Fox Marama: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: General Debate[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:4990. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): That was quite entertaining. I was thinking to myself before I got up I wonder what I am going to talk about in terms of this wonderful relationship accord this mana-enhancing relationship that we have. Then I listened to all the mana-enhancing statements that were coming from my good friend Mr Brownlee in reference to our Labour Party colleagues.Actually you know what? We have been able to do some things by being in a confidence and supply agreement. We were able put our hand on our heart and say that from this recent Budget there was $1 billion that the Māori Party could say we had influence over to get gains for our whānau and that is why we are here. That is why we are in this agreement.I was asked on the weekend: “Marama why do you do it if you disagree with so many things?”. Yes there are some things we disagree with but we do it because we would rather be in and making a difference than sitting on the cross benches throwing stones and doing nothing. So what are some of the things we have agreed with? I have mentioned some of those today. Today we get to take our babies to the doctor for free if they are 13 years and under. Everybody is jumping up putting their hand up and saying: “But that’s our policy.” To be fair our policy was for the under-18s and we would like that to be the thing. We could not get that all the way through but we could make a change through the Ministerial Committee on Poverty get a change so that today under-13-year-olds can go to the doctor for free.But there is one thing in recent weeks that we categorically disagree with and that is the way in which these special housing areas have been determined without first having consultation with iwi and that is what I want to talk about today. This morning we were in an extended sitting. The Māori Affairs Committee a very hard-working committee sat this morning to discuss the Treaty claims and settlement bills that are before the House. The Minister at the time referred to the right of first refusal and given my generosity of spirit in the limited time available to us at the time I gave some of my time to my colleague Peeni Henare who wanted to extend some of his time. So here I get my chance to address the right of first refusal. This is where we categorically disagree.We believe that if you are going to have mixed-tenure areas on which you build a lot of houses that then get sold to private interests and are not being used for State housing that land is then open land that should be referred to iwi for right of first refusal. There is certainly some deficit theorising going on here. If the Minister does not think that the iwi are capable of building homes to the capacity that is needed in the Auckland area and therefore does not discuss with them the right of first refusal and the opportunity for those iwi to build homes that will help their people—not just because they can put people in them but also because they can have apprenticeships and those sorts of things in a culturally intelligent and responsive way in order to build communities with community input—then that is deficit theorising and believing at the outset that iwi do not have the capability.You need only to look as the Speaker did a few weeks ago when we went to Christchurch with Kai Tahu at the amazing opportunities that can come when communities come together and work together with iwi to develop housing areas that are culturally responsive culturally intelligent and supply homes for all ranges of people and where green spaces and wāhi tapu are also acknowledged.So that is the content of my kōrero today. Yes we are here in the Government working alongside it because we want to make a difference and we can do that in a number of ways with Ministers but we also have the independence and the right to disagree when we fundamentally disagree about something and on this we disagree. We will continue to uphold the rights of iwi and we will continue to push the rights of iwi as long as they knock at our door and require us to do that—I tell you now. Thank you.