Turia Tariana: Appropriation (2008/09 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Turia Tariana: Appropriation (2008/09 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:649;Page:17806] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 I will focus tonight on what the Maori Party believes that the Government has not done so well. We acknowledge that the Government can get out and tell the public what it does well so my job is to point out what things I think have not gone so well. 
Treasury tells us that we are in a recession. July was bleak not only in terms of the weather— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Marian Hobbs) 
: Would members from the major parties—the noisy parties—let the member from a third party speak. 
Hon TARIANA TURIA 
: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. The monthly overview of the July economic indicators was also dreary. Two quarters of GDP contraction are considered a technical recession but there are other signs that shaped the June quarter: business activity declined consumer confidence deteriorated retail sales were soft the housing market remains weak exports fell and the only thing that rose was the consumer price inflation. 
However the droopy economy is not evident just in Treasury statistics. Indeed the appropriations for the 2008-09 estimates were crammed full of doom and gloom. It is not just the economic indicators that are declining. According to the report of the Local Government and Environment Committee on Vote Climate Change in the last 8 years the proportion of electricity generated from renewable resources actually declined from 72 percent in 1999 to 66 percent in 2007. There was not much of a transformation. Yet while the Government has invested $10.4 million in the public sector in its efforts to inspire leadership on climate change the emissions of the Ministry for the Environment have risen by 22 percent in the past year. 
Other areas of the 2008-09 estimates are equally dismal. Vote Education sang the praises of Schools Plus the new flagship policy that will kick in in 2011 but for those of us who are worrying about the ongoing issues of systemic failure today 3 years is a long time to wait. For Maori students even the Ministry of Education’s own research tells us that the educational system of 2008 is more aligned with “schools minus”. “Schools minus” can be seen in the kotahitanga project in terms of the experiences of year 9 and year 10 Maori students in mainstream classrooms which identified that “deficit theorising by teachers is the major impediment to Maori students’ educational achievement for it results in teachers having low expectations of Maori students. This in turn creates a downward spiralling self-fulfilling prophecy of Maori student achievement and failure.” 
The Maori Party has brought to the House week after week the evidence around “schools minus” as it impacts on Maori: the high rates of exclusions early leaving exemptions and the national tragedy that only one in every two Maori boys leaves school with a National Certificate of Educational Achievement qualification. But there are other aspects of “schools minus” over and above the achievement and participation crisis. Last week a worried father approached me to tell us of the shameful life that his boy is enduring as a result of bullying at school. According to the Youth 2000 survey of 10000 secondary school students one in three students are bullied at least once during the school year and 3 percent of all students stay away from school at least once a month because they are afraid of being bullied. The father whom I spoke to was insistent that he not be named his son having implored him not to make it worse for him. 
We must ask ourselves the hard questions. Why are our Maori students leaving in such high numbers? Why is school such a hard place to be and what can we do about it? We need to bring back meaning to what is fast becoming a myth—that school days are the best days of our life. The Maori Party believes that our young are the fresh hope of our future. We must invest in them we must protect them from harm and together we must work with them to plan a strong future. The estimates describe Schools Plus as a transformation of secondary schooling and that is all good. But no matter how flash the systems are to monitor truancy it is more than a matter of keeping children in school; it is about having a vision and belief now that inspires every student to aim for success. 
During this debate we in the Maori Party have consistently raised the issues around poverty. We have brought attention to the issues around price hikes in fuel food and power while at the same time exposing the huge holes appearing in our safety net. But there is a particular edge to our understanding of child poverty that must take us past what the former Commissioner for Children Dr Ian Hassall calls the “sterile self-centredness and acquisitiveness” of a society that disregards the interests of children. Every day we are reminded of the links between poverty poor nutrition overcrowded and damp housing and preventable infectious diseases. These are the families whose lives are always lived in a recession. 
We now have one of the highest rates in the developed world of children admitted to hospital yet according to the Minister of Health health expenditure has doubled in the past 9 years and New Zealand is beginning to see results from this investment. If that is the case then let us see who the beneficiaries of this expenditure are. Are the beneficiaries of the increased expenditure the disproportionately high numbers of Maori and Pasifika children who are struck down by respiratory diseases and pneumonia? Are the beneficiaries of the increased expenditure those patients who are being charged up to $250 to see a doctor after hours? A recent survey revealed that more than 40 clinics were charging high fees of more than $45 for children aged 6 to 17. 
Health and well-being have been significantly eroded by a Government content to discriminate against children on the basis of their parents being in paid work. As our communities know only too well 150000 of the poorest children in our land have been left behind and the most affected of this group are Maori and children from the Pacific. How can it be said that they are the beneficiaries of increased expenditure? 
Are the beneficiaries of the increased expenditure the numbers of sleepers on the streets—those people having difficulty finding appropriate and affordable accommodation? We heard this morning that the number of homeless who sleep within a radius of 3 kilometres of Auckland’s Sky Tower has jumped from 65 last year to 91 this year and unfortunately over half of those people are Maori. No matter how generous the cash surplus or how affluent the wealthy no one can describe New Zealand as a prosperous nation when still so many suffer severe and significant hardship. 
There are some immediate and tangible steps that the Maori Party would want to see brought to the nation. We are seeking to extend the formula applied to the in-work tax credit to ensure that all families with children can benefit from support to provide a universal child benefit to set a deadline to eliminate child poverty so that progress can be achieved to exempt from income tax those who earn up to $25000—we do not believe it is important that those on high incomes should have any tax exemption—to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and to remove GST from food. 
We believe that opportunities must be provided for every person in this land to achieve to the highest levels of his or her potential regardless of the person’s ability to pay. Opportunities must be provided to ensure we give full regard and respect to the well-being of all people as a priority for our social and economic planning. We are tired of the false dichotomies that perpetuate inequality—rich versus poor Schools Plus and “schools minus” the well and the unwell and those in work and out of work. The welfare of each person is bound up in the welfare of us all. This is not a choice that we can opt out of. Kia ora.