AE MARIKA!
A column published in the Northland Age
By Hone Harawira
MP for Te Tai Tokerau
Leader of the MANA Movement
22 OCT 2013
On my way down to Rotorua last week, I got bailed up by a woman who works for Housing New Zealand. She wanted to tell me what a great job HNZ was doing in selling off state houses to “social housing providers” including iwi authorities, and whether I supported the idea.
She was obviously sincere, so I listened politely before asking her whether it was also HNZ’s intention to fund the ongoing maintenance and renovation of these 40-50 year old houses as HNZ had always done … no answer … so I asked her why, at a time of growing poverty and homelessness, HNZ was actually cutting back on the number of houses it was building for low-income families to rent … no answer … so I asked her how come 40 years ago a Maori family could rent a state house for 25% of their income but today HNZ was expecting them to spend up to 80% on rent … no answer … so I changed the subject, found out she was married to a cousin of mine, we had a nice chat and away she went.
Last year the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty said that 270,000 children in New Zealand were living below the poverty line and recommended a comprehensive government-funded food in schools programme for low-decile schools.
It backed up exactly the rationale I’d used in my “Feed the Kids” bill which proposed government-funded meals in decile 1-2 schools, and which drew wide support from teachers, medical professionals, families and schools. The response from the government was appalling – less than $2 million on a programme that would still leave more than 150,000 kids missing out.
My bill is coming back up in a few weeks, so today I’m meeting with some of the key groups who have been supportive of the campaign in the past, to plan one last push for the votes to get it over the line.
I know that it isn’t the full answer to poverty but at least if it goes through it will mean that while the experts pontificate and plan and ponder and pause, our kids won’t have to go hungry – they didn’t cause the problems; they shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences.
Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at the Indigenous Gateway for the Oceania Tobacco Conference which is being held down at Tatai Hono Marae in Auckland (where Lloyd Popata and his whanau are based).
Cigarettes are a killer, particularly so in low socio-economic groups where indigenous people cluster in great numbers. Meetings like this give us a chance to share ideas about what threats we continue to face, strategies to fight them, what works and what doesn’t, and more importantly, how to have fun when we get together!
The Gateway will be followed by the full conference which runs till Friday and I’ll let you know next week what progress is being made to reach our target of AOTEAROA SMOKEFREE 2025.
AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.org.nz
