Okeroa Mahara: General Debate 
Okeroa Mahara: General Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10481] 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I have listened to a diatribe from those benches over there but those members have not actually answered any of the key questions that I want to pose. Do members know why? Their leader has had his head on cloud nine up there with Rangi e tunei. This Government has had its feet firmly planted on terra firma committed to policy development and absolutely tangible delivery. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Hopeless! 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: So the question still remains—and it is hopeless—“Where are National’s development policies for Maori?”. 
Hon Members 
: What policies? 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: Yes what policies? What policies and for whom? Here is a snapshot—and a snapshot only—of what Labour’s Maori MPs are delivering for Maori: Maori unemployment is down to an all-time low; over 15000 Maori are enrolled in tertiary education; nearly 3000 Maori are enrolled in postgraduate courses; over 22000 Maori trainees are participating in Modern Apprenticeships and industry training schemes—a great Government—and over 500000 Maori are enrolled in primary health organisations and are receiving cheaper more affordable health care; and let us not forget who established Maori Television. 
But the National Party does have a discernable Maori policy. Do members know what that is? 
Moana Mackey 
: Finding out what they are? 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: No National members have got past there. Their policy is to abolish the Maori seats. That cloud nine leader says that the position he has on the Maori seats is that they should be abolished at some time but that it is a timetabling issue. What does that mean? What that means as far as I am concerned— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: It means that your time is running out! 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: If that member does not know this that is not my problem. National is totally removed totally remote and totally disconnected from Maori. Mr Brownlee talked about consultation. There is nothing here about consulting with the tangata whenua. There is absolutely no suggestion of assimilation at all. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: He is on his way away. 
Hon MAHARA OKEROA 
: I am not a list MP like that member from the West Coast. 
This policy is a thinly veiled attempt at assimilation. Let us have a look at it. Historically the contributions of Maori members holding Maori seats are indelibly etched in the social cultural and political fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand. Let me give an example. Do those members opposite think that the formation of the 28thMaori Battalion and its legendary and costly contribution to the war effort was the outcome of some politically remote osmotic process with liberal lashings of divine intervention? If those members opposite believe that then they have failed to understand Maoris’ contribution to our history. In my view that formation was a result of the inspired political and tribally strategic leadership of Sir Apirana Ngata if I may say so. 
More recently the New Zealand First Party with its six electorate MPs in coalition—with guess whom—were able not only to initiate an inquiry into the historical inequities of the Maori reserve land regime but also to have positive outcomes that heralded unprecedented economic progress for Maori owners. I must give some acknowledgment to New Zealand First—and that was before the Hon Tau Henare’s chameleon-like behaviour.