Turei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5612. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): I will start by just saying that I agree with the Minister on two issues—one is that Whānau Ora is working and we know that from all of the stories. Even the Auditor-General set out some really clear stories of how the approach which is long term wraparound and about the whānau as a whole is making appreciable major differences to how whānau are operating and to their wellness. There are issues with other parts of Whānau Ora—the evaluation how the money is being spent and the administration—but the concept itself is working. The worst thing that we can do is attack it such that we lose the advantage of the great outcomes from this rethinking about how we deal with whānau as a whole.Also I would agree with Minister Paula Bennett about education being such an important part of a young woman’s way out of poverty. I would urge her to reconsider then the benefit that both she and I received as young women on our own with small babies from what was then a very full training incentive allowance grant which allowed us to have more resources to pursue our educational dreams. In my case it was law school. Under the current situation with the training incentive allowance women are simply not in the same position that I was in 20 years ago to be able to access that level of education because resources are so tight. I am absolutely 100 percent supportive of investing in the education of young women in order to improve their life outcomes. I wish that we could do more. I think that we could do more if it were a genuine priority.What I want to address tonight in just a few minutes is Vote Māori Development particularly with regard to housing. The Māori Affairs Committee asked about housing when the Minister came before it because we know that housing is such a major issue for Māori and the Minister agreed with that. The Minister agreed that Te Puni Kōkiri was preparing to take on more responsibility in leading housing initiatives for Māori. He assured us that the ministry would be making all possible efforts because housing is so closely tied to poverty. I agree with this. We need to make sure that we have secure housing both rental housing and also homeownership for Māori and that that is a core way of making sure that whānau are secure and healthy in their own homes so that they can then pursue their dreams for themselves and their kids. But we have to be aware of the facts. We now have the lowest Māori homeownership rate in this country in decades—decades and decades—because of an erosion of support with a particular focus on the needs of Māori whānau when it comes to housing. According to the 2013 census only 28 percent of Māori own a homenow. That is half of the Pākehā rate—the Pākehā rate is around 57 percent. It is at the lowest end. It should not be getting any worse but in fact it is eroding over time. The number of Māori in homeownership is declining.When we asked the Minister about homeownership he also recognised these critical issues. He said there was more money for Te Puni Kōkiri to help whānau towards homeownership but there were no firm plans by Te Puni Kōkiri for any house-purchasing initiatives it says here in the report. But in fact there are some significant programmes and I just want to mention two of them which are the Kāinga Whenua programme for infrastructure grants and also the individual loans that are available. The Kāinga Whenua programme has enormous potential. It enables whānau to build homes on or to move homes to collectively owned Māori land. So it is a way of our using land that we may not be able to put into productive use for housing in rural areas where it is so essentially needed—and good quality properly insulated housing; housing that has good heating and that is safe for whānau to live in. We need more of that but at this time of highest need we are seeing these funds—these programmes—just not being promoted in such a way that whānau are accessing them.In the years between July 2011 and August 2014 there were only 10 individual Kāinga Whenua loans—10 in those 4 years. There was only one in the previous year. Only three of those 10 have been this year—three individual loans to whānau looking to build on Māori land. It is not enough. There have been Māori organisations getting involved with the social housing fund and with the Kāinga Whenua infrastructure grants but they are still too few.