Turia: Speech to ACT National Conference27 March 2006
Speech to ACT National Conference
Wellington; Sunday 26March
Tariana Turia, Co-leader, Maori Party
MrPresident.
Tena koe. Tena koutou e whakarauika nei i rotoi te rohe potae o Te Ati Awa. Nga mihi hoki ki a Te Ati Awakei a koutou te mana whenua, na reira tena rawa atukoutou.
Ladies and gentleman right up until this point Iwas wondering as to whether I should do the obligatorypolite thing of thanking you as hosts and say:
Ladies andgentleman, Catherine, as past President, thank you very muchfor inviting me to speak at this your Annual Conference andwhile I was considering doing this I had visions ofheadlines this evening and tomorrow saying "Turia leavesNational for ACT".
But more seriously, I do want to thankyou for the invitation and I hope that your generosity inextending this invitation will be followed by Labour,National, New Zealand First, The Greens, United Future andthe Progressives inviting members of the Maori Party tospeak at their Conferences.
We want to consolidate ourposition as a Party who will speak with anyone, but who willnever ditch its constituents. I know that the position wehave of speaking with any Party who wishes to speak with usdoes confuse people and politically we run the risk of thisphilosophy of ours being used against us.
But we in theMaori world have a saying:
"Ko te kai a te Rangatira hekorero"
"Discussion is the food of Chiefs"
Acceptingyour invitation is a demonstration that having dialogue withothers is a good thing, as it will hopefully lead us tolearn something new.
We might not change our minds orbeliefs but at least we have listened to another expressingtheir view of the world.
The Maori Party does have a viewof the World and while we are in Parliament as theindependent Maori voice we will articulate that view.
Wehave no wish to force others to have the same view as we asMaori people know only too well what it is like havingothers tell us how to be. As a people we have only everwanted to be who we believe we are, and not whom othersthink we should be.
As the last Cab of the rank we have inthe past few weeks been hailed by people who wish us to jointheir motorcade.
While we are happy to discuss issueswith them, our Cab is keener on learning the road map ofParliament to enable us to represent the views of ourconstituents in the best way possible, plotting our ownjourney, prioritising what we want to do and not cruisingParliament looking for any passengers or necessarilyfollowing their road map.
Having said that, we have inthe last couple of weeks picked up a couple of passengers,one in a Black and White suit and another dressed in Blueand delivered them to their drop off point where we willfurther our discussions.
We have also had our Cab flaggeddown by people dressed in Red and have had constructivedialogue with people dressed in Green. And here I am today,our Cab being parked outside.
At the big taxi rank inParliament, try as we may, we have not been able to get awayfrom Rodney as his Cab is parked right next to mine. A fewdays ago the warden ordered his car from the rank!
I needto say from the outset that I always thought we probably haddifferent constituents and coming here today proves we have.I would hope however that the diversity and differences wehave amongst and between us we should see as strength and issomething that we celebrate rather than fear.
I know thatmany political commentators believed that because of thedifference of personalities in the Maori Party parliamentaryteam that we would implode. While they and some politiciansmight have wished this, they have been so wrong.
What manyhave failed to appreciate is that the very differences thatwe have constitute the glue, which holds us together.
Asit is with many Maori, we all belong to different tribes andyou could say we are all iwi centric, and it is that iwicentricity and confidence in who we are as identities whichbinds us together.
We believe in ourselves and ourabilities.
I had considered discussing in some detail acouple of issues particularly that relating to welfare,welfare dependency and the safety of the welfare net.
Iwill do that but I also want to let you know in rather broadterms how we function as a Party within Parliament and whatwe focus on.
WELFARE
The Maori Party believes that theState does have a responsibility to support the mostvulnerable in our society.
I am not somebody who supportsthe benefit system in the way that is currently operated andadministered. My preference is much as our people believedback in 1984, that the benefit should be used in a way whichassists people to be productive. We need to use the benefitto assist the economy to sustain itself - and that isn thappening now.
What has unfortunately occurred is thatthe systems of safety, which have been designed, have tendedto trap and entangle people in a net from which they do notescape.
The late Sir Apirana Ngata saw such a net as adanger to us as a people as he believed it would underminethe work ethic of a people.
Composer Tuini Ngawai who,like Apirana Ngata was from Ngati Porou composed a song inthe early 1950 s where she warned against Pakeha knowledge,particularly the dependency she saw emanating from thebenefits which she also linked to land confiscations ofearlier years.
Ngawai in her song claimed the end resultof these initiatives would be the destruction of the people,their memories, their souls and their life essence.
"Patutangata, patu mahara, patu mauri"
Another Ngati Porou,my former colleague John Tamihere in 2003 at the "KnowledgeWave" Conference in Auckland said of the benefit systemthat:
"It is no good having a growth and innovationstrategy and it is no good looking for success andinnovation if large numbers of our community cannotparticipate".
He was referring of course to those on theBenefit.
I agree with John and I also believe that theviews of those on Benefit and the communities, which theybelong to or live in, should be sought as to how they thinkthey can be liberated from the state of dependency in whichthey have become entrapped.
We in the Maori Party alsobelieve that our people must make these decisions. For toolong others have prescribed the solutions and they have notworked.
I have been in Parliament since 1996 and each yearI see social policies, which are purported to be thesolution, being produced.
I have come to recognise thatwhat is actually happening is that the "new" policy solutionis a remedy for the mistakes of the "old" policy solution,which in its time was the "new" policy solution and so on itgoes.
I will not dwell on the negative social indices ofmy people suffice to say that only we can change them andthe Maori Party is committed to that end.
We are the oneswho can liberate ourselves from the situation we findourselves in. We are capable of unleashing the potentialthat lies within our people, be they individual orcollective.
The challenges my colleagues and I are puttingto our people and to our communities is that we/they/us allhave the responsibility of ensuring that our human potentialis not wasted in a cloud of smoke, the mist of "P", thefroth of alcohol or the bone jarring impact of a punch.
Toassist in this process I would suggest that policy solutionsbased on decentralised models have to be considered.
Iwish now to share with you how we in the Maori Partyfunction as a team within Parliament and the parameters ofour view of the World.
a) We see every issuediscussed in the House as a Maori issue. For too long Maoriin Parliament have been restricted to addressing thenegative social indices and yet every bit of legislation onthe statutes affects Maori as they affect every othercitizen of Aotearoa.
b) We will claim our indigeneityand we will speak of it, regardless of whether people wantto see us as 'one people . We recognise our indigeneity andthe indigeneity of others as the strength of the manypeoples who live in this land.
c) The Treaty is thefoundation of the nation. Despite the desire of some torelegate Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the annals of history westill consider it to be the foundation document for theNation.
d) We seek to eradicate poverty. Our doorknocking during the election campaign was a rude awakeningfor us upon discovering a level of poverty, which we werenot aware. The poor did not create poverty nor do they havean investment in it.
e) We seek genuine progress inour nation. We believe in a Genuine Progress Index, whichmeasures benefits against deficits. We do not for examplebelieve the imprisonment of people is genuine progressalthough that sort of expenditure might look good for GDP. We do not believe that welfare dependency is an indicator ofgenuine progress and health.
f) We believe whanauare best able to determine their own solutions, and we mustsupport them in restoring their rights and responsibilitiesto do so.
g) We seek to consistently demonstrate ourbelief in the potential of people to achieve the impossible.Maori have a proud history of creativity andentrepreneurship and we promote the contribution that Mäorienterprise and entrepreneurship has made to our nation'seconomy.
h) We look to our tikanga and our kaupapa toguide us in our responses. Our customs and traditions guideour behaviour both within our parliamentary Offices andwithin the House. For those of you who may listen toParliament, you might note that when any of us stand tospeak we not only greet the speaker, we also greet themembers in the House. You may also note we desist frombelittling other individuals.
i) We promote a systembased more on justice that heals than justice that continuesto alienate victims and their families and dehumanisesperpetrators and their families.
j) We willencourage an opportunity for people to participate - forvoices to be heard. Since coming in to parliament as theMaori Party I have noticed greater numbers of Maori comingthrough what we refer to as the "rubber doors" of the oldParliament Buildings. We also have a programme of visitswithin our electorates, to let our people know what we aredoing. This is in addition the weekly clinics we hold.
k) We exist to defend Maori rights, and advanceMaori interests, for the benefit of all who live inAotearoa. The Foreshore and Seabed Legislation was adefining moment for us as we saw it as a 21st centuryconfiscation and a denial of access to Justice. I know theACT Party was at one with us on that issue although fordifferent reasons. Yours was the protection of individualrights and private property, ours was the issue ofcollective rights and the denial of access to due process.
The means by which we express our message alsodistinguishes us as inkeeping with our own uniquephilosophy.
So we seek to promote whakatauki, pepeha,and korero tawhito - if you like the cultural capital oftangata whenua - as illustrating Maori and universal truthsand in all speaking forums we always consider the learningprovided from a historical context.
We are committed topromoting and using te reo Maori in the House and aresupportive of the establishment of simultaneoustranslations. We encourage appropriate pronunciation, nomatter what language.
In the end however we remaincommitted to this country while recognising we are citizensof the world and we do not see ourselves as an OppositionParty.
We are the Maori Party, the Independent Maori Voiceof Parliament.
ENDS
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