Latest news with #PakilauManaseLua
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
'Bugger-all': Pasifika react to Budget 2025
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Key points A Tongan community leader says New Zealand's 2025 Budget is "a disappointment" for Pasifika. Funding for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) has decreased by nearly NZ$36 million over the next four years - equating to $9m annually. The ministry saw $26m cut from the previous year's budget. Two initiatives, the Dawn Raids reconciliation programme and the Tauola Business Fund, are being scrapped entirely. The Dawn Raids programme will close in two years saving $420,000 annually. At the same time, the closing of the Tauola Business Fund aimed to support Pacific businesses in New Zealand grow will save $3.5m a year. The Pacific Business Programme will remain, awarding contracts to firms that support Pasifika startups with networking and strategy. The government found NZ$2.7 billion a year through its changes to pay equity, cut its own contributions to KiwiSaver, told 18 and 19 year olds it would no longer pay them to sit on the couch, and introduced a new Investment Boost tax incentive, which is tipped to increase New Zealand's GDP by one percent over the next 20 years. Auckland Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua said the government had targeted the country's most vulnerable. "The Budget overall is just a disappointment," he said. "It was very much a 'B' budget: business, blue National budget and bugger-all for everybody else." Tupu Aotearoa, aimed at reducing the proportion of Pacific peoples who are unemployed, has been slashed by $5.5m a year. Just over $5m remains in the fund, while the rest of the saving will be consolidated into other employment support providers. "Our Pasifika communities are the most vulnerable and as a Tongan, our Tongan communities are the most vulnerable of the lot," Pakilau said. "When you've got so many things that are being cut, you can understand why our communities are so desperate that they'll go to loan sharks, they'll go to pyramid schemes." However, while disappointing, Pakilau said it is in line with what he expected. "You've got a coalition Ministry of Pacific Peoples, you had [David] Seymour saying he wanted to blow it up, so I'm not surprised really." Deputy Labour leader and her party's spokesperson for Pacific peoples Carmel Sepuloni is also disappointed. "It just goes to show their lack of value for Ministry of Pacific Peoples and I think population agencies in general," she said. Sepuloni said she would have thought programmes, such as the Tauola Business Fund, would have been a priority for this government. "Pacific have the highest rates of unemployment, the economy is doing badly, New Zealanders have lost jobs en masse; and disproportionately that has effected Pacific communities." RNZ contacted the Pacific Peoples Minister Dr Shane Reti but was told he was not available for an interview. Finance Minister Nicola Willis told RNZ Morning Report that, while the Budget is responsible, it has something for every New Zealander . "More funding for learning support in our schools; more funding for our hospitals, for our doctors, for our health system. It's called more funding for our police," she said. "Some people like to pretend that more funding just comes from a magic money tree, but actually, we're a country that is borrowing heavily at the moment. "We're a country that has more than doubled its debt, that is in deficit. We do have to manage our books carefully. We've made sure that every single one of those dollars has been very purposed towards services that New Zealanders rely on." Amongst the cuts, a new fund for Pasifika Wardens is being set up at a cost of $250,000 each year. Pakilau said the funding allocated for it is not much. "I suppose it's a good idea, but in the long game it's going to make very little dent in the problems that we're having on the ground, to be honest." Meanwhile, New Zealand's aid commitment to the wider region will decline over the next three years. As a percentage of national income, overseas development assistance had fallen from 33 percent to 23 percent. Pacific aid researcher Dr Terence Wood said this may stop New Zealand from being able to meet international commitments. "The aid budget is still falling, although the government has spent a little bit of extra money to prevent the fall from being as rapid as it had seemed like it was going to be at the last budget," he said.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: Pasifika community braces for impact
Photo: RNZ Experts and leaders in the Pasifika community are bracing for the impact of tightened government spending. With the government injecting less new money in this year's budget, savings from elsewhere are expected to pay for new projects. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will deliver her second Budget on Thursday. She said the Budget "is about prioritising your taxpayer money carefully and ensuring that we're actually nourishing the growth that ultimately delivers the jobs and living standards we all depend on." However, Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua hopes for the best, but doesn't expect it. "If I were a betting person, I think, given the record of this government, they're going to rob the poor to benefit those that possibly are okay and better off." Lua said that his community wants to see more equity measures, but the government's recent pay equity changes undermine that. "They didn't even give pay equity opportunities for women," he said. "I've got a mother and daughters and sisters that would benefit from that. It's very sad to see our most vulnerable and our most treasured workers not being honored by at least pay equity for women. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone There are fears that the government's savings drive could include the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), which saw its overall funding decrease by $26 million, or 22 percent, in Budget 2024. ECG Consulting's Ralph Ekila is a service provider for MPP's Pacific Business Village programme. Through that funding. he is able to provide strategy, engagement and planning services to small businesses that would otherwise be unable to afford it. Based on last year's budget, Ekila is concerned that non-core services such as business support will be axed. "The hope is that whatever has been invested in right now at least remains... targeted services around Pacific health, education, and programmes within other agencies were lost." Ekila said that the more MPP is cut, the less effective it will be in terms of it's service delivery. "The fear I have is that they get lost in the system and that the previous approaches have not worked. Hence, the reason why there has been an evolution in the development of ethnic, specific, targeted approaches." "It's the reason why we're starting to shift the dial, but to get to this point now, we'll either make the dial freeze or go backwards." Lua said he hopes that, in the long run, equity will not be forgotten about. "The true mark of a true civilization is how you treat your most vulnerable. Right now, we're not doing very well." Pacific Peoples Minister Shane Reti declined a pre-budget interview with RNZ Pacific but has agreed to go on the record next week.
