May 06, 2024
Job cuts drive centralisation says Waititi
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi says public service job cuts are hurting more than just Wellington.
Employment data out last week showed Māori unemployment hit a four year high of 8.2 percent, with the rate of increase more than 4 times the overall rate.
Mr Waititi expects it to get even worse once Maori public servants join the dole queue.
“This is not just isolated to our workers in Wellington. This is happening all over the country. And so the regional offices are the ones getting cut which means they’ll start to centralise the bureaucracy. People in Wellington making decisions for those in the regions have no idea what’s happening out there. It’s a bit like how our politicians operate – they make the decisions down there but don’t know what’s happening in our regions, out in our kainga,” he says.
Mr Waititi says Maori are always last hired and first fired.