Harawira Hone: Taxation (Annual Rates Savings Investment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Taxation (Annual Rates Savings Investment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3448] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Everyone in this House knows the ad on TV where the All Blacks are stranded on the side of the road and looking for a lift. One by one they get picked up starting with the forwards in the latest Ford and working back to Joe Rokocoko Dougie Howlett and Rico Gear who have to ride in a Ford Model T. They all drive off to the song with the lyric: “That’s my black jersey you’re wearing every time when you run out to play”. 
Members of the Maori Party know that every time we come into this House with every bill we analyse every word we speak and every position we take we carry with us the pride of the kaupapa we wear which is the pride of being Maori the passion in being Maori and the priorities of being Maori. Every time we front up we know we must do our utmost to defend Maori rights and advance Maori interests for the benefit of this nation because our people expect it of us in exactly the same way that our whole nation has expectations of our rugby team. It is a kaupapa we wear with enormous respect. Our responsibility to that brand—the Maori brand—also requires that we commit to analysing and taking a position on every bill that comes before the House including strange ones like this Taxation (Annual Rates Savings Investment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. 
Shane Jones 
: Big words. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Yes they are big words. This bill states that for a mere $110 million a year the Government can foster a savings culture and resolve investment issues. So how will that affect Maori? There will be a small elite group of the kinds of people Te Puni Kokiri’s recycled funding is catering to who may benefit from increases in asset values. That is cool. Some people will get an opportunity to improve their position through savings investments and those lucky enough to have investments in shares might not have to pay tax. That is great. But the fan base this Parliament is responsible for includes people who come from all walks of life and most of them simply do not fit this bill’s intentions at all. That group of people which includes Maori consists of nearly two million people who get less than $25000 a year. That is right; there are nearly two million such people who between them contribute $3.5 billion in tax—the taxes that allow the Minister of Finance to announce a $9 billion surplus in the Budget. 
That group also includes the other half of the population who are the taxpayers who bring the average income up to $38000 and that includes all the MPs in this House. But the difference is that one half of the population has the means to benefit from these asset value increases and the other half does not. In this game of two halves it is clear to see that the lower half—those in the low-income bracket—are not being looked after properly. 
Beneficiary families are doubly disadvantaged under the Working for Families package in particular for a couple of reasons. First beneficiaries are not allowed to get anything from this package and second 230000 children also dip out. Although the Government thinks it is clever to reward workers and try to force those not in work to go to work it has miscalculated badly by denying the kids who have no say in the matter. 
The Maori Party is also aware of the huge difference in income that exists between Maori and Pakeha as noted in the report of the United Nations special rapporteur. We also note that Maori earn $4 an hour less than non-Maori. The 2001 census also states that the average Maori income was $15000 compared with $20000 for the average Pakeha income. That is the financial background to our current status as tangata whenua in our own land. That is the environment we live in. And then in an environment where Maori statistics are high in all the wrong places and where targeted funding is the best way to achieve changes in those statistics we have a Minister of Maori Affairs who in the Budget round chose not even to bid for any new money. 
It is well-nigh impossible to contemplate that in an environment with appalling health statistics for Maori horrendous arrest conviction and prison statistics for Maori poor education statistics for Maori and the unacceptable mortality rate for Maori the Minister simply did not see the need for new money to address the very real needs of his own people. Yet not only did the Minister of Maori Affairs not bid for new money—and he was roundly congratulated on his frugality by his Government not giving him any new money—but he even allowed one of his flagship programmes manaaki tauira to be dumped. Such is the environment in which Maori are forced to live—an environment where their own Minister refuses to come to their assistance when they are suffering from the classic symptoms of economic violence. 
Economic violence is when people are denied access to resources and power and when their dignity and even their existence are under threat. We see the results of economic violence in poverty debt bad credit having the power and phone cut off because bills are not paid not being able to get a fresh start and anger and frustration at not having enough money for gas doctors’ bills food and clothes. Economic violence makes people feel less than human leads to social conflict and limits people’s potential. Economic violence breeds chronic poverty across generations. It makes sick people worse and it increases the gaps that this Government no longer has any interest in closing. 
That is the environment in which we come to the House today to talk about a savings culture—so let us cut to the chase. The chance to invest in Australia without penalty is OK but it ain’t a big deal. What is a big deal for the Maori Party though is how we measure the real wealth of this nation—how a particular bill will affect us as a people what a bill will mean for our mokopuna and how it will affect everyone else in Aotearoa. What is the plan? We look at every bill to see how it affects our well-being not just our wallets. Will it reduce inequality? Will it help get rid of child poverty? Will it make us a better nation? We ask how an economy can be healthy if its growth is based and measured on constantly using up limited resources. How can building a jail be called capital investment when its sole purpose is to isolate people from reality and punish them and then increase society’s problems when they get out of jail? That is how GDP is measured. In fact GDP can grow even when poverty is getting worse which is probably why the Government shies away from developing a standard by which we can measure poverty. The Maori Party is proposing a new way of keeping our national accounts by measuring the quality of our society. It is called the genuine progress index and if it were adopted Aotearoa could become a world leader in measuring the true value of a nation’s economy. 
The Maori Party will vote for this taxation bill to go through its first reading so as to give us all time to think creatively and intelligently about how we could reduce the gap between the haves and have-nots in this nation. Such is the game we all play and we dare not lose.