Maori flood putea falls short says Waititi

The Maori Party is calling for $200 million immediately allocated for disaster relief in Maori communities.

The Government has already allocated $15 million to Maori community relief, and Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson indicated more would be needed in the future.

Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi says more is needed now, and he’s met with ministers this week to push the case.

I understand the Government is injecting money into the place. I don’t think it’s enough. We put our policy out a couple of weeks ago around a $200 million job just helping communities with relief, injecting some real resourcing to get it done faster, giving marae the option to look at relocation if they are in those flooding pathways,” he says.

Mr Waititi says some of the affected marae were shifted to flood plains while more affluent members of the community took their original safe sites.

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