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Ngāti Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says the next Government needs to get serious about training and employment.
Mr Tomoana, who chaired the previous Nation-Māori Party government’s Māori Economic Development Panel, says the current system isn’t working for Māori or New Zealand.
He says training dollars are swallowed up in polytechnics with nothing left for employers or trainees, and there seems to be a reluctance to train Māori for higher-quality jobs.
"The government has failed to train young New Zealanders to take up jobs. We can't milk our own cows. We can't pick our own fruit. We can't build our own houses. We can't cook our own food. And we can't help our own elderly in our rest homes. We've got to rely on cheap, compliant overseas labour and there is a reluctance to acknowledge the wealth of New Zealand was built off the back of Māori and Pacific workers," Mr Tomoana says.
He says Māori have never recovered from the axing of Māori trade training schemes at the end of the 1980s.
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