Sharples Pita: Valedictory StatementsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Valedictory Statements[Sitting date: 24 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19555. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs):Kai ngā mana kai ngā reo kai Te Whare e ōku hoa o Te Whare Pāremata tēnā koutou. Ki a Ngāti Kahungunu mōhio ana au kei konei koutou i hara mai ā-pahi nā koutou au i whakatōkia ki roto nei nā reira tangohia ahau kia hoki au ki te kāinga ā tēnā koutou katoa. He rau aku whakaaro i tēnei wā.[To the powers voices the House and my fellow colleagues of the House of Representatives greetings to you. Ngāti Kahungunu I know you are present and came on a bus you planted me here and so remove and take me home. My thanks to you all. At this point in time I have a hundred thoughts.]I am really full of different thoughts today—pretty mixed—as I think back over the last 9 years of my life. You know the history of us: foreshore and seabed the hīkoi Tariana did not know where she sat crossed the floor and made history—that was really brilliant—and then we had a whole lot of hui up and down the country and we formed the Māori Party and we came. In our first election we won four of the Māori seats Tariana myself and—where is he; what is your name again? And Te Ururoa and Hone somebody—Hone Harawira.So we were very vocal over 3 years. We sat on the cross benches over here and we threw stones at everything that Labour put up. We got a lot of following from outside. People said: “Yeah you’re doing a good job in there.” We did not win anything we did not do anything but we just made a lot of noise and we got a lot of press. And that got us an extra seat at the next election. So then Rahui—kia ora Rahui—joined us and then there were five.Then we had a major row and then there were four and the Mana Party as a result of that. So that is what happened—that split. Also he and others mounted a campaign about being in Government with National and they invited us in we went back had 30 hui up and down the country and every hui said: “Yes go into Government. Give it a burst.” So we did. I would like to acknowledge John Key and the whole structure of the National Party that explained why they would like to go with us. There were good reasons and an opportunity for us to have a chance at the table. We were honoured by that. Thank you very much and we joined up with you.Over the next period we got a lot of goodies for our people both in terms of passing bills but also in terms of pūtea—money—to allow projects to go ahead and so on. It was a really good experience though for us to do that. But the reality is our popularity slipped right down with the conflict between Mana and the Māori Party. But also there was a campaign against us being with National. It was painted as the bad guy by this Māori lobby in particular. So at the last election although National did all right with Māori Labour did all right. I think that was the backlash on us being in that Government.So what do you say to that you know? I just tell you straight that I go up and down the country talking to my people and I say to you—and I say it again now—that Parliament is a Westminster system. It is all about the vote. If you are able to secure the vote you are able to secure change and progress for you and your party. It is not just how loud you protest outside or the issues you bring up; this is about sitting at the table. You have got to be at the table. That is why parties go to extraordinary lengths to try to do deals and be at the table and so on and that is great—that is the system. But just know that that is the system.I really feel strongly that there should be a programme introduced in schools. This is what we did with Te Reo Māori. It was slipping away—gone burger. Then suddenly we brought in kōhanga reo and started teaching the little ones. Now they are reading the news in Māori. Now they are working for companies. Now they have got their own companies kōrero Māori ana. And it works. So what about if we had some lessons in schools about our system of government: what it is what you do there how you make laws and you get rewards and things for your people? So that is my big thing at this time. I really feel our people are so far away from understanding that. The fact that they do not vote is testimony to that too. You ask them “You voting?”. “Nah not really what for?”.So people I would like to say thank you to a whole lot of people at the outset so you get that one going. To my tribe Ngāti Kahungunu—I know many of you are here kaumātua and stuff—Hoani Waititi Marae Manutaki Te Whare Tu Taua kura all these organisations thank you for coming and being here on my last speaking day. It is a great day because I have had three speeches already and one question and I did not have to correct any records. It is embarrassing coming back and “Oh point of order.”—but I am an expert at that anyway.So Tāmaki Makaurau you have got to be the best committee in the world. You have done good by me. We have won every election we have gone for and we are going to win one for Rangi there—he is sitting up there—this time. You are a great great committee—all our branches and of course the voters of Tāmaki Makaurau which is most of Auckland City there or the natives in there anyway.I had an A-team who doorknocked and they doorknocked just about every weekend on our first election. They went out it rained and they got wet and then they went out again it rained and they got wet and they went out every weekend. Every weekend they had a karakia and then they went out and I want you to know that the baby of the group was aged 65 and there was a whole group of them. They were dedicated because they said: “At last our time has come. We have a Māori party.”And you know that was inspiration for us to bring our Māori kaupapa in here. Do you know that every time you put a bill up to us we put it down here and we say—this is a good criterion and our team has to go through this—“Kotahitanga: does it unite us and does it unite New Zealand? Manaakitanga: is this a caring bill? Will people be hurt by this bill?”. With every single bill whether it is about crossing the road or whether it is about a new building law or a new security law or whatever we put it through that test. We have stuck to our kaupapa and voted accordingly. So I just wanted you to know that. We go by that kaupapa and I know that most Māori in here would like to do that too. So maybe there is something there that the big parties can think about—to understand that these are real tikanga and not just made-up rules to go by stuff.So thank you Tāmaki Makaurau. Our current president is up here—kia ora Naida thank you for being here lifelong friend. Vice-presidents Ken and Donna thank you. Past presidents Pem Bird and Whatarangi Winiata—amazing man a really amazing man. He was great on the tāngas. He had a tānga for everything. And of course our past MPs Rahui and—what is his name? Oh Hone. That is right—Hone. [Interruption] No do not laugh. He sent a message and he said I am cool. How is that? I wonder what he said to his wife.Anyway what an adventure we have had. It has been a great adventure being together. I really did not know Tariana personally until all this stuff happened and then suddenly we were joined at the hip for 9 years. And if you are joined at the hip with Tariana it is quite an experience. [Interruption] Why are you laughing? OK I thought I had better check that out—OK.So National Party I have got some things to say about you but let us just move down the list a bit. To the parliamentary precincts staff thank you very much. We cannot operate without you guys. The VIP car drivers—I really have to thank you and so do you Tariana because you and I and the Prime Minister always have the highest expenses on the cars. You know with those cars and the odd flight I can do four cities and five meetings in 1 day so it really really works. I mean if you have got a portfolio like mine where you have got to get out with the people it really helps so do not stop that one.The cleaners—thank you. The messengers and staff around Parliament who make this place tick over and who look after all MPs are really really good. My electorate staff my staff here and my personal staff and private secretaries—awesome. I have had nothing but good staff. They are really really good. So Veronica Martin Kymberly back there and my big team here—I will not name you all tonight but there are so jolly many of you that I must say that I really appreciate you all. You have made my life here very easy.So Te Puni Kōkiri you get the rough end of the deal many times and everybody seems to have a sort of love-hate relationship with you. Do not stop working—you are doing a great job. You do stuff you clean up after everybody and you hold the mana for us. When things Māori go wrong in this place you are asked to fix it and so on and there are some beautiful people in there—thank you. I would like to acknowledge Leith and Michelle the leaders and others in that department.Corrections officials—always good. That is because as I used to say I have been in and out of prisons all my life. But I have been working in prisons all my life so it is really easy working with them. Education people—I had a few drinks last night for anyone who sort of works for me and education came en masse because they have been great. Tātaiako—I said: “You know we need this thing about culturally understanding your Māori student.” and they wrote it. They got it written and produced. Māori history in schools—it is now there. You never knew about Te Whatu i apiti or Te Kikiri o Te Rangi but you knew about Sir Walter Raleigh and you knew about one or two of those other people—the Magna Carta and all that stuff. You see you are not related to Sir Walter Raleigh. I am related to Te Whatu i apiti. I am related to Te Kikiri o Te Rangi and he did far more than Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake. And yet you do not know him and that is not fair. You should know him and share in our history before Cook and then we can enjoy each other and where we come from and where we are going. So I really respect my education officials who have done heaps of stuff for me.The iwi leaders and community leaders—it has been great working with you. We have all met each other over the years and they change and so on but I really enjoy working with you iwi leaders and I will continue to do that. Then there are the committees that I have set up which you have been on. Te Paepae Motuhake thank you very much to Tāmati Reedy and your team. Constitutional review thank you very much—some heavies on that one. Māori Economic Taskforce—some of them are here tonight. Te Puni Kōkiri refocus group—there are many committees and I would like to thank you all.I would really like to thank my family. I am like here and I am not here. “Shall we go somewhere tomorrow night?”. “Oh I have got to go to Wellington.” “Again?”. I said: “That’s where my job is.” and this is how it goes. Well now they will probably say: “Aren’t you going to Wellington?”.I am really happy that we were able to effect some things. The things I have enjoyed were the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. One of my first tasks I decided as a Minister in 2009-10 was to negotiate New Zealand’s support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples knowing that New Zealand Australia USA and Canada were not involved in that at the time I went with New Zealand and presented it chanted my way up did the Māori thing that we do. I finished it they all cheered and my New Zealand team was just going to sing our waiata and the Hawaiians jumped up and the Sami jumped up and the whole place erupted in different cultural dances. So they were really pleased. The next thing I knew the President sent down Senator Price from the White House group to start negotiating what they were going to do. Canada called us to a meeting and said they were going to do something so it was really good that we were able to trigger that off.We have got a wall in the United Nations. It is all shabby but it is rimu—it is a beautiful wall but it is really really paru. So we asked whether we could bring some tukutuku and stuff in here and they said no we have got too many. So I said: “Well we’ll do our wall up.” So we had some beautiful tukutuku panels made—really lots of them and they have been measured to suit there and I am looking forward to joining Toi Māori Aotearoa and Te Puni Kōkiri taking those over and presenting them in the near future so that is going to be good.Māori language strategy—we had the Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill today. It has been passed to go to select committee so that is good. I was pleased to hear Nanaia say that this is not to be to be a political football. It is not. I did not cover all the things in my speech today but those things can be answered so please find out from your leader or I am happy to meet with you and talk about that and so on.Our Māori economic strategy has grown into He Kai Kei Aku Ringa a department now shared between the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment and Te Puni Kōkiri. We foster Māori trade overseas and economic development in New Zealand of all kinds—small to medium enterprises and so on. We started the review of the Māori economy. It was said to be $16.4 billion and now we found out actually it is $37 billion; it is more likely $40 billion now. So we are worth a bit and we have done many excursions into Asia and to China to build up those relationships and sales.The Auckland super-city—thank you Government for that. Although we lost the fight we had a march eh Willie? We had a march up Queen Street and we had meeting after meeting honouring the royal commission which wanted three designated seats for Māori because they do not normally make the committee and that was going to be a big super-city. We needed them on there. Rodney was not in favour of that. Rodney was in charge of the whole thing—we could not just exchange him he threw his toys all the way out of the cot and so we lost that one and we did not have any after many arguments. God he does not listen. Because of that we went to another meeting to decide what the Māori advisory committee should do. We piped up and said: “Ah it should be statutory.”It was passed and now it is doing such a good job and I hope that that is a model other cities will use—to have a stand-alone statutory Māori committee with its own budget that can sit alongside at the top meetings and so on.Well you think you know your Prime Minister. I am going to just give you the real Prime Minister. You are a strong forceful leader albeit with a strange sense of humour. I do not know how you are going to get on at Waitangi pōwhiri without me to look after you. Do you know the whole of New Zealand watches the Waitangi Day TV report just to see what happens to you at the pōwhiri? There was “nanny-gate”. The “nanny-gate” pōwhiri held up the whole proceedings for an hour while Titewhai with her daughter Hinewhare in tow conducted a public dispute with another nanny about who would escort the Prime Minister on to the marae. Many of you were there on this occasion. Naida dived into the scrum trying to sort it out and there they were waiting waiting. Finally the Prime Minister arrived but they were not ready so they had another fight. I was worried about my wife getting knocked over because she had a crook leg at the time. Suddenly I see her in the middle of the scrum arms going flat out like this. I said: “Oh my God! They are both her aunties. What is going to happen?”. And so on. So I was worried about her. “Nek minnit” there she was right in the middle of the scrum. Anyway I think they all had a piece of you that day Prime Minister. You are a warrior.Then there was the “lock-up - gate” pōwhiri where we were lured into the wharenui and we were told the door would be locked and we would not be allowed to leave until you agreed to their local requests. We eventually got out of there. And then there was “speech-gate” pōwhiri. While I spoke there was complete silence on the marae. Either they were mesmerized by my wisdom or they could not care less and were just waiting for you. Anyway as soon as you stood your old friends the brothers began drowning you out on their megaphones from behind. In order to be heard you walked on to the marae and the noise followed you and got louder and louder. You walked further and further and you almost sat down on the other side. You were right there on the other side. I thought: “Hmm I am sure that is not a rule on the marae.” Yep so that is OK.The last pōwhiri was “fish-gate”. Some disgruntled ex-fan of yours Prime Minister decided to share his lunch with you. He tossed a whole fish at us. But the pōwhiri of pōwhiris was “tussle-gate”. To explain Hone’s nephew’s security just came in and decided to have a piece of the Prime Minister and they just dived into us. Security was everywhere. I got pushed backwards with a post behind me and over I went. Next minute there were feet all around my head. I was looking up and they were all looking after the Prime Minister and tramping on me—I was just lying there shoes against my head while I was lying there trying to get up. Then they finally pulled the bros off and unaided I staggered to my feet—your most loyal Minister. As I said on the day on Breakfast I would have taken a bullet that day.Minister English—Tariana and I have a loving relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister Bill English. We love both him and his cupboards full of money. Minister English made an unreasonable assumption about us. He said we came to our meetings armed with psychological tactics to relieve him of some of his pūtea his money. He said Tariana attacks first leads the charge and bombards him with statistics and surveys about Māori communities’ needs. She goes on and on until he feels guilty or afraid and after some time out comes the cheque book. Just take a note of that formula. Then he says I follow on with my magnetic charm making him feel relaxed and comfortable and asking how his wife and children are. His sore back—is it getting better? I compliment his aroha ki te iwi Māori and—boom—out comes the cheque book with a signature. Well that is his story. I do not think it quite goes like that but thank you for all the assistance you have given our projects that we have put before you.Minister Finlayson—we received our ministerial portfolios in November and December 2008. That Christmas summer holidays Minister Finlayson was out amongst the iwi of New Zealand making initial contacts—before Christmas before dinner. We had just got appointed and he was out doing settlements and assessments over Treaty settlement issues. He probably had Christmas breakfast at Ruātoki lunch at Mōhaka and Christmas pudding in the Hokianga. Your relationship with iwi is always rangatira ki te rangatira and you lead and inspire your field teams with the same dignity and me and Tariana as well. Thank you Minister and thank you also for your Māori affairs work on freeing up the Māori land for production. I am waiting.Hekia—she comes from that tribe where kāhore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka [the sweet potato does not boast about its sweetness] does not apply. In fact it is almost compulsory in that tribe to talk about yourself. But she is the only Minister to karanga and pōwhiri me into her meetings that we have every week singing “Haere mai rā …” or some Ngati Porou song that has about eight verses or something. As a Minister Hekia is strong. She has inherited enormous projects like fronting for the Novopay debacle the schools earthquake recovery in Christchurch Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust difficulties and a large education portfolio generally. I think she is “mean Māori mean” and is a great example of tū Māori mai. Kia ora.And just the last one—I would like to acknowledge Nick Smith. Tēnā koe Nick. Te noho koe ki a au i ēnei tau kia pahure ake. [Thank you Nick. You remained with me through these past years.] Thank you for your friendship and for educating me on climate change—how you sell nothing for something or is it something for nothing? I do not know whether I have got that one worked out properly. Anyway you always made time to explain stuff for me particularly in the information communications technology world.Ki ngā mema Pāremata i mahitahi i ahau tēnā koutou. [To those members of Parliament who worked with me thank you.]Everybody and the Speakers in this House thank you very much.Tari and Te Ururoa—I would like to acknowledge my companion MPs Tariana and Te Ururoa. For a decade we have worked together and lived together creating a Māori presence in the House in our committees and in our ministerial and leadership roles. One day Tari and I were having a scrap in caucus and she was getting really vocal and I was sort of being cool you know like that. We both looked at our president Whatarangi. “Whatarangi?” And he goes “Ah yes. Tariana is showing rangatiratanga. She’s leading out and being strong about her project. Pita—he’s showing manaakitanga caring and so on.” like this. We are looking at each other—so? Then he goes “What we really need here is kotahitanga.” Because that is the kaupapa we had to accept it. So we got on.We have had a good relationship eh my bro. Where is he? At the back taking my seat. He is the only MP who goes out on the road with two right shoes. We get to the whare and he goes “Take your shoes off.” “No they said leave them on.” “No take them off.”—because he had two right shoes. Sorry for that. We have followed the advice of the late colonel Sir James Hēnare who said to the Māori Battalion when they arrived back from the war: “Go home to your marae. Go home to your mountain. Go home to your river. Go home to your land. Go home to your whanau. Ēngari i ngā wā katoa. tū Māori mai. [But remain a Māori at all times.]But at all times tū Māori mai—remember.” That applies to anyone not just Māori. Be strong be yourself and carry on and change the world.So thank you very much. I have gone over time but it has been a real honour to work with these two and to live with these two over the time. I would just like to abuse the system. I have got a lot of mokopuna. They are all here—downstairs I guess—but I have got one great mokopuna. He is 1 now and his name is Kanohi Tuhanga and I want to speak to him now. E moko in 30 years you can become the new co-leader of the Māori Party. You will have more than 20 Māori caucus members and be deciding which ones should be in the House of Representatives—in Parliament—and which ones should be in the Upper Treaty Senate which 30 years ago began with our constitutional review. Moko in 30 years’ time you will be dealing with a superministry called Whānau Ora. In my time they had separate ministries—social development education employment and so on. Moko in 30 years’ time you will be dealing with the chief executive officers of Māori statutory boards all around the country. In my time we had to have a hīkoi we had to have lots of hui a scrap in Cabinet to get the first one up and running in Auckland. In 30 years’ time you will be dealing with a Minister for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Negotiations. Yes that is right—that is the one who replaced the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations after all the settlements were completed. In my time when we got the declarations signed they said it would not mean anything—oh by the way that is what they said about the Treaty as well. Moko in 30 years’ time you will be dealing with all the Whare Ōranga Ake units that have been created. Back in my time they were called prisons and did not provide any rehabilitation programmes. Oh yes moko keep up with your English language because in 30 years’ time Te Reo Māori will be the official language of New Zealand spoken by all. And so mokopuna grow strong; you have much to do. Tēnā tātou.WaiataHakaWaiata