Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Chairperson of the Māori Affairs Committee): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Kia ora. Kia orana. I am pleased to lead off this part of the Estimates debate where we are covering Māori Affairs and in particular two votes: Vote Māori Development and Vote Treaty Negotiations. I do want to acknowledge the Ministers that made themselves available to the Māori Affairs Committee—in particular the Hon Nanaia Mahuta the Minister for Māori Development who is ably assisted by Minister Peeni Henare who is responsible for the Whānau Ora appropriation. Also I want to acknowledge Minister Little the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and we also extended our hearings to include Minister Davis who gave us a very helpful briefing on the new Crown/Māori Relations portfolio.One thing that is very clear which the Ministers conveyed to our committee is that this is about a coalition joined-up approach to ensure that we lift up Māori in all areas—in particular socially and economically; and likewise the well-being of all New Zealanders. So what we have seen is that through the Māori Development vote the business of Government continues. We have legislation and we have existing strategies in votes that are in place that have continued under the stewardship of Minister Mahuta. We have seen that in the Te Reo Māori area whereby the votes for those appropriations are roughly on a par with the previous year—$98 million to Te Reo including Māori Television broadcast. In the Whānau Ora space there has been a consistency of funding with $80 million for Whānau Ora.But likewise we have seen new priorities that have been identified by the Minister and that has come through in the areas of papakāinga housing development again continuing on the existence of the Māori Housing Network that has been established under the previous Government but with a focus on papakāinga housing assisting Māori land owners and that work ties alongside the broader housing work which we are doing under Minister Twyford with increases to social housing and likewise our KiwiBuild. So a lot of the initiatives that are a priority to the Minister are working alongside the broader objectives of this coalition Government.If we look again the Minister has also identified through $37 million of those new priorities work in the whenua Māori space whereby we will be seeing further amendments and support for Māori land owners to achieve their aspirations and these are all tied in with the overall activities which are working across that sector—gosh time goes quick. Ha!I would like to also acknowledge Minister Little who's doing some outstanding work in the Treaty negotiations area. I would say that he is continuing along the momentum that was laid down by the Hon Chris Finlayson in that area and I value the work that he is doing—in particular dealing with some very complex issues but making good progress with Ngāpuhi and also the work in the marine and coastal area space which is another big area.So there is sustained effort being applied to increase Māori well-being socially and economically across the vote sectors. It ties in with the wider and the broader work programme that we have as a Government. As the Ministers pointed out during our Estimates hearings a lot of this work ties in with the regional economic development work of Minister Jones and Minister Whaitiri likewise the rangatahi work that is going on and is also tied along with Minister Jackson and Minister Mahuta working closely together there. So there is support from the committee to the votes across both these areas and I commend their work.