Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15721. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker.Ngā mihi nui ki a koei tetīmatanga mai otēnei ongātaungā mihi o te Tau Hou ki a koeotirā kingā mema o tePāremata. Ā kingā memaMāori ePototēnā koe haere mai ki rotoi te WharePāremata.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Huge greetings to you at the commencement of this of the many years. New Year salutations to you and indeed to members of Parliament. In regard toMāori members greetings to youPoto welcome into the House of Parliament.]I had to rough it over the holidays and go for a week’s break in Rarotonga. It was hard work! The sweat dripped off my brow as I lay out there and dozed in the nice warm water but somebody had to do it and I chose myself and my wife. But I am one of those people who when you go away after about 7 days I have got to come home. I am the sort of fella who can go away sure and enjoy a little bit of a rest but 7 days is about it—2 weeks at a stretch but 7 days is about it. I have got to get home. It was really brought home to me I suppose after that when I did get back—for the rest of the holidays I pretty much stuck around home base—the old adage “Home is where the heart is.” Over that time it was good to reflect. I had the opportunity to think about my paradise—not just about home Aotearoa because as I say I reflected on how we are pretty lucky here and people say it time and time again.But everyone’s paradise is different. InMāori situations manyMāori talk about the centre of the universe whether that be Waipiro Bay—nobody knows where Waipiro Bay is—or it might beRuātoki or it might beRuatāhuna or it might beHorohoro. Who knows? But they are small communities because people feel comfortable. I felt comfortable when I went back to my paradise in Rotorua looking out across the lake going out and getting 20—oh no sorry that is over the limit. It was about five or six fish that I was able to get and I am a law-abiding citizen. So that was home base.The one thing about home base for me is that I also had the opportunity to be a speaker on our marae as we farewelled some of our dead. We had three tangi that I had to take care of for our people at home. As I say you feel comfortable at home. It is sort of like falling into a beanbag—everything fits around you—or going back to your own bed to sleep which I am sure all of us members of Parliament will understand living in motels for a lot of the time. So this is home. It is important to us. It is an important part of who we are as a country—MāoriPākehā immigrants whoever you are home is where the heart is. That is pretty much where we are going to be spending a lot of our focus. If it is so important to us then we have to give it attention and look after not only its resources but its people. We are unique. This place is special. We must look after it.I tended to take for granted that whole notion until as I say I had to be involved in these activities of tangi. But I know that sometimes it is not all that rosy because when you are at home you get your own people who either love you to death or kill you off for not doing enough. That is one of the stumbling blocks but it is beautiful because you know at least when people give you attention they love you. That I suppose in a sense—[Interruption]Tēnā koe Minister Borrows—is whatWhānau Ora is all about. Itis about being able to live aswhānau live in well-being and live in control of your life and being able to take care of yourself and also of others and for others to also take care of you in times of difficulty. It would be no surprise in this House thatWhānau Ora is theMāori Party’s cornerstone policy. It is about supporting each other and everywhānau to build that resilience that is needed starting with the most basic block which is thewhānau the family. Strong families shape and nurture strong individuals and communities and ultimately a stronger more connected and resilient nation.When I tried to put this to an audience yesterday when I was opening—or rededicating—thewharenui at Te Puke High School just over the hill from your electorate Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch it was funny because I looked at all the staff and they were all welcomed with me which seemed strange at the time. But I tried to tell the audience when asked to say a few words that the idea of havingwharenui on school premises dates back to probably about the 1970s and 1980s when there was an opportunity to bringMāori kids in and to give them some sense of pride some sense of ownership of the school and to have a place where they felt comfortable. Yet here we were 20 or 30 years down the line and we had an audience over there who were mostly teachers and none of them wereMāori—from memory—coming on with me as a visitor.I thought to myself that we have got to get away from thinking that thingsMāori are only forMāori. There are so many things in theMāori culture andMāori society that are wonderful for this nation and yet sometimes they are so close to us that we do not recognise them. I hope that as part of where we are taking this nation into the future people do take that line. It is probably significant even now as we talk about the possibilities of a new flag that that debate continues. But let us think back 10 20 years ago whenHinewehiMohi first sung the national anthem inMāori. She was condemned she was knocked over she was put down. Now every day when we stand up in front of an All Black test or whatever it might be people stand proud by that simple move that has changed this nation.Whānau Ora is all about that—changing this nation and changing how we do things. I hope that as we talk about it into the future we maintain that whole focus onwhānau.I have got to say and make it absolutely clear for those who might be a bit slow on the uptake thatWhānau Ora is for allwhānau—for allwhānau who live here in Aotearoa whether they beMāori PasifikaPākehā Asian or otherwise.Whānau Ora is for everyone. Let us make that clear. I want to also make it perfectly clear thatWhānau Ora is not just a programme to be delivered by NGOs or a community group. It is not to be a rapid response service to just fix upwhānau quickly and say that we have done our job where the paternalistic hand of the State comes in over the top and sorts things out. No way. That is not whatWhānau Ora is all about. We are about seeking to shift the power back from providers agencies politicians and others to the core unit of our existence which iswhānau families. Our ultimate mission is to enable families to take back the control over their lives. We believe in giving citizens the means the knowledge and the power to take back control over their lives so they can access the services and also understand how to utilise them.Whānau Ora is theMāori Party flagship policy and we will be following that up right through to the election. It is a policy that is like no other and perhaps that is why some of the members of this House have struggled to really grasp it because we are so used to that paternalistic attitude of the State coming in over the top.So what doesWhānau Ora look like in practice? I suppose I cannot talk for anybody else but I like to hope that as a member of Parliament who espousesWhānau Ora I live that notion. My family of five children—all of them are speakers ofMāori. Some might say oh well that is nice to have but in fact it has not disadvantaged them in anyway because the eldest is a doctor the other two are teachers and two are in the film industry. One of them this afternoon took off to Mexico as part of kura kaupapaMāori because Spanish is their second language and English is their third language. That isWhānau Ora in practice.Make no mistake—a part of that is obviously the importance of theMāori language into the future. We must be very careful to believe that and not fall into complacency about the state of theMāori language. It is in a precarious state. Of course the Minister ofMāori Affairs will be taking a draftMāori language strategy out for consultation very soon. The foundation of that strategy is thatwhānauhapū and iwi will have rangatiratanga over Te ReoMāori and we are encouraging people to take a part of that discussion and report back. Of course it does involve a new model. There is an electoral college that will basically oversee things. But anyway that is up for debate and discussion as we head into the future. When we have cultural strength and pride then that will lead to social and economic outcomes for all New Zealanders. So we would encourage that discussion.Finally I just want to talk very briefly around the leap of faith that is going to be needed for this country into the future. I talked to the audience at Te Puke and told them not to box things into justMāori things over there. We do not have to be a part of it—we cannot be a part of it. I have talked to them about the opportunities that are available for them to be a part of theMāori world and for us to move together as a country. I think they got the message. I also told them about the constitutional review which was at the bigger end of the scale around the discussion as a country. I think that they will take that message up because they believe also that we can move forward together in this country. We must move forward together where we learn off each other—take the good things of each other’s culture and move ourselves forward as a nation. I look forward to taking the rest of theMāori Party candidates into the next election when we will be highlightingWhānau Ora for the betterment of this country as a whole.