Expanding Whānau Ora – a bottom line for Māori Party

Leaving the best to last, the Māori Party has launched its Whānau Ora policy today following a fun family event at Te Ore Ore Marae in Masterton last night.

“When we change what happens in our homes, we change what happens in our society,” says the Māori Party candidate for Ikaroa Rāwhiti Marama Fox.

“The retention and growth of Whānau Ora is the Māori Party’s bottom line. It enables whānau and families to take back control of their own lives with support from relevant Crown agencies,” says Ms Fox.

Since Whānau Ora started four years ago, the programme has helped 8,916 whānau made up of almost 42,000 individuals.

“We want to reach more whānau and families in need so that means a greater investment by the next Government, stronger buy-in from more Crown agencies and collaboration,” says Ms Fox.

“One of the reasons I decided to stand for Parliament is because ten local tamariki were murdered in the Wairarapa in ten years. Our whānau knew these kids, they went to kōhanga reo with our kids, and we knew the people that killed them.

“Family violence isn’t something you eliminate overnight. It’s often inter-generation and it requires a big commitment and targeted support to stop it,” says Ms Fox.

Some of the specific Māori Party Whānau Ora policies are:

• re-convene the Ministerial Committee on Poverty and review progress on recommendations made by the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty in the first 100 days of Government

• set some specific poverty reduction targets following the review

• establish the Whānau Ora Partnership Group to bring iwi and stakeholder Ministers together to provide a strategic overview of how best to advance Whānau Ora outcomes

• increase the support from Crown agencies for Whānau Ora. It has previously been supported in health, Māori Affairs and social development but the Māori Party wants to extend this to include other portfolio areas such as education, justice and housing

• formalise an ongoing review of Whānau Ora by an independent agency

• invest in the creation of 300 Navigator positions to be available for hapū, iwi, Pasifika and migrant communities

• provide ongoing funding of He Pūnanga Haumaru (prevention of bullying) and Te Rā o Waka Hourua (Māori ansd Pasifika suicide prevention initiatives)

Other policies include supporting financial literacy and budgeting programmes, expanding the micro-financing model introduced in last year’s Budget and applying the investment approach to the Family Tax Credit to target more support for younger children and larger families.

For a copy of the full Whānau Ora policy go to www.maoriparty.org

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