Harawira puts the boot in:
The Maori Party is on the road - asking their members to let them go back into coalition with National because both Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples are desperate to not leave Parliament with the dodgy record that they have at the moment (Pete also said that he needs his ministerial salary to pay the mortgage on his new house).
Turia’s flagship was Whanau Ora. Launched after a big build-up by the Prime Minister himself, Whanau Ora got maximum publicity and became a new phrase in the public domain but in fact got very little.
Originally proposed as a $1 billion Maori welfare restoration programme, jealous Government Ministers forced Turia to turn it into a programme for all New Zealanders immediately reducing its effectiveness.
And then the budget got slashed to $134 million forcing Turia to have discretionary funding pulled from Maori providers around the country to prop up Whanau Ora, leading many to cut staff and at least one major provider, Amokura, to shut up shop all together. Before Whanau Ora came along, Amokura was one of Tura’s favourite Maori providers. After Whanau Ora it was dead.
Whanau Ora will limp on because Tariana is tough, but with limited funding it has become one of those programmes that Maori say is ‘designed to fail’.
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Watch for the Maori Party comeback. They are donkey-deep in a 'damned if they do and damned if they don't' position.
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2 comments:
I strongly support iwi buying a share of the assets that are soon to be partially sold, the reason being that this would be a handup rather than a handout.
Most, if not all, iwi already have a useful portfolio of assets (think fishing, forestry and so on).
When and if they get a share of the upcoming sales, they *should* be very close to being self-sufficient in looking after themselves. When and if that is the case, they will no longer need Whanau Ora.
Especially as I've heard that around 20 Iwi are already bidding for Charter schools & WINZ subcontracts.
a couple of trials in Chch & Sarf Orkland aren't going to be anywhere near enough...
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