Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka is backing a call by former prime minister Sir John Key to National’s annual conference for the party to dampen race relations rhetoric.
He says both Māori and non Māori are most concerned with the cost of living and he wants to deliver outcomes that address that.
In his portfolios, that means focusing on things like housing.
“Most of the whanau in emergency housing are Maori so the policies we have will have an outsize impact on those Maori families. That’s the space and place I operate in and certainly that’s the message I got from Sir John Key,” he says.
Mr Potaka says since April, 400 whānau in emergency housing have been switched to secure, stable social housing.
