Building on Maori Party gains

The Maori Party, which aims to retake the Maori seats it does not hold from Labour, could yesterday  point to $122million in Budget 2017 to spend in an election year.

Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell said the Budget built on the gains the Maori Party had achieved since 2008.

"Today gives us 122 million reminders to continue to move forward, to harness our collective strength as Maori and to work to secure our futures as hapori, whanau, hapu and iwi."

While the dollar amounts differed every year, the party’s "relentless focus" remained the same. Whanau was at the heart of everything the party did and the Budget underscored the belief in kaupapa Maori solutions — "by us, for us and for our future", he said.

The announcement of $10million to extend Whanau Ora to more families was testament to that belief and the extra funding took the total amount of investment to $110million since 2015 and an operating budget of $73.5million per year.

In three years, the reach of Whanau Ora had increased to 11,500 whanau per year. Since its inception, close to $250millon had been invested in achieving the aspirations of whanau through the programme, Mr Flavell said.

The Budget also included $21million for Maori language and culture.

The Maori and Mana Parties have reached an agreement  not to stand against each other in the Maori seats in an effort to tip Labour MPs out on September 23.