The Maori Party and Welfare

The DomPost reports today; In her speech to ACT's annual conference in Wellington yesterday, Mrs Turia stressed the similarities between ACT and the Maori Party on issues such as the foreshore and seabed and welfare reform.

She said the Maori Party wanted provision of welfare to be decentralised and all those receiving a benefit to be required to work.

The NZ Herald reports; Mrs Turia said one of the four Maori Party MPs had been opposed to her giving the speech, but she declined to name the person.

Perhaps that MP is her co-leader.

Pita Sharples has said; The Working for Families package does not sufficiently address poverty, or child poverty, in Aotearoa. This package, along with the government’s Single Core Benefit system, rolls out the expectation that all beneficiaries should be in or moving towards paid work (often low-paid work) - regardless of being full-time parents or living in areas of job shortages.

This is at odds with Tariana's proclamation.

The Maori Party has also aligned itself strongly with the Greens on the matter of the Child Poverty Action Group's campaign. Mrs Turia said;
"253,000 children are in households supported by a benefit. It is these children that stand to gain most from the action of CPAG in being granted access to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for its case alleging discrimination in the Child Tax Credit, and the proposed In Work Payment". The Maori Party want non-working beneficiaries with children to receive the same extra payment as those who go to work.

Increasing payments to beneficiaries to a level on par with workers is going to make it harder to get people interested in jobs.

The huge problem for Maori is intergenerational dependency. At the heart of the problem is children growing up in non-working homes. If Tariana is serious about tackling DPB dependency I wish her well. But I am not convinced she is. I hope I am proved wrong.