Jackson Willie; Salesa JennyHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister for Māori Development): As tempting as it is to smash that speech that has just been presented I'll keep with the tone of the Government at the present time. No I don't really want to go back on all the wasteful spending of the National Party and the $26 million vanity flag project that their previous leader rolled out. I won't go back there and talk about the $1.5 billion spending from Gerry Brownlee when he admitted $1.5 billion of National's spending on the so-called roads of national significance had been a bit out. I mean there's been billions and billions of wasteful spending by that lot on the other side of the House. I won't lower the tone because we've got a nation to think about.I tēnei wā e tuku ana ki te mihi atu ki ngā patunga me ngā whānau kua mate i roto i ngā wiki kua hipa atu nei. Ki a rātou katoa tēnei Kāwanatanga me te Pāremata te tautoko me te aroha nō reira tēnei te mihi ki a tātou katoa i tēnei wā.[At this time I send my acknowledgments to the victims and to the people who have died in recent weeks. To all of them this Government and Parliament offers its support and compassion therefore these are my acknowledgments to one and all at this time.]It's only right that we remember some of the whānau and some of the victims over the last week or two. I've been proud of this Government and proud of this Parliament and the way that we have come together in terms of giving our support and our aroha to people all around the country. As a Government we've certainly signalled that and I'm very proud of our new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who has really made a terrific start hasn't he? So much so now that we've got the National Party reduced to those sort of terrible and nonsensical speeches that we've just heard. He's really got them worried. At the same time I need to thank our former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her fantastic achievements but make it very clear that as a Government we're committed to what's happening in terms of our nation at the moment. You've seen the financial spend in terms of Gabrielle in terms of $300 million in the last few days. As the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has signalled that bread and butter issues will be our number one priority going forward. It's something that this country is embracing at the moment.In terms of Māori we're proud of the way that Māori have progressed over the last term particularly with Jacinda Ardern and particularly the Māori economy where as the Minister of Māori Development I've pushed through more than 1200 cadets over the past year. In fact we've seen more than 5000 cadetships for Māori.In the housing area we've had over $730 million injected into Māori housing. It's the largest investment in Māori housing in a generation. We've had iwi prototypes driven by Willie Te Aho and Jamie Tuuta really really doing the business on the East Coast. We've got papa kāinga housing more so than we've ever had before.It's only appropriate that I list the number of the achievements that we've achieved as a Government under the previous Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and of course our new star the current Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. We celebrated the first ever Matariki public holiday despite opposition from the useless Opposition and the ACT Party who early on did not support the proposition of a Matariki public holiday until they saw the polls change and then they got behind it.We've now introduced New Zealand history into the school curriculum.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Propaganda.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: We've supported Māori seats at a local level—I know Mr Goldsmith supports that! There's a huge demand in terms of Māori language celebrating 50 years in terms of te reo Māori; we had a wonderful celebration out the front of Parliament. And we've established the Māori Health Authority.I have to say though I've been disappointed to see the extent to which the Opposition will use Māori as a political football. Not so much saying National but certainly other parties in the House—and these are the parties who will not engage in terms of Māori communities. Māori are being used as a political football this year; I think it should stop. We hear the criticism from David Seymour earlier this week about James Shaw not having a science degree and that discredits him apparently as a Minister. Using that type of rationale Mr Seymour must be an expert in tikanga and an expert in terms of Māori politics because he engages with Māori communities all the time—of course he doesn't; the only person he engages with is Rawiri Waititi who he sits by. But apparently that gives him enough knowledge to talk about Māori things. It's disgraceful the way that Māori have been politicised. We hope it's going to be a better year. Madam Speaker kia ora.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I call on Helen White—five minutes.