Paula Bennett: ‘We need to pull together to get the best out of our people and this country’

In a predominately Māori small town, local women stepped up to help combat truancy, getting hard-to-reach kids to school each day.

OPINION

If I had been asked more than five years ago if I supported co-governance, I would have said yes. Now I say no.

I have met incredible organisations, both Māori and non-Māori, doing work in their communities with disadvantaged people that is making a difference. Under the previous National Government we partnered with Māori organisations in many different ways with the desired outcome to be improved lives for those who were struggling.

Through some of our Treaty settlements we looked to how we could co-govern particularly on social issues. It made sense. We wanted the same outcomes. No one was disadvantaged and there was a real chance that there would be improved outcomes. Fewer Māori on welfare and more self-determination.

When we partnered with Māori in their communities we had very clear outcomes we wanted and ensured their contract with the Government had milestone targets.

I remember one very successful initiative in a predominately Māori small town, where we partnered with local women on combatting truancy. They literally knocked on windows and doors and got hard-to-reach kids to school each day. Often feeding them along the way and showing love and compassion to a group of kids who hadn’t seen much. It worked.

Bill English and I wanted to see more local problems being dealt with at a local level. For the social investment approach to be successful it was people who live in our communities lifting up the most disadvantaged.

The key to social investment is that it is evidence-based and has simple but achievable goals that organisations are rewarded for achieving. Like getting kids into early childcare education and regularly attending. Being enrolled with a GP, etc. We know that there are some fairly basic necessities for kids and if achieved, they are less likely to end up in jail or on welfare.

Why wouldn’t we support Māori supporting Māori if they are more likely to get cut through and make a difference? What we found was that many assisted non-Māori as well and, of course, vice versa.

But that is not what co-governance is in the form being presented by the Labour Government. It is about control of governance, assets and funding that would be exclusively for Māori. As stated by Willie Jackson, “The nature of democracy has changed. This is a democracy now where you take into account the needs of people, the diverse needs, the minority needs. It’s not the tyranny of the majority anymore, that’s what co-management and co-governance is about.”

This Government wants some to do better by dragging others down. We don’t need separatist systems, we need to pull together to get the best out of our people and this country and that’s something this Government doesn’t get.

Paula Bennett is a former Deputy Prime Minister and National Party politician who now works at Bayleys Real Estate as national director-customer engagement.