Government tightens screws on aid for Maori

By RUTH BERRY, political reporter

Programmes for Maori are under extra scrutiny and some will be axed, as the Government moves to head off National leader Don Brash's potent attack on "race-based" policies.

Prime Minister Helen Clark and Social Services Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday that the Cabinet was examining a range of moves designed to close the disparities between Maori and Pakeha.

Both denied the Government was being forced into a retreat, and said its programmes were based on needs, not race or privilege.

But Helen Clark said: "We can have a look through and assure ourselves that what we are doing is thoroughly based on need."

And Mr Maharey said ministers were evaluating the success of programmes announced by the Government in 2000 and he did not expect them to receive as much money in the future.

Most of the programmes - initially called Closing the Gaps, then renamed Reducing Inequalities - had a four-year life span and expired this year.

The package announced in 2000 was worth $114 million and almost immediately became a sensitive issue for the Government, resulting in the name change, which was intended to move the focus to "inequality".

Some capacity-building programmes have provoked particular nervousness.

As tension increases within Labour ranks, Maori MPs and ministers are concerned that National's assault is reducing the likelihood of success of some of their Budget bids.

They believe National's campaign is being used by conservative colleagues and bureaucrats as a reason to review support for some programmes.

Any backdowns would be particularly galling for the Government's Maori MPs, who had hoped to offer constituents something from the Budget to soften disappointment over the foreshore and seabed issue.

Yesterday, Dr Brash was debating race relations on the streets of Rotorua - and singling out tax cuts for working New Zealanders and a tough line on benefit dependency as key National election policies.

Mr Maharey rejected suggestions that programmes being put forward by Maori ministers would be treated any differently in light of National's stance.

"Ministers will still be judging whether need is still there," he said. "We're not targeting Maori for the sake of it. I don't think there will be nervousness of that kind."

But he said "ministers will have on their plate now, going into this Budget, evaluations from departments to see if they want to go on funding some of those programmes".

Whether they were given more money would depend on whether they had achieved what they had been designed to achieve and were still needed, he said.

Less overall spending on Reducing Inequality initiatives was likely.

"I would expect that the amount of money spent in this way might decrease because ministers are becoming happy that they have had a return for that investment."

Helen Clark, meanwhile, downplayed the significance of the weekend One News-Colmar Brunton poll which put National ahead of Labour for the first time since the Clark Ministry gained power.

She believed the "unprecedented publicity" given to National, and the Waitangi Day timing, had contributed to the surge in its support.