Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Associate Minister for Māori Development): Tuatahi he tika me mihi ki taku hoa ahakoa rerekē tō kōrero e pā ana ki te Tribunal. Ngā mihi huritau ki a koe e te hoa. E te hoa. Sixty years old. Ngā mihi ki a koe. Tēnei wā hoki e tika ki te whakanui tō tātou reo Māori. E tika me mihi ki te rōpū Te Taura Whiri mō tā rātou mahi ki te kōkiri i te kaupapa i ngā wā katoa ki te whakanui i tō tātou reo. Ngā mihi ki a rātou. Koutou katoa kia kaha kia māia kia manawanui.[Firstly it is right to acknowledge my friend regardless of his different speech on the Tribunal. Happy birthday my friend. My friend. Sixty years old. Congratulations to you. This time also is right to celebrate our Māori language. It is only right to acknowledge the organisation of Te Taura Whiri for their efforts to push the movement forward at all times to celebrate our language. They have my thanks. All of you be strong be brave be steadfast.]Just acknowledging our reo this is Māori Language Week and of course our Minister there Shane Jones—a wonderful kōrero there; a bit of a different view in terms of the tribunal and we were fascinated to hear that. We wonder what his mentor Matiu Rata might think of that today. But anyway ngā mihi ki a koe e te hoa.I think that we need to congratulate ourselves in terms of Māori development and the Minister Nanaia Mahuta.Hon David Bennett: Really?Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Oh absolutely—absolutely. Minister Nanaia Mahuta's done a terrific job. Minister Jones has talked about some of the mahi that we've done. A lot of the work out there is work at the coalface that Minister Jones talked about.Hon Member: That's rubbish.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well you might say That's rubbish" but all I say is look at the unemployment figures—look at the unemployment figures. And if you want to look at the unemployment figures for Māori: 7.7 percent at the moment; the lowest ever in the history of statistics—7.7 percent. Now that's a terrific percentage that we have and I'm so proud of it. A lot of that firstly is due to the work that myself and Minister Jones are doing in the regions with the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) where we're using that pūtea—those dollars that investment—to get our nephs off the couch as Minister Jones would describe the kaupapa. He talked about that a year or two back; we've been investing in that through the PGF and He Poutama Rangatahi. I say today that it's one of the reasons why our unemployment—particularly in those regional areas—is tracking in the right direction.I want to mention today our cadetships through Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK) because I think they are contributing significantly towards getting Māori into work. So yes we have our PGF; yes we have our He Poutama Rangatahi; and we also have Mana in Mahi. But in this year's Budget we secured more funding to grow our cadetship programme further supporting an extra 600 placements—600 placements—over the next four years focusing particularly on wāhine—focusing particularly on women. These are the types of developments that we want to see. I've been to the coalface and I've seen the Code Avengers in Hamilton where we have cadets developing careers in the information and technology business. At Pūniu River Care we have cadets who are not only developing careers in the horticulture industry but they are also committed to the regeneration of our awas.Just last week I spent the morning with our cadet programme in Auckland with Māori leaders and managers at New Zealand Post. We had a terrific hui down there at Te Puea Marae where they talked about how were they going to bring their Māori identity into their mahi. I said to them that that's the challenge. They didn't want to just be part of the line-up; they wanted to be part of the contribution they wanted to be part of the board—part of the leadership but at the same time they wanted to carry their Māori identity. I was pleased that we had our Te Puni Kōkiri officials with us helping with that development.So in terms of TPK and what's been happening: more employers now are under this cadetship 43 up from 17 last year; more cadets 455 now contracted up from 330; more wāhine going into cadetships 27 percent up from 19 percent; more funding the Wellbeing Budget supporting 600 more cadet placements over the next four years; and a wider range of industries tourism high-tech start-ups finance for example. We're going right across the spectrum and we're getting into our people investing in the young people and investing in the regions.The Māori development portfolio is going so well under the guidance of Nanaia Mahuta and we as a Māori caucus are very proud to support that. Kia ora tātou."