Fox Marama: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1381. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party):E Te Mana Whakawā nei rā te mihi mahana ki a koe otirā ki Te Whare katoa. Ā te tihi o Hikurangi Maunga te pāpā Tākuta Apirana Mahuika whārikihia ngā kupu ātaahua o Tākuta Hōhepa Tamehana ka mātānawe te manawa ka haehae taku kiri. Ka noho nei mātou ka tangi kua hinga he tōtara haemata. E te pāpā waiho mā mātou āu mahi whakahirahira e kawe āu wawata kia tutuki. Haere atu rā koe ki tōu Kaihanga ki ngā ringa mahana o Te Atua. Ā i a koe e takoto ana kai tō marae o Tikitiki ka rere ngā mihi whakanui i a koe ka tika. E te pāpā moe mai rā moe mai rā![Mr Speaker warm greetings to you and indeed to the entire House. To the summit of Mount Hikurangi fatherly figure Dr Apirana MahuikaI layout the beautiful words of Dr Hōhepa Tamehana. The heart is scarred and I am lacerated. We sit here and lament that a strong growing tōtara has fallen. Oh fatherly figure leave your magnificent work and your aspirations for us to address and fulfil. Go forth to your Creator and to the warming arms of the Lord. And while you lie in state uponyour courtyard of Tikitiki tributes extolling you fly about and rightly so. Rest fatherly figure rest!]As we mourn the loss of a great leader of our nation I rise today in quiet reflection on the work of this significant man. The calibre of this man will not be seen again in Te Ao Māori. He belonged to the ilk of a grand and noble generation. His legacy reminds us of our very foundation as a nation. In this 175th year since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed it is right to formally acknowledge the sacred covenant that our nation is built on and that he and his kind fought so hard to uphold. With the week of celebrations and commemorations complete this is our moment to dream big to dream loud and to be proud. This is our time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding unification document of our modern nation and to consider the partnership between Māori astangata whenua and the Crown.What does it mean to live up to the promise of Te Tiriti? When Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed we had a strong and vibrant community based around our marae and our culture. We were developing a robust economy trading with early tauiwi visitors and settlers and traversing the Pacific to trade on foreign soil. The Māori Party challenges this Government—indeed every Government—to honour the obligation it has in exercising kāwanatanga to support partnership with iwi and ensure that Māori retainrangatiratanga or self-determination.In 2014 we heard a lot about the rock star economy. The Prime Minister has outlined much about that rock star status today. The thing about a rock star is that they build their success on their fan base. In order to keep it at the top of the charts a true rock star must keep the fans happy. In essence they must be accountable. Some here may remember Sid Vicious—Hon Member: Who?MARAMA FOX: —Sid Vicious—who once said: “You can’t arrest me I’m a rock star.” But in real life his status meant nothing. When it came to doing what was right he should have been doing the right thing. And so when I compare our economic status as Māori 175 years ago and I look at all the posts that flood our Facebook accounts I have to wonder who constitutes the fan base being propped up by the rock star economy. The thing is if we are to dream big and live up to the aspirations of those who invested in Te Tiriti o Waitangi we have to insist on doing all that we can to restore our communities to the state of relative prosperity they enjoyed at first encounter in 1840. We owned 100 percent of Aotearoa. Māori were compared by health standards to the richest of European royals. We must restore our fan base. We must take decisive action to tackle poverty and its insidious effects. We must leave no stone unturned and in this I welcome the opportunity to work with the Government to tackle the crippling effects of poverty.We can start with putting greater income in the hands of those who need it. According to statistics between 2009 and 2014 a couple with children had their benefit increased by a mere $31 a week over that period while a single superannuitant had their income increased by $56 per week. We absolutely agree with the Children’s Commissioner that we must take a wide lens to this issue. Targeting benefit levels to bring them in line with the cost of putting healthy food on the table is a start. Let us be clear: the establishment of a ministerial committee on poverty—the Budget packages the Māori Party has consistently negotiated since 2008—has established that the elimination of poverty is our top priority. We are duty-bound to take poverty seriously to make poverty a thing of the past and to avoid getting distracted by token simplistic approaches. It is evident to us that poverty of the hand is in fact surpassed only by poverty of the mind and poverty of the spirit. It is simply not sustainable to say all our answers will come when we have school cafeterias in place to feed the kids. We need to raise benefit levels and extend the in-work tax credit to families living on a benefit. We need to create ongoing employment and to continue to support the amazing initiative established by the Māori Party for Māori and Pacific trade training cadetships apprenticeships building school scholarships and recruitment incentives for teachers.We are thrilled that trade training schemes like He Toki ki te Rika in Christchurch are producing fantastic results. Graduates are in paid employment or are undertaking further study. Partnerships between iwi industry and training providers are game-changers resulting in industry and training providers reviewing the way they work with Māori. Ninety-six percent of the graduates from the Māori Affairs cadetship programme have remained in paid employment or have gone on to further studies. All this leads to the Māori unemployment rate being the lowest it has been in 7 years. Do not get me wrong. We are utterly delighted with the investment we have been able to create in successful futures for so many of our young people through these schemes but there are two areas of ongoing priority we cannot ignore. We must increase benefit levels and at the same time we must continue to lift the minimum wage.The Māori Party asks the question: what gain is there by retaining the income abyss between life on a benefit and life in work? Professor Jonathan Boston suggested that the gap between those in work and those on a benefit has increased by 25 percent in a generation. What we want to know is why the gap needs to be so huge in order to incentivise people to work. We have to remember that two out of five families in poverty are also in work so simply getting into work is not in and of itself the answer. Both benefits and wages are too low and more direct immediate action is required.The Māori Party is not afraid to ask the hard questions. We do not want any piecemeal solutions. We do not need any tokenistic apologies or suggestions of constitutional change without sound policy or strategy to make sure that it is not just media-grabbing rhetoric. We believe in a value-added future—a future where the investment we make today will create optimism for tomorrow. We welcome the difference being made in social housing. So many poor families are paying far too much for their housing. We are pleased that those with high housing needs who live in properties run by approved community housing providers can get the same support that people in Housing New Zealand properties do.There is more to do. A warrant of fitness on social housing will ensure the Government does not abdicate its responsibility to protect the most vulnerable whānau. I was grateful to attend the launch of the Te Tai Tokerau economic development strategy working to build on the development of the Northland area for Māori. That strategy recognises that $2.4 billion was the contribution that Māori in Northland made to that economy every year. Māori in the Northland area in Te Tai Tokerau are the highest numbers of Māori entrepreneurs in the country. We must recognise that there is value added in Māori strategy. Working with iwi as the Government has agreed to do will ensure that we can bring to pass the actions of those strategies and not just the dreams.If the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is to come together in a unifying way we need to uphold its principles. It is time to make a tangible difference to the lives of our tamariki mokopuna; to recognise that we need to do so to ensure instead of flinging abuse from the cross benches that we can work together with the Government tirelessly and relentlessly to recognise Māori as value added to this country through real recognition of Te Tiriti o Waitangi; to find ways to enable all of our tamariki to thrive without fear of abuse without embarrassment of disparity and without hunger; and to ensure they and their whānau are housed in warm and safe homes.E Te Mana Whakawā nei rā mātou o Te Pāti Māori e tū ngātahi ki te taha o te Kāwana i runga i te wawata o Te Tiriti hei hiki i aua wawata o ngai tātou te iwi Māori hei hāpai i ngā hiahia. Tēnā koe tēnā tātou.[Mr Speaker we of the Māori Party stand in unison with the Government upon the desire that the Treaty will raise those aspirations of ours the Māori people and elevate the needs. Thank you and us.]