Ryall Tony: General Debates 
Ryall Tony: General Debates 
[Volume:616;Page:11731] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 All I can say after that speech is that Dr Don Brash has drawn a line in the sand and the vast majority of New Zealanders are standing with him against that minority Labour Government. Within days of Dr Brash’s speech in Orewa the Prime Minister was telling the people of New Zealand that her Government’s policies were based on need not race. That is what the Prime Minister said: her Government’s policies were based on need not race and she would run the ruler over her Government’s policies to ensure that no racial privilege was offered by her Government. 
Today the National Party in Opposition is calling for the end of a $10 million race-based fund that buys computers gym memberships sports shoes and music lessons for young offenders who are Maori. I take members back to 15 June 2000 when Ministers Turia and Maharey announced the Maori Youth Contestable Fund which would fund initiatives developed by the Maori community that aimed to reduce Maori youth offending. That was to be funded with $10 million over the next 4 years. 
Official documents which I tabled in the House earlier today show that that race-based programme is targeted only at Maori youth between 10 and 16 who have been regularly committing offences and whose offending is escalating in frequency or severity. That is race-based funding of the worst order. It rewards young offenders with taxpayers’ money with no regard for the victims or the community and it must be stopped. 
In one case—which the Minister denied—a 15-year-old Christchurch youth who was a recidivist offender and was well known to the New Zealand police received a computer worth around $1100 through a provider contracted to that fund. Apparently the computer was a carrot to stop reoffending. But it was received before there was any demonstrable evidence that that young person had decided to turn her life around. What is clear from what has been advised is that that offender continued to reoffend despite receiving a computer paid for by the taxpayers of New Zealand. There are suggestions that the offender was given the computer so that she could write a letter of apology to her victims and so that she could keep in touch with her Department of Child Youth and Family Services case manager. 
That is yet another example of Labour’s politically correct race-based social engineering policies. I ask the House how the Prime Minister can say that her policies are about need not race when under the Maori Youth Contestable Fund providers get $16500 for each Maori youth but nothing for non-Maori youth who are at risk but who are ineligible for that fund. We had wide support from the Government benches today for that race-based policy. 
The reason why I raise this issue is that it was that Prime Minister—who stated on television that she was Pakeha she wanted to defend her culture and she was not going to be a stranger in her country—who said she would not allow her policies in her Government to be based on race rather than on need. But if members look at this fund they will see that $10 million over 4 years has been allocated up and down the country on one major preference which is race.