Henare Tau: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:639;Page:9018] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 First off again in my most humble opinion I say that Te Taura Whirii te Reo Maori is one of the most unloved underfunded and overworked of Crown entities. I say this not as a jibe against the Government but to declare that here we have a receptacle of New Zealand’s language—one of the official languages of New Zealand. The other official language is New Zealand Sign Language. Something that members of the House may or may not know is that the English language is not recognised as an official language of New Zealand. We think it is but it is not recognised in any statute. So I just leave that there on the side; I think it should be. 
I worry that the receptacle of the indigenous language of this nation is absolutely underfunded. It struggles on a daily basis to complete projects like the dictionary of New Zealand Maori which is a first in relation to many many indigenous peoples around the world. The commission cannot by virtue of its financial situation take money from what is known as Ma Te Reo and put it into the finalising of the dictionary project. As I suppose I was a prime mover in my years as Minister of Maori Affairs for the initial Ma Te Reo funding I say to members that I was able to shoehorn that funding out of the Rt Hon Bill Birch. To the former Minister of Maori Affairs in the chair tonight the Hon Dover Samuels I must give congratulations on the job that he did when he was Minister in getting Ma Te Reo funding—in terms of keeping it and making it of some use to our language. 
But I think we should be able to go a wee bit further than that in the future and I am looking forward to the day when we look at Te Taura Whirii te Reo Maori as a receptacle as an icon of our nation’s language. It should be not only us looking at the commission and respecting it as such but also those across our waters those across the seas and thinking: “Yeah maybe that is what we should be doing in terms of our language.” 
I think a lot more Government organisations should be listening to and following the lead of Te Taura Whirii te Reo Maori. They along with Government set the Maori Language Strategy. Sometimes I think the Maori Language Strategy over the past few years has been a bit wayward. That is not because our Ministers are particularly dumb; it is because it is such a topic that we fall over ourselves in trying to do the best and right thing. I think sometimes we should leave it to the experts to figure out what our strategy should be and we should get in behind entities like Te Taura Whirii te Reo Maori. 
I will not speak for too much longer other than to say I hope that one day—whether it be in the time of this Government or the next—Te Taura Whirii te Reo Maori will be placed on a pedestal where the holder of the nation’s indigenous language should be and be funded staffed and listened to accordingly. The little mention that I made before of New Zealand’s other language—English—should also be recognised in statute—recognised as an official language of this country. Kia ora.