September 09, 2012
Under-investment leading to Maori poverty
A former children’s commissioner says tacking Maori child poverty means tackling adult poverty.
Cindy Kiro, who how heads Massey University’s School of Social Policy, says the policies brought in since Rogernomics have led to a lack of investment in communities and people.
She says it’s particularly felt in low income suburbs and the smaller provisional and rural communities with a high percentage of Maori and Pacific people.
“New Zealand has abundant resources. We have huge potential within our communities, huge potential within our people. When opportunities have been given in the past, for example like the trade training scheme, Maori have grabbed those opportunities and they worked in those industries until those industries were restructured. They will grab the opportunities,” Dr Kiro says.
She says policymakers don’t seem to want to tackle the truth that a disproportionate number of the children most at risk because of poverty are Maori.