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May 09, 2025
New Welfare reforms will cruelly hurt Māori most
Martyn Bradbury
Posted On May 9, 2025
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#opinion
The Government’s latest draconian welfare reforms will cruelly punish Māori the most.
Māori are 15% of the population yet are 36% of all main benefit recipients.
In the Jobseeker benefit Māori represent 39% of recipients, compared to 36% for New Zealand Europeans and for the Sole Parent benefit, Māori account for 48% of recipients, significantly higher than the 29% for New Zealand Europeans.
This all means that the negative punishments built into the Amendments To Social Security Act passed through Parliament will hammer Māori hardest.
The Bill is an abusive piece of legislation specifically designed to make getting welfare far harder while making it easier to punish those needing help.
The punishments are extreme and purposely bureaucratic in the hope that those needing help are either denied or punished.
The ‘Money Management’ scheme takes 50% of welfare payments and forces them onto a card that will make it impossible for them to pay rent and will lead to a dramatic spike in homelessness.
What seems even crueller is that any one punished with a ‘Money Management’ sanction or ‘Community Work Experience’ sanction won’t be eligible for emergency housing or special needs grants.
This won’t help anyone on welfare, it will punish them and it will punish Māori disproportionately.
Everything this Government does seems to harm Māori most and when you consider the sheer scale of anti-Māori and ant-Treaty legislation that this Government is attempting to pass, you really must ask if this is the most anti-Māori Government for at least a century.
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