Samuels Dover: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Samuels Dover: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7440] 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS (Minister of State) 
: 
Hutia te rito o te harakeke kei hea te komako e ko? Whakatairangitia rere ki uta rere ki tai! Ka ki mai koe ki ahau he aha te mea nui o tenei ao? Maku e ki atu ki a koe he tangata he tangata he tangata e! If one takes the heart out of the cabbage tree where will the bellbird fly? It will look to the sea; it will look to the heavens. If one were to ask me what the greatest thing on this Earth is I would say it is people it is people it is people. 
I am heartened by the welcome from my colleague David Cunliffe to all the members who have come back from a good holiday. Is it not beautiful to enjoy the great outdoors of Aotearoa—to be able to go out diving and fishing to come back with one’s quota of kina and to lie on the beach? Certainly those days are very memorable for myself. Friends like Ron Mark with his lovely lady Chris also came up to enjoy lying on the beach. Is it not beautiful to be able to enjoy the New Zealand lifestyle and the way of life that New Zealanders know how to enjoy? For me it was a most enjoyable holiday. 
It was as I was lying there in my bikini enjoying the sun of the far north— 
Shane Ardern 
: Didn’t you feel sorry for the other people on the beach? 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS 
: I just say to my honourable friend that I wear a topless one. As I lay there enjoying the sun and getting a bit of a suntan a chap passed me and threw a publication in my face. I said I did not want to read anything more about the agendas of Parliament the Standing Orders or what we will do in the select committee. I was there to relax and enjoy a New Zealand holiday. But he said to read it. So I just picked it up and looked at it. 
The publication was interesting because I read some quotes that went something like this: “All of the square buggers in the leadership have decided to put the brakes on everything because they have got some clever bloody strategy I suppose of which I’m buggered if I know because they certainly aren’t telling anybody. Quite frankly it’s pissing me off. They are trying too hard in my view to prove that we can be as dull and lifeless and conservative and as boring as everybody else and I think that’s the death knell for the Maori Party.” 
Now who said that? I wonder who said that. Well if I look here I see that the quotes were made by the member for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira. That is what he said. I thought to myself while I was lying at Matauri Bay beach in my bikini that the last thing I wanted to hear were quotes from Hone yet somebody thrust them at me. The gloves are coming off. The quotes are in some magazine of Derek Fox’s. It quotes Hone saying it would be the death knell of the Maori Party if it kept up those antics. 
But I am standing here to make a contribution to the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement. I am interested in the underlying messages she portrayed to this Parliament about the need for strong leadership and for driven strategies for our economy our society our environment our culture and our New Zealand way of life. That inspires me—as a red-blooded Kiwi that inspires me. I looked at a number of the statements that were made and I want to relate to them. 
We talk about economic transformation. When I came into this House in the late 1990s—in 1999—I used to drive through a lot of our rural towns starting in Kaitaia and going down through Moerewa Kaikohe Kawakawa and Whangarei. I noticed at that time that all the windows of the shops were boarded up. There was very little activity. People were depressed and suppressed. On television every night we heard that farms were being sold in fire sales and that the unemployment rate for Maori was nearly 21 percent. We cannot imagine it now. I think the rate of general unemployment was something like 11 percent. 
Well let us look at today. I invite members of this House to drive around the far north starting in Hone Harawira’s patch up in Kaitaia and to see how well people are doing. 
Hone Harawira 
: Nau mai haere mai! 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS 
: Haere mai! There is the invitation. Haere mai piki mai kake mai! 
[ 
Welcome climb up come aboard! 
] 
I remember the old vintage car rally up there. Some of our colleagues were amazed at the economic transformation which was real to the people. It was not just something out of a dictionary. It was not an argument or a debate by intellectual economists. They saw with their eyes that they could not even rent a shop or an office space in any of those towns. Members should come to Moerewa. People used to bypass Moerewa. I know that Mr Deputy Speaker knows Moerewa very well and Kawakawa. If members come there now they will see people out on the footpaths having coffee. One can see the uplifted spirits of ordinary New Zealanders. 
To me that is what it is all about. These are the tangible things that have been achieved by this Government and the majority of New Zealanders relate to it. New Zealanders do not relate to a lot of the humbug that goes on in this House on many occasions but they relate to the ordinary things that people enjoy out on the street. 
The next thing I want to talk about in this House is the issue of leadership. This has been a wonderful debate about leadership. The Tories—the Nats—have been flying the flag in terms of their new leader. But I sometimes wonder whether I am suffering from some sort of amnesia or Parkinson’s disease and I will tell members why. It is because 6 months ago in this House they were praising and clapping Don Brash. He was the messiah of the Tories of the National Party of the conservatives. How did he become their messiah? The day of the resurrection was at Orewa when he walked over the backs of the Maori nation—when he said to the Maori nation: “We will abolish the Maori seats if we become the Government.” 
At that time I never saw one Tory get up and disagree with Don Brash—not one; not even the MP from “Ngati Helensville”. He never said a word. It was witnessed by this House and this nation that every National member thought that Don Brash was the messiah. What has happened? That was only 6 months ago—happy New Year merry Christmas—what happened? The National members say “Hallelujah”. They stabbed poor old Don in the back for saying things that they really agreed with him about in terms of the Maori seats—separatism different laws for Maori blah-blah-blah it goes on. 
But National members have a new leader. They have changed the colour changed the stance and changed the words. He began to like the Maori people to the extent that he accepted the invitation by Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples for a poisoned kumara dinner. Look at the change and at what has happened within a period of 6 months! Even my whanaunga Hone does not believe it. I think he is the only one in the Maori Party who does not believe it. 
Ron Mark 
: The gloves are off. 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS 
: I do not know about the bloody gloves but I have something here that my whanaunga Shane has just passed on to me about my whanau. It states that my whanau in the north know that the Maori Party leadership cannot be trusted. It is pokeno devoid of substance like an empty calabash—hollow. Who knows maybe the hollow men have taught them. 
Dr Sharples and Tariana Turia prostrate themselves tapapa [ 
stooping 
] or is it kupapa [ 
going stealthily 
] at the feet of John Key. They sing a waiata—“Pearly shells by the ocean”—about the foreshore and seabed hoping that their feeble seabed bill will be supported but horekau [ 
none 
] kahore [ 
nothing 
] there has been a change in position again. At one time “JK” supported the Maori Party or said that National would support the Maori Party in terms of repealing the seabed Act. What happened? Merry Christmas happy New Year there was a different change a different flop and they were talking to the wrong person. I turned on the TV and National members were saying: “Oh we are not going to support Hone Harawira with the foreshore and seabed bill. All those conservative Pakeha who supported us at Orewa would crucify us. Pai kare we have to change this around let’s do another flip-flop!”. 
Na reira kei te mihi atu ki a tatou katoa. I can see you waving your pokarekare [ 
agitated 
] hands at me Mr Deputy Speaker so it is time for me to sit down. Tena koutou tena koutou happy New Year. Kia ora mai anotatou katoa.