Sharples Pita: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Sharples Pita: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:640;Page:10432] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Kia ora tena koe; tenatatou katoa. I doubt that there would be many people in Kaeo this week who see the value of paying out $2 million to consultants to sort out the right venue for the Rugby World Cup stadium let alone paying out $4.6 million for the inflatable rugby ball in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I am pretty sure that the Oakura community would be more interested in the prosperity of their community in the southern hemisphere than in a 3-year loan to a modelling company in the United States—in the right hemisphere. 
The Maori Party comes to Vote Economic Industry and Regional Development acutely aware of the cost of the weather losses this nation has suffered in the last fortnight. Globally the cost of insured weather-related catastrophes amounted to almost $92 billion in 2005. The cost of the overall economic loss was as high as $210 billion. Typically the total economic losses are three times larger than the insurance costs. So when we come to the issue of sustainable economic development we cannot overlook the impacts of climate change and of how we manage it and operate and adapt for it. 
The Maori Party has long advocated the call for a genuine progress index that takes into account both sides of the ledger—the negatives such as crime pollution family breakdown and stress along with the positives. The overwhelming community spirit that has embraced the nation over these last few weeks has to be seen as a massive investment in the long-term quality of life although the scores of houses rendered inhabitable place a huge toll on us all. 
Although through our GDP we may boast that there has been an increase in jobs it fails ever to reflect the real state of living standards. It will not reflect the reality of some 12.7 percent of New Zealand’s families or about 266700 families who could not keep up with power gas or water payments over the course of the previous year. That is a lot of people to be struggling over their payments. 
 Although the Government may tell us that the rate of unemployment has dropped it does not give us the details of these families’ lives and the challenge they have simply in putting bread on the table. So we will not learn from the GDP figure that the biggest cause of financial difficulty causing problems for some 30.5 percent of Maori families is the pressure put on them simply by medical and dental bills. This is the real cost of progress. 
We in the Maori Party believe that the Crown has fallen far short of fulfilling the guarantees of article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi. When the Minister of Finance talks in glowing terms of promoting a savings culture does he recognise that Maori are far more likely to have no savings at all—23.9 percent of Maori are in this position compared with 14.4 percent of European—or that Maori are more likely to have bought something on hire purchase in the past year? These indicators are all part of a picture of kaupapa-based economic development that takes into account the collective interests of all people. 
So when we read the select committee comments from the Minister—noting a traditional reluctance to take market leadership in New Zealand—we cannot but think: “What about the incredible reputation Maori have earned in the global entrepreneurship stakes?”. Maori were placed third in the 30 OECD countries for their entrepreneurship in establishing new businesses. We know that the issue for Maori is not in the start up of new businesses but in the sustainability of those businesses yet the funding allocated fails to recognise this. 
For example we would know that the fact that the prison population has increased by 23 percent in the 6 years to 2005 to a massive 7496 inmates does not represent value for money. We would suggest that the genuine progress index cannot be measured in the numbers of prisons built or in the astronomically high rates of offending conviction and incarceration particularly of Maori. We would also suggest that genuine progress might be better reflected in ensuring the ecological footprint that we leave behind is not soiled by the costs of stripping the ozone layer bare or of air water and household pollution. 
Vote agreed to.