Sharples Pita: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sharples Pita: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4213. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairman. I would like to take a call on employment because although MPs do not exactly create jobs they are in a position to influence the creation of jobs and most certainly training. Everyone knows that many of the unemployed are Maori and many of them are young people. The previous speaker referred to trade training and creating opportunities for people to enter into the workforce and that is what has been happening. Under Te Puni Kokiri we have established 1800 cadetships in a scheme where people go and work for a company for 6 months. It is subsidised by Te Puni Kokiri—$10000 per student. They are trained for 6 months and are often kept on longer. Many find jobs in those particular areas. These include the electrical supply industry aviation travel infrastructure InfraTrain—all those companies. It is working very well. 
But the good thing that I believe that we have to move into is actual trade training. In Christchurch straight after the earthquake we negotiated with the main builders down there that they should become involved in supporting a trade training programme in particular for Maori because that is my portfolio but also because they are overrepresented in the unskilled untrained and unemployed. So we started this programme He Toki ki te Ringa which is “a tool in the hand to work with” and trained 200 Maori in trade training. It is a joint deal between the Maori education institutions down there along with the Christchurch Polytechnic and the iwi Ngai Tahu. So working together—one providing pastoral care another one providing the actual tuition and another one providing tools and support in that area. It has worked very well. Just recently the Government has put another $1 million into that project so it can carry on and grow. 
That is the formal programme but also down there the Maori who trained in trade training in the 1960s 1970s and 1980s who live in Christchurch where a lot of it was done have come together. They now own companies in carpentry plumbing and the like—the trades—and they have come together and formed a co-op. They have tono-ed and got jobs from Fletcher’s Mainzeal Property and Construction and Hawkins Construction the builders down there. They have got contracts and what they do is they take on young unemployed Maori to work alongside them for a minimum wage but afterwards they give them a full wage in working towards an apprenticeship. I think that is a really good thing that they are doing. 
Now we are going to do another one in Auckland under a programme called “MITE”—Maori into Tertiary Education. It is a programme between all the tertiary institutions there where any young person can trace how to become a carpenter how to become a nurse how to become a doctor how to become a lawyer or whatever profession or trade they are interested in. Once again we are going to get different employer groups together to see whether they would also take on young people and train them in those areas of work as well. We will be calling all the trade trainees of the 1960s and 1970s in Auckland to come together for a hui and a dinner and at that time we will present the kaupapa to them. We expect quite a lot of support from them to take up these apprentices to work for them. 
I think these are all positive and what I do think about it is that it is something that any of us can get involved in. For example down in Napier we have a situation where young gang prospects were gathered together by the local iwi and told to take off their jackets and come into the compound. A tutor from the local polytech in Napier comes in and he gives them free tuition for 1 year in carpentry. At the end of that they enrol formally into the polytech and become students there to carry on and do their apprenticeships. Out of the 29 students or gang prospects 27 are still on that programme. They have lost only two. They have got rid of their jackets; they do not even bring them any more. They are looked after in pastoral care by the elders who teach them the etiquette of the marae and teach them how to speak Maori. They teach them about pride dress and the basic pastoral care of living and belonging. I think that combination for many people who have been long-term unemployed of pastoral care together with training and together with guidance is a very good formula that actually works. So I look forward to that programme extending. We are going to take it to Waipukurau just a few miles down then hopefully it will extend to Wairoa where there is real need for employment. So there is much we can do even though we are MPs and do not actually have the industry ourselves to create jobs. But we can work with other people to do so. Thank you.