Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7552. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kei te Whare Paremata tena koutou i tenei rangi. Ka mihi ra ki a tatau me nga mate kua pa mai ki tena ki tena o tatau i nga ra whakata kua hipa ake. Waiho ratau kia moe kia okioki. Ko ta tatau ko te poroporoaki i a ratau hoi ano waiho ratau kia moe. Huri noa i to tatau Whare nga mihi o te Tau Hou ki tena ki tena o koutou. Tena koutou tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
[ 
Salutations to each of you in the House today. I salute us and the deaths that each of you and us experienced in the holidays just past. Allow them to sleep and rest. Our job is to farewell them so let them lie there. Greetings of the New Year to each of you throughout our House. Salutations acknowledgments greetings to you and to us all. 
] 
Following statements from the earlier speaker the Hon Jo Goodhew it is good to be back. It is good to be back from a break. Firstly to the capital city which is looking pretty nice today—absolutely beautiful. As Wellington people would say you cannot beat Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara on a good day. It is wonderful that the golden weather has arrived just in time for one of the world’s greatest sporting parties the Wellington Sevens. We are going to see I am sure some fabulous creativity on and off the field. I am sure we are going to see people cheering singing strutting their stuff and other activities. It is going to be a pretty massive celebration as well as a fierce competition. If only we could borrow some of that spirit for this Chamber for the rest of the year that would be pretty awesome. 
The second reason it is good to be back is that it means an end to the silly season of commentators interviewing themselves about politics. As I read the summaries of 2012 and of course the forecasts for 2013 I was struck again and again by how many journalists and commentators and “blogsters” find it hard to describe or categorise where the Maori Party sits. Are we left are we right or are we in the centre? That is what they ask. I suspect—and he will probably not thank me for this—that David Farrar of Curiablog is the only commentator who gets it right consistently. Whenever he analyses the potential coalition outcomes of a new political poll he notes that “The Maori Party is not shown as part of the centre-right or the centre-left.” He is on the money—he got it quite right. 
The Maori Party is not about labels that have been imported from other political traditions. We have our own kaupapa. I know that it can make it difficult for mainstream commentators to understand what we are on about or to explain it succinctly and accurately to their readers. We are proudly different from any of the other parties in this House. We are not from the right which thinks that politics is about smaller government allowing big business to create wealth that then magically trickles down to everybody else. We are not from the left which thinks that it is all about bigger government generously sharing some magically appearing wealth. We are not from the centre which thinks that it is about a sprinkling of magical common sense. We come from a different tradition one that starts by thinking about relationships: relationships between people relationships between people and the environment and relationships between the past the present and the future. 
Relationships are not about theories. Relationships are about practices. Relationships are about how we talk together. Relationships are about how we work together and create things together so that together we can pass on something better to our mokopuna—to our grandchildren. In fact relationships are what the Treaty of Waitangi is all about. 
We come from a tradition that has survived the blind efforts of previous Governments: Governments of the left and the right Governments that could be brutal or merely paternalistic and Governments that tried to eliminate differences to impose a single standard way of thinking and living. We come from a tradition that knows what it takes to emerge from sheer survival to standing up and asserting our role in this world on our terms. We are honoured to carry forward the traditions of great New Zealanders such as Sir James Carroll Sir Apirana Ngata and Matiu Rata. It is a tradition carried forward by Dr Pita Sharples whose visionary work in Maori language retention and education kapahaka and prison reform is paying real dividends today. It is a tradition carried forward by the Hon Tariana Turia whose courage and commitment to upholding the actual meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi inspired a new generation of political action. 
This is what the Maori Party is about. It is about relationships and it is about resilience. 
We will continue to work with any party on policies that can deliver real progress for real people—not theories not politics but people. Sometimes it will be progress measured in inches and sometimes just occasionally it will be measured in miles. I acknowledge especially the work and transformational progress being made by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. That is the real reason it is good to be back here today. It is that we have got a lot to do. There are a lot of people who need this Government this Parliament to do more better faster; not just to provide stable Government in difficult times. We know about difficult times. We have been living in them for 200 years. We want progress not stability. 
Back in 2008 the Maori Party decided that it could make better progress by being at the table of a National-led Government. We knew that it would have been much easier politically to be on the outside making dramatic hand gestures. That was an option. But neither Tariana Turia nor Pita Sharples or myself got into politics because we thought it would be easy. We got into it because we wanted to make real progress for real people. And we are through Whanau Ora insulating homes  
Tataiako 
 tackling rheumatic fever and so on. 
Is the progress fast enough or far enough? No and it probably will never ever be. We are hungry and we are impatient and our eyes remain firmly on the horizon where our dreams lie: where every family every whanau is healthy and strong where every child is loved and where every person is using their talents and skills to the absolute utmost and not just Maori New Zealanders but every whanau every family every child and every person because as a party we naturally celebrate diversity as a sign of strength and not weakness. We know that Tainui is different from Ngati Kahungunu is different from Kai Tahu and is different from Samoan or Tongan or Chinese or Indian New Zealanders and on and on and on. We know that in our bones because that is the experience from which we spring and it is why our party is not—emphatically not—an ethnic party. 
We are a party of kaupapa and tikanga. Our kaupapa is a gift open to everyone in Aotearoa: tangata whenua tangata Tiriti. Rich and poor men and women young and old white brown black or sunburnt tattooed pierced or blue-rinsed—it does not actually matter. Our kaupapa is a gift that is open to everyone who knows that the one-size-fits-all solution just does not cut it. It will not work because we come in all different sizes and shapes and colours. It is a gift that is open to everyone who knows that healthy families whanau ora are the first measure of successful communities. Our kaupapa is a gift that is open to everyone who knows that we must all go forward together or we surely will not go forward at all. 
It is good to be back and we are looking forward to getting down to the work. Tena koutou katoa.