This is what we mean when we talk about mana motuhake. We are here to be an unapologetic voice for tangata whenua, for our aspirations, our visions, our imperatives, our dreams, and, as a descendant of Ngāti Ruanui growing up in Pātea, I know all too well the real impact on the ground when Budgets fail to deliver for Māori grassroots and fail to honour Te Tiriti. I spoke in my maiden speech of the hardships our people endured in the 1970s and the 1980s as we faced the loss of jobs, factories, schools, banks, and infrastructure. While the State could have responded to this widening inequality with the compassion and care, instead, in the 1990s, we got benefits cuts, more police, prisons, and racist and bigoted rhetoric aimed at Māori and the poor. The persistent disparities in social incomes for Māori are the result of decades of under-investment and deregulation by successive Governments, red or blue.