June 05, 2013
Sharples counting on trickle down for growth
Labour MP Rino Tirikatene says the Māori Party has given up on its aspirations for Māori people.
In Parliament yesterday, Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples endorsed National’s target to increase Māori median incomes to parity with overall median incomes by 2040.
Mr Tirikatene says that’s not good enough, and with Māori unemployment at 13.9 per cent, it is clear that the Māori Party and their Government colleagues lack a plan to keep the Māori economy moving.
He says Dr Sharples is advocating a trickle down approach to growing the Māori economy knowing that approach has been tried and failed.
Mr Tirikatene says when National was elected in 2008, the median income for Māori was 93 percent of the overall median, and it has now fallen to 85 percent of the overall median income.
In Te Tairāwhiti and across Ngāti Kahungunu, where the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti by-election is being waged, weekly real per capita income for Māori has fallen by 14 percent, while real per capita income for non-Māori has increased by 3 percent
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