Flavell Te Ururoa: Adjournment — Sittings of the HouseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Adjournment — Sittings of the House[Sitting date: 09 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8723. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker kia ora tātau katoa e Te Whare. Pēnei ngā mahi i runga i te marae ko te wāhi ki a au ko te tuku i tētahi poroporoaki ki ngā mate kua pā mai ki a tātau katoa i tēnei tau.[Thank you Mr Speaker and greetings to us all of the House. Like the protocols on the marae my part is to accord a farewell tribute to the deaths that affected us all this year.]As I do on our marae throughout the country and try to do in this House I try to maintain our tikanga and firstly pay tribute to the many whom we have lost this year. I cannot cover all of them but Peeni ko te āhuatanga ki tō pāpā ā ka tangi ake [the situation relating to your father and which I lament over]. I mention Ērima Hēnare I mention Tama Huata—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Bert Mackie.Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: Bert Mackie from Te Puni Kōkiri Mauriora Kīngi and many others—Sir Apirana Mahuika. All those sorts of leaders of Te Ao Māori who have been lost to us this year I pay tribute to them. I say: koutou i te pō e moe e moe e moe haere whakangaro atu rā! Tātau te hunga ora e pae nei tēnā koutou kia ora tātau.[Those of you in the Void rest sleep slumber there depart and fade away! We the living seated about here my greetings and appreciation to you collectively and to us all.]The Māori Party does not want to be negative. We will not be negative and so I want to don another cap and say to us—Hon Members: Ha ha!Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: You get that one? All right. I want to don another cap and say that it has been a good year for the Māori Party and for us in this House.Marama Fox: Amen.Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: That is right my sister. It has been a good year. If we look at Budget 2015 there was the expansion of Whānau Ora progress on Te Ture Whenua Māori Act is coming around the corner the launch of the Māori housing network—it has been a very good year.The National Party members can say thank you. They can say thank you because we have brought that intellectual grunt that Māori bring to the table to sit alongside them. We brought that brown grunt—we brought that brown grunt that they need to contribute to the best interests of this country. The good thing is that we have actually enjoyed being together to bring about positive change for Māori people in this country. How did we do it? The base increased by $25 per week for all beneficiaries’ tamariki of this country. We held the line on the Resource Management Act. It is over the line for starters—Mr Nick Smith should be thankful for that. We have been working with Māori communities and iwi on a range of issues throughout this country finding solutions to try to deal with issues of poverty family violence and generally supporting whānau ora. That is where we want to be.We are also pleased to say that the fruits of our work have come out. Things have actually blossomed in terms of free doctor visits for children—that is all Māori Party policy. Like other parties people generally seem to pinch our ideas. They tend to pinch our ideas so shame on you. Shame on you New Zealand First in particular for pinching our ideas! But it is OK because they all go to a common good place. They go to the best interests of children and the families of this country. So we will let them have a little bit of credit but the credit is really due to the mighty Māori Party. Yay-ya!Rt Hon Winston Peters: What about the kūmara never saying how sweet it is?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: That is only in your area. In our area we speak it up we talk it up just like Ngati Porou does. We speak up about what we are good at and the Māori Party is good at most things. We come here today and actually we have come to apologise. Like a number of people today we have come to apologise. I honestly say that the Māori Party today wants to offer an apology—an apology that we are so good. I am sorry. I am sorry about it. I will apologise also that other people want to be like the Māori Party. In fact some of them want to be in the Māori Party. That is how good we are. I want to apologise that there have been no Cabinet reshuffles in our party. There have been no people moving up or moving down—no we are just level-pegging there at that high-pitched level that brings integrity to this House. I want to apologise to everybody for being so good.But I do want to say this in closing like other speakers: a year in Parliament is a long time and we could not do all the work without the many people who I am sure have been mentioned already—the messengers; the VIP drivers; the Clerk of the House; those associated with the office; the caterers; and the translators even if they get it wrong now and again—it is OK. I want to mention to all those people who have given hours beyond the call of duty for the best interests of our country: thank you so much for what you do. Ka nui taku mihi o Te Pāti Māori ki a koutou katoa e hāpai nei i tēnei o ngā Whare Pāremata me te kī atu ki a tātau katoa ahakoa nō tēhea taha o Te Whare kai tēnei kai tērā rānei meri Kirihimete.[My appreciation and that of the Māori Party is immense to all of you who support this House of the Houses of Parliament and I say to us all that whether you be on this or that side of the House merry Christmas.]Happy Māori Party New Year. When we come back next year may we look forward to a positive engagement across the House to bring about the best interests of children—tamariki—and whānau in this land. Meri Kirihimete kia ora tātau katoa.