Turia Tariana: General Debate 
Turia Tariana: General Debate 
[Volume:632;Page:4217] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Speaker. Tena tatou te Whare. In the Nobel Peace Prize lecture of 1964 the late Dr Martin Luther King challenged America to consider that a great nation is a compassionate nation. He said: “The well-off and the secure have too often become indifferent and oblivious to the poverty and deprivation in their midst. The poor in our countries have been shut out of our minds and driven from the mainstream of our societies because we have allowed them to become invisible. Just as non-violence exposed the ugliness of racial injustice so must the infection and sickness of poverty be exposed and healed … we must not be afraid to pursue the remedy no matter how formidable the task.” 
Last week the Government stated that certain New Zealanders have higher living standards than they had in 2000. Although I will never diminish the importance of celebrating success the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth in Aotearoa is a divide that I will not close my eyes to. Etched in my mind is the shocking revelation that 40 percent of Maori and 58 percent of Pacific people have substantially lower living standards than the population as a whole and that 30 percent of beneficiary children are in severe hardship. The Government is quick to come out and suggest that Working for Families will achieve miracles. If that is true why is it that in May 2006 less than 2 months ago Anthony Byett Chief Economist for the ASB Bank described the weakness of this year’s Budget as leaving a large number of children—an estimated 175000—in a parlous state? 
How can anyone sit comfortably in this Chamber and ignore the spectre of poverty in the midst of plenty yet be prepared to vehemently criticise beneficiaries single parents and people trapped in the net of dependency? What hope do the children of those families have when they hear politicians continually berating their parents their relatives their race? What honesty is there when politicians deliberately cast the underclass of the poor—families whose children go to decile 1 schools and who live in poor housing conditions—as being privileged? How can any of us reconcile the rhetoric of political debate with the precarious situation of an underclass of citizens? The misery of the poor detracts from the abundance of the rich. 
In Te Ao Maori the perilous state of our neighbour reflects poorly on our capacity to care. The concept of manaakitanga acknowledges the mana of others as having equal or greater importance than one’s own through the expression of aroha hospitality generosity and mutual respect. In doing so all parties are elevated through the act of giving. In practical terms this means that the hospitality and generosity of the home people is extended willingly to all who pay others the respect of a visit. There is nobody left behind and no one is forgotten. The capacity to care is also reflected in the law of gifting. Judge Eddie Durie encapsulated that concept in a momentous speech given at the time of the Te Maori exhibition in September 1986. He talked about hoatu taonga hoki taonga; a gift given is a gift that comes back and riro whenua atu hoki whenua mai; land that is taken is land that must return. The gifting concept affirms a commitment to reciprocity from generation to generation—that if we look after those who need it most now our children and our grandchildren will be cared for. 
As products of the system of power we must do all we can to remove the conditions of poverty and instability that make a fertile breeding ground for the growth of injustice. But first we need to look to ourselves for the revolution of values that will restore hope in our families that we are all part of the solution that our families can be transformed into sites of well-being and that we will truly be working towards the goal that Aotearoa is a great nation because it is a compassionate nation—a nation that cares for its greatest assets the people and with the wealth of collective prosperity for it to be all it can be.