Paraone PitaPITA PARAONE (NZ First): E hiahia ana au kia whakatakoto o aku whakaaro e pa ana ki tēnei take ahakoa i rongo i a mātou ngā kōrero ā Te Minita ahakoa me pēhea te kaha o ana whakaaro ē kei te pai tana mahi. Tōku pātai e aha ana te take kei te noho tonu te ao Māori i roto i ngā pōharatanga? Nā reira wena te pātai nunui.[I want to set down my views about this matter mindful of the fact that we heard the Minister's sentiments and despite how firm his thoughts may be what he is doing is fine. My question is: what is the reason why Māoridom is still impoverished? That is the big question.]I was just saying that it does not matter how articulate the Minister has been in terms of the so-called achievements that Māori have made under his watch particularly the references made by the previous speaker Dr Shane Reti the question needs to be asked: why are Māori still featuring very poorly across the social indices?While the Minister for Economic Development mentioned the fact that unemployment had reduced to 4.9 percent what he failed to make mention of was that in terms of the Māori population the percentages are unacceptably high particularly in the electorate where I am based in Whangarei—in fact we have the highest unemployed Māori rate in the country. In spite of what some people might say about the economy in Whangarei and what this Government has done in terms of Māori it is nothing to write home about.We talk about unemployment. We talk about health. While we may have made some grounds in terms of some health issues unfortunately in terms of diabetes Māori feature very highly in those statistics. While we may have gained a few extra years as an average in terms of our longevity at the moment if you go to hospital—and that is if Māori can get into hospital and access those services—you will find that there is an unacceptably high number of Māori having to use those services if they have access to them.The other issue is housing. In spite of the figures articulated by the Minister if we compare them with back in the 1980s when the Department of Māori Affairs still existed you could guarantee that for every year there would be at least 500 new homes built for Māori. We cannot say that under this Government's watch.The other issue is in terms of trade training. The then Department of Māori Affairs ran a trade training scheme that every year saw 1200 young people both boys and girls qualify with a trade. Those figures cannot be compared by this Government. What I am saying is that Māori are no different from the rest of the communication. All they want is good education access to health services a good job paying First World wages and to have a good quality of life.The Minister mentioned the level of funding that he has been able to get under his watch. Then the question has to be asked: why is it that for 2 years running the Ministry of Economic Development underspent its allocation? That to me is criminal given the social position of Māori in this country. We talk about Whānau Ora. How long has that programme been running? While the Minister may extol the virtues of that programme in terms of how it has helped people at the end of the day if you look at the wider picture it has not done very much for Māori. The only people from the Māori community who are extolling the virtues of those programmes are quite clearly those who support the Māori Party.Reports noted.