February 19, 2013
Peters not smiling on rongoa funds
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters won’t drop on his attack on government funding for traditional Māori healers.
Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia has accused him of cherry-picking information he was given on the accountability and effectiveness of the programme to paint a misleading picture.
And rongoa practitioners say it’s an attack on their indigenous world view on behalf of the majority culture.
Mr Peters says he’s not happy with the numbers he got from Mrs Turia.
“Fifty one thousand plus she says have made contact with the service. At $130 a shot and nothing whether there is one contact, two contacts or more but the kind of global numbers you put to try and to justify your existence. There is no analysis as to what categories of contacts these are and then it is said that this system of Maori healing can be just as much as a smile. At $130 a shot, this is ridiculous”. says Mr Peters.
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