'By Seymour, for Māori?' - Tama Potaka defends Māori targeted funding cut
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Māori Development Minister has defended attacks by the opposition arguing he allowed targeted Māori funding to disappear under his watch.
Speaking in the Māori Affairs select committee for scrutiny week, Labour MP and former Māori development minister Willie Jackson said specific funding for Māori initiatives had fallen significantly since Tama Potaka took over.
He also questioned whether Potaka was being influenced by Deputy Prime Minister
David Seymour
, who disagrees with targeted funds based on race.
Jackson said while he did not doubt "for one second" that Potaka was committed to pushing kaupapa Māori, he was "failing" in terms of Māori-specific funding.
"You've had this decrease in terms of Māori funding, targeted funding, across the portfolio, and you have a deputy prime minister who believes funding us is racist... so how are you dealing with that?" Jackson asked.
Potaka said he did not share that view and encouraged others in the room to "amplify" that.
"What often happens is that certain views are given some really enhanced coverage, and others that I think are just as legitimate are not."
"We have a very important series of commitments emanating out of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi... good kāwanatanga or rangatiratanga or ōritetanga, however many tangas we might want to refer to and that provides a very constitutional bedrock for our existence as a country. It amplifies and reflects some things that were already existing," Potaka said.
Potaka said funding allocated to the Māori Women's Welfare League was an example of the government's commitment to Māori funding.
Pushed again by Jackson on what "confidence" Potaka could give that Māori initiatives would be prioritised, Potaka said some of those initiatives "did not sync" with the government's current direction.
"This government, and I as the minister, are in a space where we've got serious fiscal issues, and I don't need to belabour that, but taking the debt up from $5 billion to $100 billion did not help, over five or six years, prior to us coming in.
"All agencies have basically cut back, except for Health, Education, Defence and Police, all agencies have had to take a haircut. That includes my agencies... the view that 'we don't have confidence because your agency has less money than last year', I think is misplaced given the fiscal context."
The government was focused on tilting the support towards economic development, rather than bits and bobs all over the place, Potaka said.
Budget 2025 saw the end of the
Whai Kāinga
, Whai Oranga housing fund which saw the government allocate over $700 million to help iwi build thousands of homes in 2021.
That money has been redirected to the government's broader Flexible Housing fund, a move which Jackson said "betrayed" the kaupapa.
"[Māori] can't get their heads around it, that you would betray a kaupapa and open up competition, now that Māori providers have to compete with mainstream providers, very unfair.
Former Māori development minister Willie Jackson said said specific funding for Māori initiatives had fallen significantly since Tama Potaka took over.
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"You're the minister responsible for the biggest transfer of money from Māori to mainstream in the history of ministers," Jackson said.
Potaka gave a mihi to the "architects" of the scheme and said their work was "absolutely outstanding".
"In terms of the Whai Kāinga, Whai Oranga budget that has effectively been centralised and reallocated," Potaka said.
"Some of that was the $200 million announced for 400 or more new homes, I announced in Waitangi week, that includes the 150 homes that are being built right now... in Gisborne, and a whole range of other homes. A whole range of other homes and sites across the motu, including up in Kaitaia and Rotorua and central North Island and other places."
Jackson said that figure showed how Potaka had "failed miserably" in the housing area.
"That's a far cry from what we talked about when we set Whai Kāinga, Whai Oranga up.
"So basically, it's 'By Seymour, for Māori' now, isn't it? Not 'By Māori, for Māori'," Jackson said.
"I reject that opinion presented as a question," Potaka said.
"What has happened is that the commitment over Whai Kāinga, Whai Oranga, a lot of that was consumed in the 1000 homes [built] through the Labour-led government and the 1000 homes that have been approved in 18 months - by the way, we didn't take five years - through this government.
"Those homes are on the go. Some have been delivered, and some are yet to be delivered, and actually, the capacity of Māori housing developers to deliver massively is evolving," Potaka said.
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