Mahuta Nanaia: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 07 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3304. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato)to the Minister for Māori Development: Does he agree with the Auditor-General that one-third of the $137.6 million appropriated for Whānau Ora was spent on administration and could have been spent “on those people and providers who Whānau Ora was meant to help”?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL (Minister for Māori Development):I te tīmatanga me whai wāhi au ki te whaiwhai haere i ngā kōrero o taku tuahine i tuku poroporoaki ki a Ērima otirā ki a Peeni e tangi nei. Ka tangi ake ki a ia ki a koutou o te Reipa mō tērā āhuatanga ā ka tangi ki te whānau. Ērima te pou o Te Reo Māori moe mai moe mai moe mai![First of all I take the opportunity to follow up on the tenor of the farewell tributes accorded to Ērima by my sister colleague. Furthermore condolences to Peeni grieving here. I grieve for him for you in the Labour Party as well and for the family. To you Ērima pillar of the Māori language sleep sleep sleep.]In response to the question I can say that although I welcome the findings of the Auditor-General and her report I do want to emphasise that in 2010 Whānau Ora was a new initiative and required that level of administrative support. Many of the costs were one-off costs for the design and implementation of the programme and included research and evaluation. So I believe that the building of this infrastructure was an important step in ensuring that long-term benefits for whānau could be achieved.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Is he satisfied that the $7.9 million of taxpayer dollars allocated towards research and evaluation between 2010 and 2014 is justifiable given that there is no published ethnicity data no ability to measure short-term gains and no ability to measure outcomes across key Government agencies in a consistent manner?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: My information says that the amount of money that was used on research and evaluation was $9.7 million which equated to about 22.9 percent of the overall spend. As I say the Auditor-General—you cannot have it both ways and on one side call for accountability for the spending of funds for Whānau Ora and not follow the fact that there was and clearly is an amount of money set aside for those sorts of things such as evaluation. Those things were put in place to ensure that the programme did have a robust background to it and was able to add to the development on into future years. Having cut away pretty much all of those costs identified earlier the officials tell me that about 20 percent was left which under current circumstances according to the information I have is a pretty responsible amount of money available for the administration of the programme.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was specific—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume her seat. I listened very carefully to the question. I listened very carefully to the answer. That question was certainly addressed.Pita Paraone: Thank you Mr Speaker ēngari i mua o te haere tonu o tōku pātai kei te tautoko i ngā mihi i mihingia e te tuahine e Nanaia ahakoa ko Ngāti Hine tēnei e mihi hoki ki a Ngāti Hine ēngari tika ana i raro i te kaupapa o ō tātou mātua tūpuna kei te tautoko i ngā mihi ki te rangatira a Ērima.[Thank you Mr Speaker but before I continue with my question I endorse the tributes accorded by the sister colleague Nanaia. Although this is Ngāti Hine applauding Ngāti Hine as well nevertheless it is appropriate under the custom of our ancestral forefathers that I support the tributes accorded to the leader Ērima.]How long will we have to wait before the issues raised within the Auditor-General’s report on Whānau Ora are addressed; if already addressed which of the issues have in fact been addressed?Mr SPEAKER: The Hon Te Ururoa Flavell—either of those supplementary questions.Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: The audit report was from 2010-14 which was phase one of the roll-out of Whānau Ora. We are now moving into a new phase and I can give the member an assurance that as a Minister indeed a new Minister I have taken up the recommendations of the Auditor-General and intend to keep a close watch on how those are dealt with into the future.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Does he believe that the $6.6 million for the three commissioning agencies was money well spent; if so are they best equipped to make decisions about funding of Whānau Ora providers?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: The decision to roll out into a commissioning model was another bold move on the part of this Government in association with the Māori Party and allows us to move into a new phase building on the information that came out of the Auditor-General’s report and indeed the Productivity Commission’s report. So I am comfortable enough with the fact that we are moving into a new phase and that commissioning agencies are an important ingredient in that picture. Having been around all of them I am clear that they have the processes and infrastructure in place to ensure that the same accountabilities required of Ministers will in fact be able to be measured and reported back to the House as they are required to do to me as the Minister over the years to come.Pita Paraone: Can the Minister guarantee that the changes already made to Whānau Ora ensure public funds can no longer go towards events such as Ōtaki’s Rahui Rugby Football Club’s $60000 one-day hui; if not why not?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: The approach taken with Whānau Ora is that it is not about one approach fits all and that there are many ways in which we can support families to achieve their goals of being resilient of living healthy lives of being economically sustainable and of being able to be full participants in society. I can say that in answer to the question from the member I will be having a close look as will the Whānau Ora Partnership Group at all proposals that come our way. But in the end we have commissioned certain outcomes from the commissioning agencies. We expect those outcomes to be delivered.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: In a nutshell what outcomes has the Minister sought from the Whānau Ora commissioning agencies?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: Those are far and wide ranging—a desire on the part of this Government and indeed me as a Minister to have families be strong within themselves and to be resilient. It can range from everything from helping those mums who happen to be associated with violent lives to be able to live in a safe environment—a warm healthy home—and that the children will be brought up in a safe environment all the way through to allowing those who want to seek a new way of doing things in the economic development sphere to be able to do so. It is wide ranging and that is the beauty of Whānau Ora.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Has the Minister sought an assurance from the Whānau Ora commissioning agencies that existing Whānau Ora providers are informed of the new contracting and funding process and that there is a clear time line that has been explained to them to implement those decisions to support whānau?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: That is a rather difficult question at this point in time because much depends on the Budget and I am unable to provide too much information about the very good Budget coming out shortly. Under those circumstances I am rather restricted in what I can say but there is an expectation as I said when there has been so much work done in this particular kaupapa. I am not about to let it lie as the Minister and I will ensure that systems and procedures in place will deliver the best possible results for Māori and indeed the country.