May 21, 2018
Overhaul to boost TPK impact
Maori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta says she is having to rebuild her ministry after years of neglect.
Te Puni Kokiri’s vote went backwards in last week’s Budget, the first time that has happened in more than a decade.
Ms Mahuta says the portfolio suffered from being outside cabinet during the previous National-Maori Party Government, and in recent years a lot of its policy work was farmed out to contractors.
"We have to rebuild the way TPK influences and impacts on policy across the board and we are not looking at TPK in isolation. I know that in order for Maori to get the gains across the board TPK has got to be in a position of influence to impact decision making across every portfolio and that is what we will do under my leadership," she says.
Ms Mahuta says her priorities for the portfolio include rangatahi, te reo Maori and helping Maori get more from their land, with $7 million set aside in the Budget for the Whenua Maori Programme to support the design, establishment and delivery of services for owners of Maori freehold land.
Copyright © 2018, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com