Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Minister for Whānau Ora): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Ka tīmata ahau ki roto i Te Reo Māori ka mutu ka huri atu ahau ki roto i te reo Pākehā.Tiwhatiwha i te pō kakarauru i te pō. I a au i te pō kerekere i a au i te pō ka rapuhia ka kimihia kei hea koe e ngaro nei e.E te pāpā e Wiremu Wiremu kua ngaro atu rā koe i te tirohanga kanohi haere atu rā koe ki runga i tō waka o Ngātokimatawhaorua ki te wāhi o Hawaiki i whakataukitia ai e ō tātou mātua e ō tātou tūpuna. Koutou o te pō kotahi tonu te kōrero ki a koutou haere mai haere.Ka whakahokia mai ngā rārangi kōrero ki a tātou katoa te hunga ora. Ka ao a Tamanuiterā ki runga i te mokopuna a Te Omeka ki runga i te mokopuna o tōku hoa mahi. Kāti ki te hunga ora tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Greetings Mr Speaker. I will begin in Māori and then change to English.The dark night the deep night. When I take steps into the long night I will search for you I will look for you in the great beyond.To my ancestor Wiremu Wiremu who has left the world of the living go on your ancestral canoe of Ngātokimatawhaorua to that place in Hawaiki that our ancestors memorialised in proverb. To those who have gone to the long night return to us and go in peace.I will guide my speech back to us the world of the living. The sun shines on the descendant of Te Omeka on to the grandchild of my work colleague. To those of us who walk in the world of the living greetings one and all.]Talofa lava Mr Speaker. Over $900 million: that is what this Budget delivers to Māori—Whānau Ora Māori education Māori housing kōhanga reo employment and skills training. As the Minister for Whānau Ora I am proud—proud that this Government backs the good work that Whānau Ora does. I'm proud of our response the immediate action that Whānau Ora took in protecting our Māori communities from COVID-19. I'm proud that we have invested in the recent Budget a further $136 million into helping whānau through Whānau Ora in a Māori way and in a way that we know works.I note that the Leader of the Opposition asserted this morning that National created the concept of Whānau Ora. This is a gross misrepresentation. The concept comes from Te Ao Māori and has been understood by our whānau and our people since time immemorial—well before its adoption in official policy.The Leader of the Opposition also said that the investment in Whānau Ora was driven solely by whānau needs. I would like to note that Whānau Ora is an intentional step away from the deprivation assessments of the previous Government. Whānau Ora fosters whānau resilience building on their strengths and aspirations to empower them and to restore rangatiratanga.This investment does not happen by chance; it happens because a Government chooses to make it happen. It happens because our Prime Minister and our Minister of Finance see the challenges facing Māori. They understand the statistics and the failures of the past and they vow to do things differently. It happens because our Māori Ministers sit at the decision-making table and as a team advocate for our people to help our people and as a result we get wins for our people. Our contribution is strong; our team is stronger.No one should underestimate the importance of diversity the important role diversity plays in ensuring Budgets serve all of our people in Aotearoa. In one of his first interviews the Leader of the Opposition said that he didn't see Māori that he didn't take into account who a person truly is when determining who would sit on his front bench. In that one reply he told Māori that he does not see them that National is blind to who we are and to what we stand for.His colleague Judith Collins in select committee today announced that she was sick and tired of being demonised for her culture. When Ms Collins is more likely to live in poverty to end up in prison to be stopped to have her bags checked in a shop even though her Pākehā mates are not then maybe she can claim to be demonised for her culture but not now—but not now. She like her leader is blind to the real Aotearoa that the rest of us live in.The Leader of the Opposition claims that my ministerial colleagues the Hon Willie Jackson and the Hon Kelvin Davis are weak—the same Ministers that delivered hundreds of millions of dollars to Māori education to kōhanga reo to employment and to Māori trades training. As a child of kōhanga reo those announcements warm my heart. They are the same Ministers that have made gains for our people in every single Budget of this Government and in every policy of this Government that we have put in place since 2017. Their contributions have made a difference to our Māori communities.The Leader of the Opposition doesn't understand our Māori world. In his own words he doesn't see our world. The real weakness in politics in my humble view is ignorance. The Opposition would have never and would never deliver a Budget for Māori like the one we have delivered in 2020. When leaders admit that they don't see someone's culture when they don't value the Māori contribution they are admitting that they are blind to our achievements and deaf to our concerns. Their assessment of what effectiveness is what strength is is based on succeeding in a world that we as Māori do not live in.The Leader of the Opposition may not see us; he may not value our contribution but let this be said: we see him—Māori see him—and we see what true weakness really looks like on this occasion. Tēnā koe.