Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere expects the new Government to take the stick to Māori and for programmes signed off under Labour to be cut by the new Act-NZ First-National coalition.
Tamihere said time taken on coalition talks is understandable, as National, Act and New Zealand are trying to work out which of their favoured policies will get some of the annual $180 billion government spend.
“The one thing they all agreed on out on the campaign trail is getting rid of the Māori language, getting rid of the Māori elite, getting rid of whatever it is that tickles your fancy in terms of being anti-Māori. All three parties advanced that notion, even [NZ First deputy leader Shane] Jones saying ‘we have a lot in common with where [Act leader David] Seymour is going on Māori sentiment and issues’,” Tamihere told Radio Waatea breakfast host Dale Husband.
He says despite 94 per cent of New Zealanders voting for other parties, New Zealand First seems to be the tail wagging the dog.
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Advertise with NZME.Tamihere says the handbrake is already going on Māori spending across the whole of the public sector in anticipation of the new Government.
Tamihere, also CEO of Whānau Waipareira and the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, said the problem is not just with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dropping te reo Māori.
He says non-Māori providers are still being funded but Māori provider groups and partnerships are put on the back foot.
“We’re waiting for money to come from the Ministry of Health to get us ready for our vaccination programmes in the new year and we’re worse off now than we were before the pandemic and they know it but right now they’re holding up our funding. That’s the racism we suffer under the subterfuge of ‘oh, there’s a new Government coming in, therefore we’ve got to put the handbrake on’.”
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Advertise with NZME.He says the bureaucracy is in breach of laws such as the Pae Ora Healthy Futures Act.
Waatea.News.Com
