Back in April Marty G raised questions about the accountability of Whanau Ora providers. The fiasco of the Taeaomanino Trust shows that those concerns were well founded. Why has $1 million in funding been awarded to a Trust with an extremely chequered history, and that is the subject of an open Police investigation? Is this an example of the kind of accountability that the government promised for Whanau Ora?
Here’s a little something that Kris Fa’afoi and his team might like to being to the attention of Mana voters as they prepare to go to the polls. On National’s watch, the median Maori income has fallen 11.5%. For Pacific Islanders the fall’s 19%. Pakeha are down 2.6%. No tax cut for the rich can cover the gaping holes in those family budgets.
What little we know of Whanau Ora is that it is essentially the privatisation of government delivery of social services to private groups. Rather than deliver services themselves, government departments entrust taxpayer funds to small groups that often have little or no track record to do the job instead. It’s an invitation for corruption.
