MEDIA STATEMENT
Hon Tariana Turia and Hon Dr Pita Sharples
Maori Party Co-Leaders
Sunday 11 December 2011

Transformation and Poverty at the Heart of Relationship Accord

The Maori Party has today signed a Relationship Accord with the National Party, to enable progress to be made in advancing Whanau Ora while at the same day placing poverty on the Government’s agenda.

“We are very pleased to have secured a commitment to extend the reach, coverage and capability of Whanau Ora” said Mrs Turia. "The establishment of a stand-alone commissioning entity is an important step in advancing opportunities for our whanau to be self-determining".

“The cost of living was also a significant concern for us in heading into negotiations. We are very conscious that over the last decade power prices have risen by 87% and so our negotiators argued to target an additional 20,000 warm homes, recognising also the obvious connection to health outcomes”.

“We welcome the Government’s agreement with the Maori Party to establish a Ministerial Committee on Poverty. The initiatives in environment, housing, employment and training and education are significant gains in helping to alleviate poverty.

“The care of our environment was also uppermost in our mind” said Dr Pita Sharples. “We are pleased to have achieved a heightened focus on water quality, engagement with iwi, hapu and whanau over mining, on land and at sea; and the new investment in enviro-schools and kura taiao”.

“We have argued tirelessly for an emphasis on addressing the systemic failure of our educational system, by creating opportunities for Maori students to succeed. It was critical to us that raising Maori achievement becomes a key priority for Government, while at the same time ensuring jobs and skills training places and trade training apprenticeships for Maori and Pasifika youth”.

“The other important aspect of the Relationship Accord is that it retains our capacity to uphold a strong and independent Maori voice; through the ‘agree to disagree’ provisions. We fought to ensure that partial asset sales did not become part of confidence and supply, and we are pleased with the outcome".

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