Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16567] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker nga mihi o te tau hou ki a koe; otira nga mihi o te tau hou ki a tatou katoa. Hei whaiwahi haere i te ahuatanga o te korero i te ahiahi nei ka tuku i aku poroporoaki ki te hunga kua ngaro ki te tirohanga kanohi. Ko tera o nga kuia o te Waihirere kua ngaro atu i te tirohanga kanohi i enei ra. Waiho ia kia moe i te taha o ona matua tupuna. Ka huri mai ki a tatou o te Whare huri noa tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Deputy Speaker. Acknowledgments of the new year to you and indeed to all of us. To follow up the address on this afternoon’s statement I express my condolences to those who have passed away and will no longer be seen particularly that one of the elderly womenfolk of Waihirere of recent times who will not be seen any more. Allow her to remain there with her ancestors. I turn now to us throughout the House; greetings to you and to all of us greetings 
.]  
There has been a lot of talk today in the House about a very special group of New Zealanders. They are the 60000 children whom we call the Year 1 cohort. They are children one might say who are on the brink of opportunity and children with the promise of a big huge future in the world ahead. One in four of those children is Maori; that is 15000 people who have every potential to be the entrepreneurs the innovators and the breadwinners—the talent pool of our labour market. 
Now let us look at another group—the 800000 children throughout the school sector. Of these 160000 are classified as living in poverty. I wonder how it could be that in the Prime Minister’s address to the nation today he failed to acknowledge a report that has been widely aired across the nation. That is the United Nations report that has described as staggering the rates of child abuse and poverty in Aotearoa. Let us break that down a bit. Presumably that is what was implied by the recognition in the Prime Minister’s statement that “Despite decades of good intentions from government we’re still failing too many of our kids.” I have to ask how good those intentions have been for all of our children. 
There are two groups: tangata whenua and children living in poverty. Unfortunately those groups are both closely linked together. As a teacher and a former principal myself I can say with some authority that much of the poorer performance and disengagement experienced in the case of Maori children is correlated with their socio-economic status. How can any Government red or blue live with itself knowing that the rate of poverty for children in households with no full-time worker is six times—six times—higher than it is for children living in homes where there is at least one full-time worker? What that translates into is levels of hardship that have immediate consequences. 
This is how a group of young New Zealanders described living in poverty in a report entitled  
A Fair Go for all Children 
:  
Actions to address child poverty in New Zealand 
 “Can’t afford school uniform … Lack of books … Can’t go on school trips … No lunch … Not accepted by their peers … Left out … Get picked on at school … Stress … Shame … Low self-esteem … Unhappy … Lonely … Feelings of worthlessness.” We are not talking Charles Dickens here; this is from a 2008 report of the Children’s Commissioner which is a report that Labour will for ever be judged against a report that should have but has not become the blueprint to make the National Government take bolder action in the interests of our tamariki—children who are born in homes that have endured long-term poverty have poorer health and do less well at school. Those same children will achieve lower earnings if indeed they are equipped to leave school without any substantial qualifications. Tragically childhood poverty is associated with a higher risk of antisocial and criminal behaviour which Mr Goff alluded to this afternoon. 
Taking the cycle of despair even further it was pretty depressing to hear the views of my brother-in-law Ruakere Hond in Taranaki who has been involved in Maori education since the 1980s. In an article in the Taranaki newspaper he talked about the fact that a lot of unemployed Maori lacked motivation from being trapped in “a cyclic paradigm” that filtered down through older members of the whanau. In fact he described this cycle as becoming “culturally ingrained in certain family groups”. Where does this come from? What can we do to address the seemingly intractable problems that lead to underachievement and under-participation? It is not about just a poverty of income. It is also about a poverty of spirit demonstrated in schools in which the culture of the school and the attitude and expectations of teachers have been shown to contribute to their students’ disengagement. 
There is a longstanding recognition that there is a clear disconnect between the majority of teachers and Maori students. We recall two separate surveys. One was conducted by the New Zealand History Teachers’ Association and the other by the academic Richard Manning. They indicated that Maori content was often sidestepped and this has had major educational and political implications for Maori. 
I come back to Mr Key’s view about good intentions. I presume he is talking about the Taha Maori programme of the 1970s the various interventions such as the bilingual units in general-stream schools perhaps the marae on school-grounds Treaty clauses in the charter and the like. They were all great but they actually benefited Pakeha students more than the target group of Maori. But what Russell Bishop of Waikato University has demonstrated so effectively is that recognition of our language culture and identity is an essential part of the pathway to success for Maori. But the Maori edge is not just about having a Maori name or the school pupils being able to sing “Tutira mai nga iwi”. 
The Maori edge is to understand that whanau are the critical factor to ensure achievement in education. Whanau hapu and iwi have a special role in making success happen. We call it whanaungatanga where everyone who is involved with the people who care most about our students their whanau are welcomed at the door. It is about allowing Maori to have a space and providing support but still allowing Maori to have our own say and to take up models that work for us like Tu Toa in Palmerston North. It is about celebrating Maori innovation and initiative. 
Politicians on both sides of the House have spoken about the importance of literacy and numeracy programmes and of our kids being able to speak well count well read well and write well. What is new? That is the same catchcry that New Zealanders from all ethnic backgrounds have been calling for since the missionaries arrived with their pencils and slates. 
But literacy and numeracy on their own are but one part of the solution. If we really want to make a difference for Maori education we must understand that Maori solutions are required. The Maori Party has talked about cultural competency. We have called for responses that reflect Maori aspirations for education—aspirations that inevitably include the social political economic and cultural sustainability of Maori as a people. It is about including Maori culture in meaningful ways. It is about incorporating Maori knowledge culture and perspectives inside and outside of the curriculum. Ultimately it is about Whanau Ora. This is fundamentally what Tariana intended would happen with Whanau Ora—that the education sector would take on the challenge of working with whanau. 
Although we could easily identify the success factors inherent in kura kaupapa Maori we must as a nation apply those same conditions for success in the mainstream school system. In my electorate of Waiariki for example Maori children comprise approximately three-quarters of the school role in the areas of Kawerau and Opotiki. What about them? A revolution is not impossible. The results of Te Kotahitanga show us that the academic engagement of Maori students dramatically improved. Their completion levels of work increased there were higher levels of Maori student attendance and short-term achievement rose. 
The State principals teachers and for their part whanau need to be held to account. Whanau must play their part but it is also about time the education sector was put on notice too. They are paid to do the job. Fifty percent - plus of Maori boys leaving school without qualifications is just not good enough; in fact it is a disgrace. We have to invest in the success that is the Maori edge that the Maori Party is pursuing. We are determined to make a difference to achieve the change that our nation needs. We will do it but not just for the 15000 Maori children who started school last week but for the future of all descendants who will carve out a future for Aotearoa. Tena tatou.