Henare Tau: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15773. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (National): Fancy living in a Housing New Zealand home for 50-odd years. Fancy not going and buying your own house. Fancy not asking the Government for assistance to buy your own house but rather staying there for 50 years. It is a State house. It belongs to the State. It is there to help those in need for goodness’ sake. That is the reason for a State house.Moana Mackey: He was in need.Hon TAU HENARE: And while we are talking about State houses Ms Mackey—before she goes—cast your minds back to 1936 and Michael Joseph Savage. Phil Goff was there but I was not. Cast your mind back to that day when Michael Joseph Savage was given a broken gold watch three huia feathers and a pounamu tiki. They represented the deal done between Rātana and Labour. Four years later Mickey Savage died. Since then no one has seen these taonga these artefacts that supposedly bound the Labour Party and Rātana together—or I should say that supposedly bound Māori together with the Labour Party in 1936. You would have thought that Labour would keep hold of them. You would have thought that they were so precious and they meant so much to the Labour Party and to New Zealand in fact that these taonga would be kept on display for the rest of the nation to see.So let us talk about relationships and where they go. Let us talk about Treaty settlements and the 67 Treaty settlements since they were established. Out of 67 Treaty settlements 41 were settled under National in the last 5 years. Billions of dollars were created out of those just settlements and theTūhoe settlement is still to come. There were 26 of those 67 settlements in the 9 years—9 years—of the Labour Government. When I delivered the Muriwhenua report as Minister of Māori Affairs way back last century some bright spark on the other side said: “Er mate what we’re going to do is wait for Labour because they’ll give us more.” Well they waited for Labour and Labour came and went. In those 9 years Muriwhenua still had not been settled. It is only through the good grace of our Cabinet and of our Ministerfor Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Chris Finlayson that on the weekend a deal was signed with Ngāti Kurī part of the Muriwhenua conglomerate.What have we done in terms of land use? Well let us have a look at Te Ture Whenua Maori Act / Maori Land Act. There is around $8 billion worth of land that actually sits idle because nobody had thought of trying to unlock it. Who is out there now trying to unlock that? Who is out there doing the business to review Te Ture Whenua Maori Act? None other than National and the Māori Party. That is what we call “engagement”—engagement. You know I love to go to huis and listen to how Labour has a great relationship withMāori. Labour members talk a good game but who delivers on that relationship? It is the National Party. Who fundedkōhanga reo first and foremost? Oh that is right it was actually Muldoon who funded kōhanga reo way back. But anybody would have thought that it is this relationship betweenMāori and Labour that does all of this. It is not. It is not. It is a lie.The previous speaker Moana Mackey talked about housing. Well here is something that all New Zealand should know about. AtRātana there are houses—State houses even—that were in need of some work. And who was the Government member who sat down in a relationship withRātana about this? My colleague and my friend the former Minister of Housing the Hon Phil Heatley. All of those homes have been fixed they have been made warm and they have been made safe for that community. You would have thought that over a 70-year period Labour would do something along the lines of a real relationship but oh no. The real relationship comes when there are people who are interested not in talking a good game but in playing a good game. That is the difference between Labour and National. National does not just sit there and pontificate and talk a good game; our Ministers get in and get their hands dirty and do that—$100 million has been spent on the insulation project. Many of those homes that have been insulated are Māori homes. There was nothing under Labour.Hon Dr Nick Smith: 45 percent.Hon TAU HENARE: Forty-five percent of those homes are Māori homes.I think that what we are seeing today is the realignment of where history should sit—that is that National has been good for the relationship with Māori. Have a look at education for goodness’ sake. In terms of early childhood education there are more Māori in early childhood education than ever before. The uptake of early childhood education for Māori families is hugely significant—hugely significant. There are more Māori achieving now under national standards and under the National Certificate of Educational Achievement than ever before. They are staying at school longer. There are more graduates from wānanga from universities and from polytechs. Out of 9000 places under the Youth Guarantee scheme 4000 are Māori students—4000 are Māori young people.So when it comes to talking about relationships the delivery of service to Māori under a National Government is beyond reproach. We have done our fair share. I implore the community to think very seriously about where their vote goes. It is OK in the individual vote. I mean people have their own individual preferences. But as my colleague said the most important vote is the party vote because that is the party you want to see in Government. Who do you think—no not you Mr Deputy Speaker; them folks out there—should govern this country on behalf of the country? That is why I say to those who have been duped over the last few years—Māori and others and the Pacific Island community as well—by this touchy-touchy-feely-feely way of handling politics where members have empathy with the poor old Pacific Island community they have empathy with the poor old Māori community and they even go to lengths like I saw at Waitangi the other day with David Cunliffe trying his best to pull the waka on board trying to say—Hon Phil Goff: Where were you?Hon TAU HENARE: Where was I? Actually I was planning my father’s unveiling that day Mr Goff.Hon Phil Goff: OK. We’ll let you off then.Hon TAU HENARE: Oh you will let me off. That is the attitude—Hon Maurice Williamson: Sanctimonious.Hon TAU HENARE: —the sanctimonious attitude with something like that. When somebody tells the truth they go back into their little shell and—Hon Maurice Williamson: “We’ll let you off.”Hon TAU HENARE: Yes “We’ll let you off.” Well thanks very much. Thanks very much Phil. I am sure my father feels great at this moment 6 feet under or wherever he is.You know the fact of the matter is that we have delivered on our relationship with tangata whenua and delivered so much that we will keep delivering because it is good for the country—not because Māori want it and not because we think that Māori want it but because it is good for the relationship between the Government and tangata whenua. Kia ora.