8 Feb 2000 Address in Reply 261 [Therefore to you the Speaker of this House, these are the statements from home. I greet you and all of us.] Thank you, Mr Speaker. Waiata WILLIE JACKSON (The Alliance): I second the motion that a respectful address be presented to His Excellency the Governor-General, in reply to His Excellency's speech. A, tihei mauri ora! E tika tuatahi ki te mihi ki to tatou Matua i te rangi nana nei nga mea katoa. Ka mihi ki te Whare me Papa-tO.-a-Nuku, tena korua. Ki nga mate haere. Ki te wairua o taku papa noho mai ra ki roto i te ringa o te Atua. Ki te Kaikorero, tena koe. Ki te Pirimia, ahakoa kua ngaro ia, tena koe. A, ki aku rangatira, Jim, Sandra, tena korua. Ki nga whanaunga, nga hoa i haramai nei ki te tautoko, tena koutou. Ki a koe Mita, kua ngaro hoki ia engari, nga mihi, nga manaaki ki a koe, Mita. Ki a koutou katoa nga mema, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena ano tatou katoa. [Behold, the breath of life. It is indeed right that a greeting is extended firstly to our Father in the sky, as he created everything. A greeting is extended to the House and Mother Earth, greetings to you two. To the dead, farewell. To the spirit of my father, remain there in the hand of God. To the Speaker, greetings to you. Greetings to you too, the Prime Minister, despite your absence. To my leaders Jim and Sandra, greetings to you two. To the relatives and friends who have come here in support, greetings to you all. Greetings to you, Mita-he has disappeared also, but never mind; regards to you, all the same. Indeed, to all members, greetings, greetings, and greetings again to us all.] It is indeed a privilege to be seconding the Address in Reply. I believe that it is the first time that Maori have been accorded that honour. I would like to express my thanks to some of my family and friends. First is my father, who is no longer with us. I thank him for being my best mate, my biggest critic, and my greatest influence. It is my biggest regret that he is not here today. I would also like to thank my uncle Syd Jackson, who has been a great political mentor for me. He has never received the kudos that he should from Maoridom. He was protesting before it was considered trendy to protest. I thank family and friends who have joined us here today. I say "Thank you" to my uncle Moana, who has also made a major contribution in coming along to support me, and to my uncle Brown, who was very close to my father. I thank very much my aunty, my grandmother, my aunties and uncles, my brother, my sister, my kuia--everybody who has come along .. I know I am not meant to say "Thank you" to this person, because we have an Andre Agassi type of contract-as in Andre did not say anything to Steffi-but I thank very much Tania Rangiheuea, who is very close to me. 4 Last, but not least, I thank my mother, June Jackson, who I think typifies very much the volatility of the Maori vote. On election night she said to me: "Son, I have two prayers: one is that you get in off the Alliance list" --obviously, she did not fancy my chances against someone in the back row here-' 'and the second is that Winston gets in.'' So there we go; that is an example of the Maori vote! I come from an electorate that was reflected very much in His Excellency's speech. Manukau is an area where I formed and shaped many of my political ideals. It is an area with many distinct features, a couple of them being that it has the widest cross-section of racial and ethnic groups in this country, and, unfortunately, it also can claim to have the narrowest cross-section of income groups in New Zealand. We have the highest group of lower-paid workers in the country, many of whom are Maori. In many ways, Manukau should be seen as a challenge and a benchmark for this Government, which is intent on reducing disparities in the economic, social, and political areas. It is an electorate that has been devastated by harsh economic policies. I have witnessed first hand the effects of those policies on our people in, for example, the unemployment area. We have intergenerational unemployment: fathers, sons, and their sons not getting work. There is an ever-increasing prison population, kids having kids- the worst statistics, which the Prime Minister talked about just the other day. The Government's clear signalling of its intention to reduce the gaps is good news for Maori, 262 Address in Reply 8 Feb 2000 not just in south Auckland but right around the country. The establishment of a Cabinet committee aimed at reducing those disparities as a priority is a positive start. The Government's fulfilment of its article 3 treaty obligations is also a positive way of addressing disparities. Fulfilling article 3 obligations means, in simple terms, Maori receiving the same opportunity as Pakeha. I know that some people get a bit tired of this. There may even be the odd member who would scoff at this-I was going to say ''the odd party", but I will not go down that lane-and want this whole Maori thing to just disappear. They probably want us to settle on a time, a date, and an amount, and then we can all be one country again. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. Article 3 treaty obligations must be properly thought out and carefully addressed, the net result and resolution being a greatly improved relationship between Maori and Pakeha, and Maori and the Crown. The Government needs to properly engage with Maori on a long-term, planned basis. A single parliamentary term could yield some good incremental results, but it is the long-term gains that are important. Planning and partnership are the essential keys for success. For an outstanding example of this we have only to look at a model set by three tribes: Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa Rangatira, and Te Atiawa. They have just reached the end of their 25-year planning cycle, which started in 1975. The Whakatupuranga Ruamano model is an inspirational example of Maori strategic planning by three tribes who are now planning for the next 1,000 years. Imagine planning like that! In 1975, they had very few Maori speakers. The economy was depressed, and theirs was a very depressed area, but through conscientious commitment to their plan, those tribes are now in a more viable and culturally enhanced position. They are now leading the way in terms of young Maori speakers. There is every reason for Maori, as a collective, to work in a similar fashion with the Government over a long period. Changes in Government did not deter those tribes from realising their goals. The same level of commitment from Maori to a similarly developed and executed planning blueprint must be encouraged. We are at the beginning of a new millennium, and it is timely that Maori should prepare themselves well for the future. One of my aims during this term is to assist Maori to engage in long-term strategic planning for economic and cultural survival. In the immediate term, Maori needs are exactly the same as those of Pakeha. We need jobs, and better housing, health, and education. However, we need a little bit more, for Maori have the responsibility of passing on a language and a culture to successive generations. As board chairmaQ of the only Maori language secondary school in Manukau, south Auckland, I have witndsed first hand the struggle to maintain our language. In a school of this kind, one is able to judge how hard it is to keep the language alive. We have 180 kids, who are taught maths, science, geography--everything-in Maori, from the time they walk in until the time they walk out. It is a very hard environment. We have kids mirroring the actions of their Black Power or Mongrel Mob fathers, yet those kids are working away, and we support them as much as we can. Then they return to an impossible situation at home. They can barely communicate with their parents, because 99 percent of the parents cannot speak a word of Maori. Imagine how tough that is! Those problems are caused through language retention spanning only a single generation, yet those parents choose to send their kids to a total Maori-immersion school. The politics of doing so is directly related to their belief that to identify more fully as Maori one needs to hear and speak the language. These problems cannot be resolved by a Maori language strategy in schools alone. We need a more comprehensive solution that is not a strategy based on having more Maori dictionaries or a television channel that no one can tune into. A comprehensive strategy that promotes language and culture through schools, and incorporates broadcasting, is what is required. Dual investment in the education and broadcasting sector promises a greater chance of preserving Maori language and culture. Culture, of course, must be distinguished; otherwise, we risk seeing everything Maori in just a linguistic context. My aim is to have a professional Maori broadcasting system that is well planned, properly resourced, and capable of encompassing all facets of Maori language and culture.