February 14, 2020
TPK gets whanau ora funding facts wrong
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Whānau Ora Minister Peeni Henare says Te Puni Kōkiri managers misinformed a parliamentary committee this week that money budgeted for the integrated service delivery programme was being diverted to state agencies.
The admission was seen as confirming complaints made by prominent Māori leaders including Dame Tariana Turia and Merepeka-Raukawa Tait, who say all the extra $80 million budgeted for whānau ora over the next four years should go through the three commissioning agencies.
Mr Henare says that was never the intention.
Some money will go to local commissioning projects, in line with the recommendations of an independent review, but none has gone to government departments.
"One of the parts of the review had always said government agencies needed to take the kaupapa of whānau ora seriously and that is what we were able to do with my tuakana Kelvin Davis and Paiheretia. The money allocated for that initiative, the carve-out for whānau ora is significant and it is not going to Corrections. It is going to community organisations who work with our whānau who have loved ones in prison. Last time I checked, that was a kaupapa our people were asking for," Mr Henare says.
The money not used for the new initiatives is going to the existing commissioning agencies.
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