Henare Tau: Budget Debate 
Henare Tau: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3298] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I say Fa’afetai lava to Winnie Laban. I have to say in all honesty that I appreciated the speech made by Winnie Laban because it actually spoke about the Budget. It spoke about her people in her area so I say kia ora to her. 
I want to play a game called “Who said this?”. It is a new game. Who said this of New Zealanders: “They are tired of being led by aimless focus-group polling the only intent of which is to keep Labour in power…”? It was Winston Peters. Here is another one. We will go for 10 points here.“Where are the policies that will reverse the trend of importing welfare recipients while exporting our educated young?” Who said that? It was Winston Peters. “We have net debt spiralling out of control. We have a current account deficit reaching epidemic proportions”. Who said that? It was the Rt Hon Winston Peters. Here is a good one. It will test members’ minds but it is a good one: “There is a Minister in this Government whose heart drips icicles. He is of course the heartless Minister of Finance”. Who said that? 
David Bennett 
: Winston Peters. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The member goes to the top of the class. Here is another one: “New Zealand First says to those people out there in heartland New Zealand—who are stifled by rising interest rates rising taxation on the roads … to hang on because help is on its way.” Who said that? 
Bob Clarkson 
: Doug Woolerton. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No it was not Doug Woolerton. I am sure Doug Woolerton would want to have said it but it was the Rt Hon Winston Peters. 
Finally here is the crunch. This question is for $1000000. It is about United Future: “They never miss a trick—until it comes to coalition negotiations then it is roll over play the poodle put out the welcome mat and become a doormat.” Who said that? The Rt Hon Winston Peters said that. Do members know what? He is right. He was talking about the Labour Government last year which is the same Labour Government that we have now staring at us for the seventh year—and this will be its last term. 
But let us get serious. I have some documents here—a sorry saga of how a once-proud union the Service and Food Workers Union stole $200000 off its members and did not tell them what it was going to do with it. I have documents showing that it gave that money to the Labour Party for its election expenses. Over $200000 was stolen off the cleaners off the people who can least afford it—the poor people—and given to the Labour Party. How do I know this? Somebody in the Service and Food Workers Union has given me all the documents. How about the election process of the secretary of that union one Darien Fenton who now is a member of Parliament? 
Anne Tolley 
: A pay-off. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It was a pay-off by the union—$200000. If we look through the accounts of the union we will see it under the heading “Capitation Fees”. [ 
Interruption 
] It is like a racket. [ 
Interruption 
] Here we go. I tell Darren Hughes that the Brethren do not vote. I say to him: “Hello! Knock on wood. Is there anybody home in Darren Hughes’ homeland?” There is absolutely nobody home. It is all vacant. The lights are out and no one is home but the mouth is still talking. 
Anne Tolley 
: It was the hotel workers union. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well we could talk about the hotel workers union—and in the old days it was called the Hotel Workers Union. It was a good outfit until Mark Gosche and Rick Barker came on the scene. Both those people are now in the House. 
I am pleased the Waitangi Tribunal got $500000 extra. But what good will it do? The mechanisms are still the same. We will never settle all the claims in the time the Government has or in the time it has given us. The reason is that the mechanism itself is wrong. We could throw a billion dollars at it and still not get anywhere. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: Tuku’s happy. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Of course he is happy. He will finally get an apology from Trevor Mallard and it will be a Crown apology not just an apology from one member to another. It will be a Crown apology to Tuku Morgan for all the grief those people over there gave him for 3 years. Not one of the darker-skinned people in the Labour Party ever got up and said: “Hey enough of that.” Oh no! But when their mates get it—mates like David Benson-Pope and David Parker—they all say how terrible it is. How about going under the knife for 3 years? Maybe then they could gripe about it. Those members are a sad sackful of people who moan and groan about people having a go at their member. 
Here is a good one: kura kaupapa Maori. There are to be no new schools. Well that is OK; there is nothing new about that. The real issue about kura kaupapa Maori is that there is absolutely no funding to actually teach the teachers. There is no money to train new people to teach in those schools. Of the $350 million that the Minister of Education put aside not one cent will be spent on the training of new teachers or on professional development for kura kaupapa teachers. So what is in the Budget? 
David Bennett 
: Nothing! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely nothing! There is nothing in it for education. There is nothing in it for early childhood education—except the 20 free hours. But the Government still does not know how it will implement that. It still does not know how much it will cost. In fact because the Government does not know it has limited those hours to 6 per day. First of all the Government said before the election that it would provide 20 hours free. Steve Maharey now says that time will be limited to 6 hours a day. How will that help? 
Anne Tolley 
: It doesn’t help. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Of course it does not help. The Government does not know how much it will cost and it is true that the money will come from the early childhood sector in the sense that the parents will be the ones to pay. They will be the ones to pay because of the over-regulated over-bureaucratised and over-heated early childhood sector. Where is the money for the training of early childhood teachers? Everywhere I go in the early childhood sector people are crying out for more teachers. 
I visited a Montessori unit in Kumeu the other day that has been trying for 2 years to get somebody qualified and can they find someone? Absolutely not. It is a crying shame and do members know who the losers are? The losers are the children at the centre. This Government wants to close centres down by not offering training for new childcare workers. Dozens upon dozens of centres cannot get qualified teachers because there are not enough of them to go round. 
I turn to Maori Affairs. In anyone’s language $23.9 million is a bit of a dollop. But wait—where did the $23.9 million come from? It is not new money. 
David Bennett 
: A Lotto ticket. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It could have been. The people of Kaeo could have blimin funded it. 
But it is not new money. The Government had programmes that cost $23.9 million running for the last 6 years. That has not worked out. Nobody has yet worked out what the hell they were supposed to be doing and now three more programmes have been set up all based on what the officials and Parekura Horomia said—if one could understand a word he says. He must be the only person in this country whose English—or Maori—no one can understand. One cannot understand his English and one cannot understand his Maori. For goodness’ sake! He has been the Minister of Maori Affairs for the last 6 years. He was on $185000 but he said that no no he was on $195000. Well the fact is that those fellers over there are getting paid $216000. I tell members he is a bright boy! He is a bright boy—and he will be the Minister of Maori Affairs for the next 2½ years? I do not think so. 
This Government will fall before the next election. That is my prediction. Dover Samuels will go offshore. He will go and live in Queensland so Charles Chauvel can come in—the French man whom Labour loves. Then Louisa Wall and Lesley Soper will come in. And that is the new talent? If that is the new talent we are all in trouble. 
This is a do-nothing nothing Budget for everybody in New Zealand. So everybody should be happy because everybody got nothing. I leave it to that side of the House to tell us exactly what is going on. There is a $8 billion surplus and not a single skerrick of a tax cut. There is not even a hint of a tax cut. There is nothing for nobody and this is a nothing nobody Government. 
Sitting suspended from 5.54 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.