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Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell wants the restoration of a fund for improving water supplies in rural communities.
The Government is making $1 billion in loan funding available to councils in Auckland, Christchurch, Tauranga and Queenstown to build the infrastructure needed to support more home building.
Mr Flavell says there is also a need for infrastructure in small communities with high Maori need, such as Katikati, Matakana Island and Te Kao.
His ministry only has limited funds for water and sewage, which is why he has asked Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne to reinstate the subsidy to improve water supplies for small communites.
"There are a number of Maori communities which will inevitably be at the low end of the socio-economic sphere that are suffering on the back of either inapproporiate resource for maintaining the water or, the water is contaminated in one form or another. In that regard we are trying to open up that fund again for the local councils, to apply to government for a subsidy to link up those communities with water," says Te Ururoa Flavell.
FULL INTERVIEW: TE URUROA FLAVELL
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