July 29, 2020
Buy Māori short sighted says Peters
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is opposing Māori procurement schemes.
The Māori Party is campaigning on 25 percent of government contracts going to Māori providers, and Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta is also looking at a how Māori firms can be supported to provide services to government.
Mr Peters says it’s paternalism and tokenism, and the Provincial Growth Fund has shown there are better ways to encourage Māori enterprise.
"We've got it all in our reach and we do not need this patronising behaviour that says we can't perform. Right now we're building the biggest mussel farm in the world and Ōpōtiki's going to be dramatically changed when we take mussels from not just being a commodity food in terms of medicine and therapies and things like that. It's an explosive thing, all happening in Ōpōtiki, all in front of our eyes, without any tokenism. We're going to do this over and over again," he says.
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