Cunliffe David: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — In Committee 
Cunliffe David: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8656] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 Let me first restate to the member Te Ururoa Flavell the Government’s commitment to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and indeed to seeing Treaty education tikanga Maori and te reo Maori as part of the broad education of people in this country including new migrants. It is important. Maori are the first people of this land and their identity is much of what defines our collective identity as New Zealanders in Aotearoa. 
The member has asked three specific questions and a general one and I will quickly respond to each of them. Firstly my reference to the kaitiaki of tikanga by the Maori caucus was an informal and collective reference to the role that our Maori caucus plays in very strongly advocating internally within the Labour Party for matters of tikanga Maori and Te Ao Maori. They are in many ways the guardian of that flame within Labour and indeed a force to be reckoned with within Parliament as well as within the party. I gave due deference to my colleagues last night and I can confirm to the member that there was proper consultation on a formal basis with the Maori caucus in respect of this bill and in respect of the member’s amendments which took place before the debate last night. 
Secondly the member has questioned the Minister of Finance’s costings. Those costings are of course approximate. They are the costings done by the Minister of Finance’s office. I think what is key here is that a non-trivial amount of resource is required to set up a new council—which was the burden of the member’s proposed amendments—and that that fiscal hurdle had not been budgeted in the forward estimates or in the current Budget round and therefore the amendments would have required spending that was without a current or planned appropriation. That is an appropriate and standard use of the financial veto and an appropriate standard process I understand was employed by the Minister of Finance in coming to that decision. 
Thirdly in respect of the information booklets may I just take this opportunity to clarify one slight oversight in my comments last night. A number of the booklets were given directly to prospective migrants but there was also a pack of four smaller booklets that were designed for the training of immigration advisers and immigration staff. The member has quite rightly pointed out that it can be hard to get across the sense of the Treaty simply from the written page. That is why we have taken an active role in training our immigration staff in the principles of the Treaty so that they might as part of the settlement programme and the settlement strategy communicate that orally and in person to new migrants. 
The member asked whether I had read the booklets. I have had a good skim of them. I cannot say I have read every word on every page but then I am not a migrant and therefore not the target audience. I am satisfied that the booklets are a good effort and that they do contain the information that we need to get across to migrants. 
Fourthly the member has asked whether my reference to our assiduous officials last night in respect of clauses 32 to 34 was in the nature of an indication from me as Minister that I expected the registrar and policy to reflect the principles of tikanga. I am happy to confirm for the member and for the Committee that it has always been the Government’s intention that the principles of the Treaty should be contained within those matters that are the proper purview of the licensing of immigration advisers and indeed the training of immigration staff internally. 
In summary I do not think there is any great difference between the positions of the Maori Party the Maori caucus of the Labour Party and the Government in the principles of this matter. I think we are all heading in the same direction but we are proposing somewhat different routes. It is our view that a whole new bureaucracy is not necessary to achieve these aims and that the most effective and efficient thing to do is to channel that training and that information through the existing channels that we are proposing in this bill. I would hate for that member the Committee and the public to think for one moment that this Government was less than fully committed to the underlying principles of the Treaty which define us as a nation and which will be an increasingly important part of our collective future.