Photo: RNZ
Experts and leaders in the Pasifika community are bracing for the impact of tightened government spending.
With the government injecting less new money in this year's Budget, savings from elsewhere are expected to pay for new projects.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will deliver her second Budget on Thursday.
She said the Budget "is about prioritising your taxpayer money carefully and ensuring that we're actually nourishing the growth that ultimately delivers the jobs and living standards we all depend on".
However, Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua hopes for the best, but doesn't expect it.
"If I were a betting person, I think, given the record of this government, they're going to rob the poor to benefit those that possibly are okay and better off."
Pakilau said that his community wanted to see more equity measures, but the government's recent pay equity changes undermine that.
"They didn't even give pay equity opportunities for women," he said.
"I've got a mother and daughters and sisters that would benefit from that. It's very sad to see our most vulnerable and our most treasured workers not being honored by at least pay equity for women."
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
There are fears that the government's savings drive could include the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), which saw its overall funding decrease by $26 million, or 22 percent, in Budget 2024.
ECG Consulting's Ralph Ekila is a service provider for MPP's Pacific Business Village programme. Through that funding he is able to provide strategy, engagement and planning services to small businesses that would otherwise be unable to afford it.
Based on last year's budget, Ekila is concerned that non-core services such as business support will be axed.
"The hope is that whatever has been invested in right now at least remains... targeted services around Pacific health, education, and programmes within other agencies were lost."
Ekila said that the more MPP was cut, the less effective it would be in terms of its service delivery.
"The fear I have is that they get lost in the system and that the previous approaches have not worked. Hence, the reason why there has been an evolution in the development of ethnic, specific, targeted approaches.
"It's the reason why we're starting to shift the dial, but to get to this point now, we'll either make the dial freeze or go backwards."
Lua said he hoped that, in the long run, equity would not be forgotten about.
"The true mark of a true civilization is how you treat your most vulnerable. Right now, we're not doing very well."
Pacific Peoples Minister Shane Reti declined a pre-Budget interview with RNZ Pacific but has agreed to go on the record next week.
