Disappointing stance from Labour
the outcomes.
We know not all will become rocket scientists but allowing children to dream and have those aspirations is just as important as ABCs. In West Auckland, we know that 50 per cent of Maori boys will leave school without NCEA level 1, 2 or 3.
Yet in Whangarei, He Puna Marmara achieved a 100 per cent pass rate for NCEA level 2 and NCEA level 3.
Why would you challenge that policy? Does this mean Labour is happy with substandard education for our children? You would have to think if you don’t support Maori progression, do you support oppression?
The same goes for Whanau Ora. Why is it that every time money is spent on Maori initiatives, the lens is turned intensively on the spend and not the results?
Whanau Ora has been allocated an extra $40 million over four years – that’s $10 million a year and if you calculate that over 600,000 Maori, that’s $17 per person per annum.
That’s why Te Pou Matakana chief executive John Tamihere had to react swiftly when Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta questioned Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell about there being no measurements or reports on the outcomes of the Whanau Ora spend.
That is simply untrue. MPs from Labour and National have been given presentations from Te Pou Matakana since it took on the role of North Island Whanau Ora commissioning agency.
In fact Mahuta was given a three-and-a-half hour personal briefing. For her to now turn around, as part of political pointscoring, and question its worth and achievements is disappointing.
Hopefully Labour will be as assertive when questioning the Government about why almost 60 per cent of kids truanting are Maori, why Maori are overrepresented in negative statistics when it comes to alcohol and drugs, family violence, suicide, mental health, numeracy and literacy levels, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, most cancers, unemployment and poverty.
It would be good if Labour could ask those questions of the Government and also provide its party’s solutions, given it was in power for as long as this Government and gained minimal change for Maori.
About $45 billion a year is spent on health, social, education, justice and Corrections and peanuts are spent on chartered schools and whanau ora. It makes you wonder where the Labour MPs’ real priorities lie. If you’ve got a lot to say on a burning issue affecting your community, why not write us a guest column? Anyone can submit a column idea to the editor – all you have to do is email us with an idea or an outline at jay.boreham@fairfaxmedia.co.nz and we’ll let you know if it’s suitable.