Wednesday 30th Jun 1999

Donna Awatere Huata

ACT Maori Affairs Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata today said Maori crying foul over Roger Sowry's comments yesterday are getting angry at the wrong person.

"We have pussy-footed around this issue for far too long with Maori happy to sit back as the victims and wait for Government to improve their lot.

"The dependency addiction Maori are suffering is not terminal. But, until we stop standing in queues with our hands out waiting for politicians to hand over welfare cheques, the damning statistics the Minister spoke of yesterday will never improve.

"Our failure to get off our back sides as a people and get into work has cost our Maori babies the start in life that they deserve.

"Our leaders in Maoridom are so focused on the wrongs of the past that they are not addressing the wrongs being inflicted on our children by parents who are ill-equipped and ill-educated.

"Government's can't raise children. The most important role models for our Maori children are their Maori parents. Before we look to Government, let's look to ourselves to see how we can do better for our children," said Donna Awatere Huata.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>