Hipango HareteHARETE HIPANGO (National—Whanganui): E Te Tiamana kia orana. I rise to take this last call for the Opposition and in doing so acknowledge the Minister for Māori Development the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. I listened to your words keenly and intently and the Minister has addressed the committee talking about growth and gain for Māori development. Well the purpose of the Estimates debate is to hold the Minister accountable for the decisions around allocation of funding to areas.When I go through the Estimates for Māori development these are the key words that strike one as one reads them from page 230 of the booklet: decrease" "no new policy initiatives" "reduce" "moved to other Government priorities" "funding is spread across the Budget" "integrating"—not only for Māori but "integrating"—"a reduction" "tagged" "not included" "disestablished". These are the key words that strike one when reading through Vote Māori Development and this is the emphasis of my kōrero to the committee this afternoon. It's about scrutinising the Government's performance and delivery—or rather more to the point its underperformance and under-delivery; its undervaluing of Māori development.In my service in the House as a member of the Opposition on these benches I've repeatedly heard the coalition Government decrying bemoaning and lamenting its long years in Opposition which obviously weren't long enough because regrettably in this allocation of funding for Vote Māori Development it has decreased reduced lessened priority diminished and mainstreamed funding doing nothing more than assimilating the interests of Māori and suppressing not growing Māori development—nothing more and a whole lot less. In short this Government has short-changed Māori in Vote Māori Development. Let's look at the rhetoric again as I have outlined from pages 230 onwards—this Government has short-changed Vote Māori Development. So let me step you through some of the rhetoric some of the promises. Whānau Ora was what the Labour Party campaigned on during the election campaign—promises of $20 million to grow that. There was no talk about a review. We now have 123-plus reviews; Whānau Ora is one of them that has suffered. It's this particular approach of under-delivery and under-deliverables—funding all slipstreamed into mainstream funding; assimilated policies and assimilated ideas.Let's look at the overview in Vote Māori Development. As I said those key words—it's about less which is not about more for Māori development.Assimilation and immersion is what this is all about. Vote Māori Development is all negatively geared and deconstructed. This is indicative of the regard for the largest representation Māori MPs have ever had in a Government. Regrettably my colleagues across the Chamber—all 13 of you—have been focused on targeting assimilation and immersion into the mainstream. It's disappointing and ashamedly the voice of the largest representation of Māori ever in Government. The silence is deafening when we need to hear you speak up when we need to hear the members across the Chamber speak up the strongest and the most at the times most important for Māori.The Speech from the Throne referenced "This government is proud to have the most Māori and Pacific Island cabinet ministers of any New Zealand government; with eight Māori and four Pacific Island ministers." I put it to my colleagues across the Chamber that you are needed to speak up in the Māori interests in the Māori voice not immerse and assimilate as is evident in this Budget round for Vote Māori Development. As the spokesperson for Māori tourism I've looked through the Estimates here and again I see that there has been the immersion and assimilation of Māori funding from the Minister of Tourism over to the Minister for Māori Development. I see that the funding—there's been no increase; again immersed and assimilated. Hearing from the representatives from Māori broadcasting from Māori Television their concern and view is that there's been no increase. In the last four years—[Bell rung]—particularly for our Māori public broadcasters—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! Is the member seeking a further call?HARETE HIPANGO: May I please Mr Chair?CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I call Harete Hipango.HARETE HIPANGO: Kia ora thank you. In briefly summing up the Māori Affairs Committee heard from the public broadcasters in relation to the funding that is here that there's been no increase and questioned why it is that Māori are treated differently from our mainstream broadcaster. There's nothing clear about the currency in recognising the importance of Māori broadcasting. So in conclusion it's highlighted very clearly that the coalition Government regrettably with our Māori representation has not lifted the voice of the Māori interest. Kia ora."