{"id":451614,"date":"2026-05-29T19:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451614\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T19:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T19:37:29","slug":"critics-ask-where-targeted-maori-funding-is-in-budget-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/451614\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics ask where targeted M\u0101ori funding is in Budget 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Budget<\/p>\n

\nCritics are asking where the targeted M\u0101ori funding is in Budget 2026.
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Liam K. Swiggs\n<\/p>\n

The M\u0101ori development minister is hailing Budget 2026<\/a> as a “meaningful” boost to te reo M\u0101ori and M\u0101ori culture, while critics ask where the targeted M\u0101ori funding<\/a> is.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori broadcasting gets $48 million over the next four years<\/a>, emerging as one of the few M\u0101ori specific initatives to get funding since the coalition took power. Budget 2026 also saw deeper cuts to Te Puni K\u014dkiri, the M\u0101ori Development Ministry, and Te Tari Whakatau.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori Development Minister Tama Potaka told RNZ that funding for M\u0101ori broadcasting showed the coalition was serious about te reo M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

“We recognise that the Crown has an obligation to actively protect Te Reo M\u0101ori and we put the money of taxpayers and our money where our mouth is. We don’t just talk about it, we do it.<\/p>\n

“This Budget is about being fiscally responsible but also recognising that we have a duty to actively protect Te Reo and to support ahurei M\u0101ori or M\u0101ori culture. We’ve done that in a meaningful and genuine way,” he said.<\/p>\n

Potaka said the final details on how the funding would be allocated between M\u0101ori broadcast funder Te M\u0101ngai P\u0101ho and broadcaster Whakaata M\u0101ori would be due out in a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

Broadcast funder Te M\u0101ngai P\u0101ho (TMP) chief executive Larry Parr told RNZ while he was grateful for the funding because without it, the funder would have $16m less in its budget.<\/p>\n

“It’s not certain exactly how much of that funding comes to Te M\u0101ngai P\u0101ho – some will go to Whakaata M\u0101ori – so we’re not sure exactly what the numbers will be. But certainly, it’s better than losing $16 million a year.”<\/p>\n

\"Te<\/p>\n

\nTe M\u0101ngai P\u0101ho chief executive Larry Parr.
\nPhoto: Rebecca McMillan\n<\/p>\n

The sector has struggled recently. Te Whakaruruhau o Ng\u0101 Reo Irirangi M\u0101ori, the representative body for iwi radio, threatened legal action if TMP’s budget was cut but withdrew days before the Budget was released publicly.<\/p>\n

Parr said the M\u0101ori media sector was “OK” at the moment.<\/p>\n

“We talk about the M\u0101ori media sector being poor cousins, but actually a lot of wh\u0101nau are really feeling the pain. We need to be grateful for what we’ve got, I think, personally,” he said.<\/p>\n

There is also $10m for Te M\u0101ori T\u016b over the next five years and a $400,000 boost for the Ng\u0101rimu VC & 28th (M\u0101ori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships.<\/p>\n

Minister P\u014dtaka said the Te M\u0101ori T\u016b kaupapa went back to the late 1980s, when the Te M\u0101ori exhibition was showcased in the United States.<\/p>\n

He said it would be an opportunity to show M\u0101ori culture and set up a platform for business and trade.<\/p>\n

“It was really the first time globally that millions of people had seen our tikanga or our kawa in action, because it was broadcast, it was on TV, lots of photos.<\/p>\n

“One of the appealing aspects of Te M\u0101ori is that it can springboard other commercial opportunities and economic opportunities for people.”<\/p>\n

\"Minister<\/p>\n

\nM\u0101ori Development Minister Tama Potaka.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Craig McCulloch\n<\/p>\n

In a media release, Labour’s M\u0101ori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said National was only making life harder for M\u0101ori with more cuts and “more pain”.<\/p>\n

“The most revealing line in the entire Budget is Tama Potaka cutting millions from his own department.<\/p>\n

“Te Puni K\u014dkiri’s budget has been cut by $23.6 million, with another $73.6 million of cuts already locked in for the years to come. That’s nearly $100 million stripped away by the Minister of M\u0101ori Development. You couldn’t make this up.”<\/p>\n

Jackson said there was no new funding for things that matter to M\u0101ori, like unemployment, housing and hauora.<\/p>\n

\"Rueben<\/p>\n

\nLabour’s M\u0101ori development spokesperson Willie Jackson.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n

In response, Minister Potaka said Labour “haven’t even got a policy” and the Budget was about being fiscally responsible.<\/p>\n

He pointed to broader investments in health and infrastructure being for all New Zealanders, including M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

“If you think about the roads, when you fix the road between Wai\u0101weka, \u014cp\u014dtiki and Gisborne, you can enable wh\u0101nau to attend their wh\u0101nau hui, to go to tangi, go to birthdays, to visit their relatives, to carry goods and services on that road.<\/p>\n

“We’re really focused on making sure we’ve got the infrastructure in place, the health and education in place, that can deliver effective public services for M\u0101ori, Kiwis and all New Zealanders,” he said.<\/p>\n

Associate Dean M\u0101ori and Professor of Economics at Massey University Matt Roskruge (Te \u0100ti Awa, Ng\u0101ti Tama) said the Budget contained hardly any surprises for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

It looked like a Budget that basically had one plan, and that was a return to surplus, he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s really hard to see how wh\u0101nau are going to be made hugely better off. How are we going to overcome a lot of the cost-of-living crisis, the exodus to Australia, all of the other issues that we seem to be facing just by a return to a meagre surplus.”<\/p>\n

Roskruge said M\u0101ori priorities in the last few Budgets had almost been erased and he was not seeing investment in by M\u0101ori for M\u0101ori priorities much at all.<\/p>\n

“It really feels like this government is hanging its everything on this return to surplus. And somehow this magical slim surplus is going to make everybody suddenly better off … there’s all sorts of areas where you want to see a government invest … maybe it requires borrowing, maybe it requires increasing taxes. But these are social problems, they’re genuine problems, they’re genuine deficits that need to be addressed by a government of the day and this government isn’t.”<\/p>\n

\"Massey<\/p>\n

\nAssociate Dean M\u0101ori and Professor of Economics at Massey University Matt Roskruge.
\nPhoto: David Wiltshire\n<\/p>\n

One area where he did see an opportunity for M\u0101ori was in the government’s interest in privitisation, for example by getting in on the procurement process for the new Road of National Significance the Cambridge to Piarere Expressway.<\/p>\n

“So there is contracting opportunities, I think, for the M\u0101ori economy and we want to be positioned to take advantage of some of these that are coming through.”<\/p>\n

There was a similar whak\u0101ro from Former Labour MP and chair of the T\u016bwharetoa Iwi M\u0101ori Partnership Board Louisa Wall who told RNZ that despite health being a big winner, hauora M\u0101ori spending within that remained static at just 2.7 percent.<\/p>\n

“There was actually a $20 million reduction in the hauora M\u0101ori allocation, we’re either static or going backwards in terms of this government’s investment in M\u0101ori providers and iwi providers and those of us who are meeting the needs of our wh\u0101nau and community.<\/p>\n

“Effectively, we’ve been ignored,” Wall said.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Critics are asking where the targeted M\u0101ori funding is in Budget 2026. Photo: RNZ\/Liam K. Swiggs The M\u0101ori…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-451614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}