Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is heading into the 2023 election campaign stating:
“Our record is growing Māori housing. Our record is growing Māori employment opportunities. Now our record is growing the Māori economy. I will happily campaign on our record.”
I really don't have a lot of stomach for this. Most Māori are working and law-abiding like most non-Māori and the constant racial identification of people only feeds resentment and division.
BUT if the Prime Minister wants to crow about what she has achieved for Māori let's look at what she hasn't achieved for Māori.
Since 2017, the Māori percentage of all people on main benefits has risen from 35.9 to 37.2% - in raw numbers from 99,351 to 128,502
Māori now make up 38.6 percent of those on a Jobseeker benefit - up from 37.6 %. Again, in raw numbers (despite the drop in the unemployment rate) there are over twenty thousand more Māori on the Jobseeker benefit than there were in 2017 (45,357 to 65,706).
The percentage Māori make up of the Sole Parent Support benefit has risen from 47.8 to 48.2% or 28,413 to 35,151.
Possibly the worst statistic in terms of Māori children's future prospects, absenteeism - as defined by attending school less than 70 percent of the time - has risen from 10.5 in 2017 to 23.8 percent in 2022 (term 2).
The Māori share of the prison population continues to climb - 50.7 to 53 percent (although the actual prisoner numbers have dropped due to Labour's policy to drive down the prison population by admitting fewer criminals and releasing earlier).
Finally, in a by no means exhaustive list, the Māori share of the public housing waiting list has grown from 44 to 49.6 percent or 3,389 to 14,130. A massive increase in raw numbers.
The data is summarized below:
Sources
https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/benefit/index.html
5 comments:
As always, you have nailed it again Lindsay using Data and not rhetoric.
Ardern delusional - no surprises there Lindsay.
Lindsay
Thank you again for all the work you do in this area.
A problem we have in New Zealand .. is the part-maori population is growing much faster than the general population .. and we are constantly reinforcing to part-maori that they are the "victims" of colonialisation .. and should feel aggrieved.
This means .. a fast-growing proportion of New Zealander's .. are adopting an aggrieved, victim mentality.
Which means they have a ready-made excuse for everything that is wrong in their lives.
But it's OK .. becoming part-maori is like buying a lotto ticket.
With all of the billions of dollars being imparted to part-maori .. as part of treaty settlements, and the like .. there is a big payday looming.
When that bubble bursts .. there will be a lot of very disappointed people floating around.
Which will only add to the sense of "we are aggrieved victims".
People who are more successful in life .. often are so DESPITE any baggage that comes from their background, or upbringing.
My partner and children are part-maori.
My message to them? - we are not victims. At least .. we are not victims of anything other than our own ignorance, our own laziness, and our own poor decision-making.
Our success .. or otherwise .. will come from our own actions, and efforts.
Not from anything our ancestors did .. or did not do .. almost 200 years ago.
Adern should by her own measure, hang her head in shame/whakama. Imagine having the gall to make such a statement in the first place as if no other Kiwis fate matter and even then fail abysmally and ask to be judged on it expecting us to give her a pass just because she speaks the magic words. Cue both hands on head in shock and confusion emoji.
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