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Mixed verdicts on the legacy for Maori of John Key's time as prime minister.
National's caucus met this morning to discuss how they will elect a new leader, with Deputy Prime Minister Bill English and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman the two candidates to declare so far.
Mana leader Hone Harawira says John Key has been a popular and populist leader who has been great for the rich but for disaster for those New Zealanders who have become homeless or impoverished.
"Maori have also suffered massive setbacks in housing, employment,justice, corrections education and welfare during his time. The only Maori who will mourn his passing are those who clipped the ticket during his reign. Those who reaped the benefit of treaty settlements and corporate success but did nothing or very little to lift their own people from the mire of welfare despondency, drug fuelled violence and suicide that has just ramped up within our society," he says.
Hone Hawawira says there are a range of social problems that seem to have become the new norm over the past decade without government taking any action.
Meanwhile, Former Maori Party co-leader Dame Tariana Turia says Maori have always been poor, even if the gaps between rich and poor haven't always been as wide as they are now.
She says in her time his relationship with the Maori Party was respectful and benefited Maori.
"We achieved getting well over a $1bn to be reinvested back in to our people through a number of programmes. So given that we were in a time of fiscal restraint his and Bill English's ability to see the importance of progressing alot of that work was really critical, says Dame Tariana Turia
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