Maori social issues highlighted in report

Wellington researcher Lindsay Mitchell looks at social issues affecting Maori development in a study commissioned by the Business Roundtable released today.

The report looks at the

disproportionately high rate among Maori of crime and incarceration, drug and alcohol abuse; teenage births and single parenthood, child abuse, and unemployment.

It also looks at the impacts of early discrimination and separatism; disruption of
whanau links, loss of mana and the vulnerability of Maori to the corrupting power of
welfare handouts; intergenerational welfare; past and current notions of
paternalism and communalism as opposed to individual responsibility; and the
roles all these have played in creating social problems among Maori today.

The report also agrees with the views of the late Sir Apirana Ngata, who suggested that welfare support would disadvantage, rather than assist Maori.

“While there are confounding factors, such as low educational achievement and
childhood deprivation, the evidence clearly indicates that welfare policies, however
well-intentioned, have hurt Maori more than other New Zealanders, and will
continue to do so. In particular, the practice of paying for single parenting,
substituting the state for whanau, has perverse effects on people who will continue
to feature heavily in statistics that describe the worst aspects of life today.