Harawira Hone: Budget Debate 
Harawira Hone: Budget Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:4249] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. This Budget talks about the road to recovery. It is a road that Maori have travelled on many an occasion to have been often diverted sometimes stonewalled and many times turned back. But it is a road we travel constantly in the search for justice and in the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our everyday lives. I am reminded today of the great Maori Land March of 1975 which led to the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal and the Treaty settlement process and I am reminded of the foreshore and seabed hikoi of 2004 which gave birth to the mighty Maori Party and the review—and hopefully the repeal—of the filthy racist legislation that is the Foreshore and Seabed Act— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member cannot use the word “racist”. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Even in respect of legislation? 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I ask the member to withdraw that comment. 
Metiria Turei 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I note having had this debate myself to some extent in previous years that the rule as I understand it is that a member may not call another person a racist person but is entitled to describe events or as in this case legislation as racist. On that basis the Standing Orders and the Speakers’ rulings are concerned about calling people racist—quite rightly—but not things. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The word “racist” applies not only to a particular member but also to parties and members of this House. I am sure there is another word the member can use. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: If I might— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No I have ruled. I ask the member to continue with his speech. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Very well but I am happy to have used the word and happy to have used it in reference to the Foreshore and Seabed Act. I am also reminded of the march for Maori representation in Auckland just over a week ago. All these events were challenges to the nation that the commitment our tupuna made to the promises of Te Tiriti o Waitangi are challenges we take seriously today tomorrow and until such time as those promises have been honoured. We turn to this legislation with the same outlook the same commitment and the same desire to see the Treaty promise honoured—and I do not mind admitting here today that that road ahead does not look as if it is getting any shorter or any easier to travel. 
While we are on the subject of roads I note that there has been an increase of $1 billion in highway construction projects each year for the next 3 years with a long-term plan of $10 billion over the next 10 years. For those who think that $1 billion is a lot of money to spend on roads each year let me put that figure into perspective. One billion dollars is a little more than the Government gets every year to turn a blind eye to the deaths of 4700 New Zealanders killed every year by the murderers masquerading as tobacco companies. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Ban cigarette displays. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: After 9 years it is a bit rich to hear that member saying that now! It is the total amount offered for the theft of 60 million acres of Maori land over the last 170 years and it is about what it will cost to build the “Waterview Criminal Bypass” which my good friend Melissa Lee sees as an important investment in the security of Mount Albert. But given how keen New Zealanders have been to take up a more carbon-conscious future and their growing understanding of the perils of peak oil we have to wonder why so much money is being spent on roads and how little is being spent on public transport. Spending $50 million on a national cycleway is a great idea but it hardly signals a genuine investment in alternative transport. 
We see a Budget allocation of $172 million for 600 new police officers and $10 million for Tasers even though the recorded crime rate has gone down by 8 percent and as if either of those measures will turn around the levels of crime which are determined not by police numbers or by police brutality but by the level of poverty that this country is willing to inflict on its own population. For the same strange reason it is difficult to understand why we will be spending an extra $385 million to increase prison capacity when every intelligent criminologist tells us that building more prisons leads to neither a decrease in crime nor an increase in rehabilitation. Then we find that of the $385 million $24 million has been set aside for the planning and design of more prisons as if after 200 years of the criminal insanity that masquerades as corrections policy in this country the Government does not yet know how to build the mind-numbing soul-destroying blocks of concrete that we call jails. 
On top of that we also find that $145 million is to be spent on double bunks in cells. I am sad to have to report in advance that double-bunking may ease the prison population crush but it will also substantially increase the number of rapes fights stabbings maimings murders suicides and attacks on prison officers which will be a natural outcome of this policy of simplistic sadism and senseless stupidity. I know this because it is already the experience of every Western nation in the world. In fact the  
Dominion Post  
last week reported the alarming comments of the president of New Zealand’s own Corrections Association Beven Hanlon who stated that overseas evidence confirmed the fact that double-bunking will lead to overcrowding and that overcrowding will most likely result in “a dramatic increase in assaults suicides rapes and escapes and increased psychopathic behaviour among inmates.” 
On the upside we are glad that even though the squeeze is on we are able to get agreement on substantial new money for Maori initiatives. We are glad that the Budget of 2009 more than doubles the allocation for Maori that we saw just a year ago. In 2008 although $53 million was allocated for Maori most of that was re-routed refashioned and re-badged money already allocated to Te Puni Kokiri. However in 2009 thanks to a new National Government and a breath of fresh air from the Maori Party we now have more than $120 million set aside specifically for Maori in housing education social development Maori affairs and Treaty negotiations. We are glad of the million dollars being spent to straighten out the last Government’s policy which actually prevented kohanga reo and playcentres from accessing the early childhood education entitlement and we look forward to seeing more Maori children in kohanga reo puna reo and preschool education. 
While I am talking about kohanga reo I want to pay tribute to the newly honoured Dame Iritana Tawhiwhirangi who was a pioneer of the kohanga reo movement and who will no doubt take as great a delight in seeing her mokopuna benefit from the 20 hours’ free early childhood education scheme as she will from the Queen’s Birthday honour for which she will be teased mercilessly for months to come. 
We are glad of the extra $22 million of new money to streamline the process of Treaty negotiations between iwi hapu and the Crown and to reduce the time required to settle claims. We are glad of the extra $20 million of new money to help reduce the underachievement of Maori students in mainstream schools. We are glad of the extra $16 million of new money to settle several Maori aquaculture claims. We are glad of the extra $12 million of new money to help Maori build homes in rural communities—communities that are the backbone of Maori culture. We are glad of the extra $3 million of new money for a programme to help whanau learn and use te reo in the home. We are particularly glad of and thankful to the Green Party for getting a Government commitment to home insulation which will benefit many many Maori families. Of course I am personally very very glad of the extra $1.2 million of new money to help iwi radio with operational costs. 
We know that the most important issue facing us is how we prepare ourselves as catalysts for recovery. We know we must put the effort into helping our people to face a new future; we know that future depends on our being able to respond intelligibly and effectively to the changing political and economic climate and to those challenges that lie before us all. Could Maori have done better? Yes we probably could have but we are not crying about what we got at all. In fact given the current economic climate and the fact that we have been in the job for only a few months what we got is a bloody great start and heaps more than those miserable buggers in the last Government gave to Maori even with all that Government’s massive surpluses. We look forward to getting on with doing whatever it takes to ensure that the money we have been able to secure thanks to the National Government is used to help Maori to become more and more independent and more and more positive in the years ahead. Kia ora tatou.