Wayne Mapp MP
National Party Treaty of Waitangi Spokesman

12 May 2004

PC rhetoric substituted for facts

National Party Treaty of Waitangi spokesman Wayne Mapp says the Government is hiding behind 'PC rhetoric' in answers to written questions targeting Te Puni Kokiri capacity building grants.

"The Labour Government is now so paralysed by fear, that it is refusing to give any meaningful answers about anything that affects Maori," he says.

He is referring to written questions relating to a TPK capacity building grant scheme which 'seeks to build strategies, structures and systems of whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori organisations and Maori communities to control their own development and achieve their own objectives'.

"I'm sure all New Zealanders are keen to know more about these programmes and measure their success - given that 1009 grants were handed out in the 2002-2003 financial year, costing the taxpayer some $8,547,779.80.

"But it's clear the Government is super-sensitive about this funding.

"It is the Opposition's job to ask for more detail about when and for what purpose the individual grants were made - but the Government won't come clean.

"I got the same reply for each question. All Labour will tell us is that the funding was approved in the 2002-2003 financial year and that its purpose was to build the strategies, structures and systems to control Maori development.

"The Labour Government is treating the flow of public information with contempt. It is callously disregarding the long-held conventions of Parliament and failing to deliver on its promise of 'openness and transparency'.

"If Helen Clark's Government really has nothing to hide - then the public deserves real answers not meaningless PC rhetoric," says Dr Mapp.

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