Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
GREG FLEMING (National—Maungakiekie):
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Hon TAMA POTAKA (Minister for Māori Development):
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Thank you for that very important question, and just acknowledge everyone for returning this morning.
Look, the vision that I have for Māori development is to ensure the equality of opportunity for Māori across all dimensions of our communities, our society, our political system, and our social system and also our economy. That really revolves around making sure that we have thriving whānau, but also to recognise some of the real confronting deltas that present themselves to us. So, for example, we have a serious social delta between the income of Māori and the income of the rest of New Zealand. That difference, if you accumulate it all up and you add it all up, results in a delta of between $2.5 billion and $5 billion per annum that could be going into whānau Māori, but is not currently going into whānau Māori because of the—let’s call it—pay equity gap. That is particularly so for wāhine Māori, where there is a serious pay equity gap between wāhine and Māori and the rest of New Zealand.
I would sort of observe that part of my role as the Minister for Māori Development is to ensure that I can activate or reactivate methods to ensure there’s a little bit more equality of the opportunity in those social dimensions of our economy and our society. If we’re able to do that, if we’re able to bridge the disproportionate statistics that continue to afflict our communities, whether or not that’s in health or education or housing or law and order—thank you, Minister Metekōura for coming today—and other dimensions of our communities, then Māori will do well and, actually, New Zealand will be a far better place. Because we’ll be able to realise and enable the potential, particularly amongst our young people, especially given that the average age of Māori is around 27, the average age of the rest of New Zealand is around 38, and the average age of Pākehā New Zealanders about 42.
But that economic delta also that presents itself to our Māori businesses is something that I’m really geared around and energised around. The estimated difference in revenue between Māori-owned businesses and the rest of New Zealand – owned businesses is estimated to be in the vicinity of $35 billion to $40 billion per annum. The estimated asset gap is around $120 billion to $130 billion. So those dimensions alone really drive me into considering the best way to activate Māori into business and into economic development, hence why we have platforms like the RIF, Regional Infrastructure Fund. We’re looking at the access to capital issues that were touched on last night. We’re also looking into different ways where we can uplift and progress local procurement, although I do acknowledge the comments last night in relation to the target under progressive procurement, which has been done away with. However, we will continue to have a progressive procurement policy and we will continue to look into how we can uplift and elevate local and regional procurement.
The other item that I just touch on and acknowledge at this time, given Minister Metekōura is here in the House today, is Treaty settlements. They have been a serious reinvestment into regional New Zealand through iwi and acknowledging the wrongs of the past, acknowledging that there have been some breaches of the Treaty, but also investing back through those iwi that can help with Māori and iwi economic and social development in the regions.
Finally, the other item that I’d mention, especially given this is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori—kia kaha te reo Māori, ake ake ake—is our continued commitment both in this House through the Budget and elsewhere to ensure the cultural and language revolution and renaissance of our people continues to flourish. Certainly, the legacy of the National Party, which I mentioned last night and one that pervades today, is such that you even see our Prime Minister going to Tūrangawaewae on a couple of occasions recently for the Koroneihana and the uhunga for Kiingi Tuheitia and here in the House, was using te reo Māori more and more. I wanted to acknowledge Minister Metekōura for his grasp of whakataukī, or proverbs, the pithy sayings of our ancestors. It’s something that I think we should all try at least once a day to say one whakataukī. Mine for today is this:
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Kia ora tātou katoa.
