May 18, 2020
Maori party figures struggle for relevance
The co-chair of Labour’s Māori caucus is pushing back on Māori Party claims about Budget spending.
Tāmaki Makaurau candidate John Tamihere claims just 0.3 per cent of the Budget billions is going to Māori.
Willie Jackson says his former talkback co-host doesn’t know how to count.
He says unlike when Mr Tamihere was in parliament 20 years ago, the Māori spend does not just go through the Ministry of Māori Development but is spread across portfolios like education, health, and his own employment responsibility.
"He’s not telling an untruth here because there's 0.3 per cent coming out of Nanaia Mahuta's budget but it's not just Nanaia Mahuta's budget, it's Kelvin Davis's budget, it's my budget, it goes right across the board, building and construction and everything. That's how it works – he knows that better than anyone but he's trying to stay relevant, they're trying to stay relevant, and they're particularly irrelevant at the moment," Mr Jackson says.
He says with $900 million out of a $15 billion Budget spend-up, that brings Vote Māori to about 6 per cent, compared with 1 per cent when Mr Tamihere was a minister in a Labour government.
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