Matua Kahurangi: Hungry families wait while MUMA allegedly hoards supermarket vouchers

Another day, another ugly disclosure, and once again the Manukau Urban Māori Authority finds itself at the centre of it.

Fresh OIA material shared on X by Suit and Tie shows that one million dollars worth of supermarket vouchers were allocated to the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency for distribution during the last census drive. These vouchers were meant to encourage participation by families who are doing it tough. That is the entire point.

Ani O'Brien: What's the story? Willie Jackson and MUMA

Accusations have been flying for more than a week between independent or ‘new’ media and the legacy lot (mainstream media). Yours truly has been guilty of a few exasperated contributions to the outrage also so do not take this as Ani on a soapbox.

The argument is over what the media should report on. What is newsworthy? What is a story? And on the flipside, what is a cover up? Why are the media burying what appears to be a significant scandal? It has now descended into embarrassing levels of stupidity with one member of the mainstream media trying to characterise the story as an ‘attack on Māori’. A negative story featuring Māori is not an attack on Māori anymore than reporting on Trevor Mallard’s many examples of poor behaviour is an attack on old white guys.