Harawira Hone: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2623] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou te Whare. Te Ururoa Flavell gave the Maori Party’s support to this bill at its first reading because it was consistent with our recognition of the importance of financial security for whanau. That financial security has never been more important than it is now with record numbers of people on low incomes record numbers of people on special benefits record numbers of food parcels being distributed and record numbers of children living in families that are below the poverty line. That financial security is especially urgent for Maori particularly in light of the finding by the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples who noted the “underlying institutional and structural discrimination that Maori have long suffered” and who also noted that disparities continue to exist between Maori and non-Maori with regard to employment income health housing education and the criminal justice system. 
I raise the special rapporteur’s report because of the importance of this House recognising the huge impact that poverty has on our society especially given that this Government refuses to accept the need to measure poverty or even to acknowledge a poverty line as if refusing to acknowledge poverty will mean that people will not notice it exists. Well folks it does not take too much analysis to work out who is most affected by poverty with or without a line in place. Gisborne Whangarei Whanganui Porirua and Rotorua are the regions with the highest levels of poverty and surprise surprise they are all regions with high Maori populations. 
When times are tough any threat to employment is bound to increase pressure on a household whether people are employed in the workforce self-employed in casual work in multiple employment or in seasonal employment. Our original doubts about the paid parental leave scheme were because self-employed people had been left out when a very significant portion of the population—more than 360000—consider themselves to be self-employed. In fact the number of Maori who are self-employed has increased by more than 200 percent over the past 20 years. So this matter has huge significance for the Maori Party which is the only party to have taken up the challenge of defending Maori rights and advancing Maori interests. 
On another level this whole House acknowledges the considerable anxiety being expressed by both Labour and National about the unprecedented growth in Maori political participation since the birth of the Maori Party. This is rightfully so—and not before time too I might add. Last month Labour Party president Mike Williams called in his Maori MPs and their staff to work out how to deal with the rise and rise of the Maori Party. He said there was an urgent need for Labour’s Maori MPs to be “making more of an impression on the Maori electorate” and getting organised. He also criticised what he called the sluggishness of Labour’s Maori MPs but was not prepared to accept that Labour’s own insultingly bad treatment of its Maori MPs was a major reason why Maori are switching in droves to the Maori Party. Then over the weekend National’s deputy leader Gerry Brownlee told a National Party conference that National needs to be preparing for the Maori Party to hold the balance of power at the next election. Again that was an acknowledgment of the ever-increasing role that the Maori Party is playing in the politics of Aotearoa. 
Yet fascinating as all this is the real challenge before the Government should not be in scheming to undermine the Maori Party but in preparing for the real challenge of an ever-increasing Maori population and the rapid rise of Maori who are both politically mature and self-employed. Thirteen percent of self-employed Maori are aged under 30 compared with only 6 percent of non-Maori and that proportion can only be expected to rise given the youthful profile of the Maori population. 
So how does all this relate to the legislation before the House today? To state the obvious Maori make up 15 percent of the population and we are growing fast. As both Labour and National have recognised Maori people and their Maori Party are here for the long haul. That means the Government needs to start planning to deal with the increasingly high numbers of Maori men and women who are self-employed ensuring that they can access paid parental leave and planning to enable those Maori who are self-employed casual seasonal or multi-job workers to access paid parental leave as well. 
The House has been focusing on the impact of extending the paid parental leave scheme to the self-employed but it would be remiss of us to leave this debate today without again challenging the promotion of work over and above the unique and vital role of parenting. This Government seems to have abandoned support for the critical role that good parenting plays by depriving beneficiary parents of any support from the Working for Families package and by the ruthless slashing of funding for PlunketLine from the end of next month. The Maori Party is committed to supporting all parents whether or not they work to ensure that all children in this country can rise out of the poverty trap to which 250000 of them have been consigned by this Government’s legislation. 
 I also come to this debate aware of the message of May Day yesterday—to look out for a grave and imminent threat requiring immediate assistance an alert used around the world to signal a life-threatening emergency a call to distress or a threat to life. The threat this May Day has never been more apparent and we must take every step to provide the support and assistance that parents need to carry out the most vital role of any in our society. When parents have time for their children so will those children be less likely to stray from their parents’ values. We all know that good parenting is critical to building a stable society and that no matter how significant any of today’s developments might be that most important role of parenting must never be undermined. 
The Maori Party will support the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave for Self-Employed Persons) Amendment Bill but we also call for a wider debate on the protection of parenting as one of society’s most important roles for both Maori and non-Maori.