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.

Pee Kay: We are Funding the White Anting of Democracy!

Tureiti Haromi Moxon, or Lady Moxon, until recently was not a hugely well known name in New Zealand’s political activist arena, but she seems to be making sure that changes!

Lady Moxon is married to the Anglican bishop, Sir David Moxon, hence her damehood.

Steven Gaskell: Whānau Ora- When “Family Wellbeing” Means Political Ads and Rugby Sponsorships

The long awaited independent review into Whānau Ora has finally dropped, and it makes for eye watering reading. For years, critics have whispered that Whānau Ora’s “by Māori, for Māori” funding model lacked the kind of accountability expected of public money. Well, the whispers are over. The review lays it out plainly: money that was meant to lift families out of poverty, improve health, and deliver frontline services was instead funnelled into political campaigns and professional rugby.

Matua Kahurangi: A billion dollars for separatism

Why Te Pāti Māori must never be in government again

I’ll be straight up, I’m not exactly National’s biggest fan at the moment. I voted for them with my electorate vote, but they’ve done plenty that’s frustrated me since getting into government. That said, let’s not kid ourselves here. If Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori were still running this country, it would be an absolute sh*tshow. At the next election we need to do everything possible to stop them clawing their way back into power. Because if they do, every bit of work National and the coalition have managed to do will be tossed out the window in a heartbeat.

Matua Kahurangi: Whānau Ora funnels millions to iwi

It’s 6.30pm. The state-funded propaganda machine, otherwise known as 1News is droning on in the background while I’m half-listening, half-scrolling, slowly eating my dinner and getting sidetracked like usual. Then I stumbled across this little gem on RNZ that stopped me right in my tracks…

Ngāti Toa has just launched a new Whānau Ora commissioning agency to funnel “health and wellbeing” funding to Māori and Pasifika only. Not the poor. Not the vulnerable. Not the struggling. Just Māori and PI. If you don’t tick the right ancestry box, you can get stuffed.

John McLean: High Time To Wield The Axe

Tribal threats to New Zealand’s democracy must get the chop, before it’s too late

There’s no such thing as pan-Māoridom. Never has been. Not before colonisation, and not now. “Māori” are a collection of separate tribes (iwi), which now number about 150. None of these tribes were or are democratic. The head of each iwi hierarchy is a paramount chief, the Ariki, typically an inherited status. At the bottom of each traditional Māori tribe were the slaves and baby girls.

So it should come as no surprise that many Māori leaders are no fans of democracy.

David Farrar: More taxpayer funded lobbying?

Stuff reports:

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka has asked his officials for urgent advice around “electioneering” concerns related to a Whānau Ora advertisement encouraging Māori to sign up for the Māori roll was released this week.

The half-hour ad was rolled out by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency this week, featuring artist and activist Tame Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe).

John Porter: If Reversed it Would be Called Racism

American political economist Benjamin Friedman, author of Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, a basic reassessment of the underpinnings of today’s economics, once compared modern Western society to a bicycle whose forward momentum was kept going by continuing economic growth. He expounded that should that forward-propelling motion slow or cease, the pillars that define our society – our democracies, our individual liberties and social tolerance - would begin to falter.

Further warning, “…if society was unable to get the wheels back in motion, countries would eventually face total societal collapse”. 

Ele Ludemann: Politicking with public money

Whanau Ora is politicking with public money:

The Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency has launched the longest ad ever made in Aotearoa urging more Māori to sign up to the Māori Electoral Roll. . .

The ad features artist and activist Tame Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe) alone in a cavernous space reading a ‘Māori roll call’ of New Zealanders who have recently joined the Māori electoral roll for 30 minutes. . .

Thomas Cranmer: John Tamihere and the Waipareira Trust

The Charities Services decision to require the Waipareira Trust to claw back $385,000 of interest-free loans from John Tamihere brings renewed attention to the links between Whānau Ora and the Trust.

Revelations earlier this month in the Herald that the social services charity Waipareira Trust had agreed with Charities Services to cease making political donations and take steps to claw back $385,000 of interest-free loans made to its chief executive, John Tamihere, has put the controversial politician and media commentator back in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

It’s not the first time that a financial scandal has hit the trust or Tamihere. In October 2004, the then Labour Party MP was accused of dishonest financial dealings, including in relation to a $195,000 golden goodbye from the Waipareira Trust that he accepted when he was elected to Parliament in 1999.

HDPA: The Ministy of Health needs to give Whānau Ora the unvaccinated Māori details

 

The Whānau Ora commissioning agency has taken the Ministry of Health to court to force them to hand over contact details for unvaccinated Māori.

They want to know who hasn’t got the jab, so they can call them up and tell them the vaxi bus is on its way to give them the jab if they want it.

Good idea? 

Absolutely great idea.

The entire region of Auckland is in lockdown which means the rest of the country is in Level 2 because we’re waiting for unvaccinated people to get the jab and get us over 90 per cent.

Mike Butler: Probing Whanau Ora trough

Why did it take Labour MPs Nanaia Mahuta and Kelvin Davis so long to question the Whanau Ora one-stop welfare scheme? Both MPs this week said it was not good enough that, six years after its launch, there has been no detailed public progress report.(1)

However, John Tamihere , the chief executive of Whanau Ora commissioning agency Te Pou Matakana, which hands out the money, disagrees.

Mike Butler: Few surprises in Whanau Ora waste

Is anyone surprised that the auditor-general said it is difficult to work out what the one-stop-shop Maori welfare programme Whanau Ora has achieved? Auditor General Lyn Provost found that Whanau Ora, a flagship programme of the current government, cost $137-million in its first four years of which $40-million was swallowed up in administration.

“Devolving welfare funding to tribal authorities creates a huge opportunity for the misuse of public money, and creates an immediate incentive for welfare needs to grow, to attract more funding”, was what I wrote when I filled out a feedback form about six years ago when Whanau Ora was being planned.

Mike Butler: Sharples and permanent dependence

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples bowed out of Parliament on Thursday. His great vision that includes an Upper Treaty Senate, a Whanau Ora superministry, a Minister for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Negotiations, a network of Maori statutory boards all around the country, Maori spoken by all and Whare Oranga Ake rehabilitation units to replace prisons, confirms what critics have been saying for years.

Here is what Sharples said:

Mike Butler: Whanau Ora money trail elusive

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters this week tried to find out from Whanau Ora Minister Tariana Turia whether she handed out cash to Maori social service providers to help them prepare bids to become commissioning agents for the Whanau Ora scheme.

The government’s Maori department, Te Puni Kokiri, is running a process to appoint non-government organisations as commissioning agents who will allocate Whanau Ora funding to providers of health and social service providers.

Mike Butler: Its biculturalism as usual at TPK

Governments with their different policies come and go but policies that further partnership, protection, consultation, and compensation for Maori continue. Why? Much responsibility for the exponential growth of biculturalism can be traced to the government’s Maori department, Te Puni Kokiri, and its "policy wahanga".

The "policy wahanga" aims to improve “citizenship outcomes for Maori in key social and economic domains through whanau-centred approaches; and on the ongoing Treaty of Waitangi based partnership relationships between the Crown and hapu and iwi”, according to the Te Puni Kokiri website. (1)

Chris Trotter: Thoughts on Tariana Turia’s “Whanau Ora” Programme.

Far from being a modern and progressive social programme, Whanau Ora has been, from its very inception, an attempt to present a politically inspired programme for the enrichment of private individuals as a bold reassertion of traditional Maori values and practices. 

Jacinda Ardern is right and wrong about Whanau Ora. She’s right to insist that any programme funded by the state remain accountable (both figuratively and literally) to the state. But she is quite wrong to identify Whanau Ora as a progressive measure worthy of Labour’s support – provided it remain under the supervision of Te Puni Kokiri.

Bryce Edwards: NZ Politics Daily

It’s been a week of debates about economics, ethnicity and inequality. The most interesting story of the week combines all three issues – the controversial decision announced by the Minister of Whanau Ora to shift provision of the funding outside the walls of the state. This has alarmed Chris Trotter who has condemned the whole programme, saying: Nothing Progressive About It: Thoughts on Tariana Turia’s “Whanau Ora” Programme. Similarly, on the right, Muriel Newman says that essentially Whanau Ora is a ‘Maori-only welfare programme’ and the latest change hands the power and funds over to Iwi leaders – see: Institutional racism. Newman also critiques historic and contemporary attempts to introduce Treaty clauses into government legislation.

Mike Butler: Whanau Ora how bizarre

Whanu Ora, promoted as a one-stop welfare shop for part-Maori families, has never been far from news headlines, mainly courtesy of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. This week’s latest unwelcome publicity concerned a $60,000 grant to a rugby club that Peters called just another example of “bro-ocracy”.

Peters said the $60,000 grant was to the Rahui Rugby and Sports Club, based in Otaki "to research the vaguely-termed 'whanau connectedness' and 'resilience' in the community." He said that “in reality this is just another example of 'bro-ocracy' where taxpayers' cash is divided up amongst the bros for nonsensical purposes."

Mike Butler: Sign up for Whanau Ora feast

Thousands spent on food, chefs, and family travel is the latest headline generated in the name of Whanau Ora, a Maori Party initiative. The scheme is designed to provide comprehensive support for vulnerable families, bringing together all the agencies that deliver different forms of welfare, like housing and benefits, as well as justice, the police and truancy services. The Dominion Post obtained under the Official Information Act details of the 25 most recent successful applicants of the Whanau Integration Innovation and Engagement Fund.

A $5000 contract agreed with a whanau trust in Hawke’s Bay included: $400 for venue hire, $1000 for food, $1200 for resources, $600 for a cook, $500 for administration fee, $300 for travel, and $1000 for facilitators.