The NZ Herald reports:
Act leader Jamie Whyte's been caught short once again - this time clueless about Whanau Ora.
I bet you most New Zealanders couldn't tell you what whanau ora is.
Annette King, then Labour's social services spokeswoman, described it as 'blancmange' because "when you try to get a grasp of it, it slips through your fingers."
Here's a challenge. Summarise the following diagrammatic representation of whanau ora in a sound bite.
All whanau ora does it transfer funds to Maori service providers, a process that occurred before it became known as whanau ora. But there has been a concerted effort to dress it up as a hugely significant development for political reasons. Ask what the Maori Party's great legacy is as we run up to the election and the answer will undoubtedly be whanau ora.
Once more I am pleased and relieved to hear a political candidate being honest. Makes a welcome change to bluster and bluff or evasion.
8 comments:
A challenge?
Nothing but a bottomless pit of affirmative action.
'most' people are not standing for election!
Heh, when it was introduced Tariana was asked what it was and she said something like "We won't know till we try it" :)
Its the equivalent of casting a hook into an unknown ocean and waiting to see what bites.
JC
Whyte was on an interview on Maori TV. It's pretty basic that he should know what the biggest Maori policy initiative has been for the last six years.
The fact is that Whyte is a political neophyte and was - once again - ill prepared for this interview. Not just Whanau Ora, he didn't even know legal status of Maori TV.
But of course ACT's proudest achievement was to set up Maori charter schools with my taxpayers dollars.
And then Whyte comes out in favour of welfare!
Anomymous thinks that charter schools are Maori charter schools. Separate Maori schools, funded by the government have been around for a long time-absolutely nothing to do with charter school. Apart from maori language exactly what they are teaching and quite how they are doing it seem to be out of range.
I heard Nevil Gibson from the NBR describe Whanua Ora as empowering which is I suppose one way to describe an apartheid system.
Whanau Ora - "a handout to Maori".
The same four words can be used to describe *any* Government policy with a Maori name.
Whanau ora is contracting-out of social service provision.
Love the diagram.
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