come Dr Brash. Dr Brash is in charge of one of three working groups: one on tax one on capital markets and Mr Brash’s group. The first thing that that party did to its own former leader was to move him to the side because it had paid its paltry debt to the ACT Party in putting up a series of totally unworkable ideas; ideas that will not only reduce the worth and day-to-day living quality of average people but also take us on a giant leap backwards. 
I come back to my relations in the Maori Party. That is the party that during the months of April and May said that to create a board to improve Maori representation in Auckland would be institutional racism. That is the group that said they did not want to be part of a tekoteko which kind of means an emblem. What do we find just the other day? We find a media release from Dr Pita Sharples to the effect that an independent statutory board will promote issues of importance to the tangata whenua and Maori. Prior to that he was saying that he agreed that such an initiative would represent crumbs at the second level that it was a nonsense and that the Maori Party had made it clear that it was not interested in being tonotono in being people who are subservient to the top table—unwisely describing so candidly his own relationship with the Prime Minister. Why after an entire year is that party unable to provide anything of any substance to the Maori families that are being diminished and ripped off as the dominant party prepares to privatise the accident compensation scheme; to the Maori families that have definitely been marginalised by the sweetheart deal with the large powerful selfish iwi leaders as reflected in the recent tawdry deal? Nothing has been put forward by that party. 
I will tell members something that is very very disappointing about Dr Pita Sharples’ representation model. We have to move away from that party and its cosy relationship with a tiny self-elected group of iwi leaders who believe they speak for all Maori. They have a mandate to speak for all Maori yet they refuse to. They continue to trot out excuses and very very tired arguments that reward only the corporate elite. That is not a Maori affairs policy. That is not a strategy to lift those members of our society who are in vulnerable circumstances. I will tell members something else: the model that the party is promoting is the model it had to accept because Mr Key as a consequence of giving it a sovereignty flag has required it to buy into everything else he wants. So this has been a year of trinkets and trophies for that party but no substance. It will be a sad reflection that a party that came in with an enormous amount of talent—and I do not mind saying that—has failed miserably.