Government’s mixed messages for M¯aori

The good news for a Government that has already experienced a positive start to the year is that it seems to have inherited a healthy economy. Statistics New Zealand has said that the national unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2017 is the lowest since December 2008, when it was at 4.4 per cent.

But the news for Ma¯ ori is a little less rosy. While the Ma¯ ori unemployment rate of 9 per cent is also at a nine year low, it stubbornly sits at exactly twice the national rate.

The news came only a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a strong impression at Waitangi, where she talked of meeting with iwi about health, education, housing, roads and employment issues and said that now ‘‘we must turn talk [into] action’’.

What this action might look like is still hard to say. Finance Minister Grant Robertson seems to have ruled out policies that specifically target Ma¯ ori disadvantage or disparity. Instead, he believes that policies such as the families package, which are universal, will have a disproportionate benefit for Ma¯ ori because of their economic disadvantage. The Government’s focus, as he told RNZ on Wednesday, is reducing ‘‘inequality overall’’.

Despite Ma¯ ori lagging behind in a range of social indicators, Helen Clarkstyle ‘‘closing the gaps’’ policies will not be the business of this Labour Government.

John Tamihere, a former Labour minister who works with Ma¯ ori families as chief executive of Te Whanau o Waipareira, was interviewed by RNZ an hour after Robertson and struggled with the possibility that Labour was in ‘‘retreat’’ from promises made to Ma¯ ori on the campaign trail.

Tamihere’s one time talkback radio offsider turned Labour Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson, also seemed at odds with his finance minister when interviewed. During an unusually feisty broadcast, Tamihere disputed RNZ’S interpretations of Robertson’s comments and assured listeners there will indeed be specific, targeted funding for Ma¯ ori and the continuation of earlier policies like Wha¯ nau Ora.

The impression one could take is that RNZ caught two of the Government’s ministers in the middle of pre-budget negotiations.

Ma¯ ori voters came back to Labour in large numbers in 2017. Labour won a clean sweep of all seven Ma¯ ori seats, earned an average of 59 per cent of party votes in the Ma¯ ori electorates and introduced a new wave of promising Ma¯ ori MPS, including Kiri Allan and Willow-jean Prime.

There is no question that Labour has a mandate with Ma¯ ori. And it seems reasonable to argue, as Robertson does, that universal policies in areas such as health, employment and education will benefit Ma¯ ori. But the Government also has to be careful to ensure the images we saw in Waitangi are not remembered as hollow political theatre in 2020.