Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Key points
- Funding for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has decreased by nearly NZ$36m over the next four years
- It equates to NZ$9m less funding each year
- Dawn Raids reconciliation programme will stop in two years' time, saving $420,000 annually
- Tauola Business Fund, aimed to support Pacific business is being closed, saving $3.5m a year
- Tupu Aotearoa, an initiative aimed at getting Pacific people into work has been cut by $5.5m a year
- A new initiative to provide funding for Pasifika Wardens will cost $250,000 a year
A Tongan community leader says New Zealand's 2025 Budget is "a disappointment" for Pasifika.
Funding for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP) has decreased by nearly NZ$36 million over the next four years - equating to $9m annually.
The ministry saw $26m cut from the previous year's budget.
Two initiatives, the Dawn Raids reconciliation programme and the Tauola Business Fund, are being scrapped entirely.
The Dawn Raids programme will close in two years saving $420,000 annually.
At the same time, the closing of the Tauola Business Fund aimed to support Pacific businesses in New Zealand grow will save $3.5m a year.
The Pacific Business Programme will remain, awarding contracts to firms that support Pasifika startups with networking and strategy.
The government found NZ$2.7 billion a year through its changes to pay equity, cut its own contributions to KiwiSaver, told 18 and 19 year olds it would no longer pay them to sit on the couch, and introduced a new Investment Boost tax incentive, which is tipped to increase New Zealand's GDP by one percent over the next 20 years.
Auckland Tongan community leader Pakilau Manase Lua said the government had targeted the country's most vulnerable.
"The Budget overall is just a disappointment," he said.
"It was very much a 'B' budget: business, blue National budget and bugger-all for everybody else."
Tupu Aotearoa, aimed at reducing the proportion of Pacific peoples who are unemployed, has been slashed by $5.5m a year.
Just over $5m remains in the fund, while the rest of the saving will be consolidated into other employment support providers.
"Our Pasifika communities are the most vulnerable and as a Tongan, our Tongan communities are the most vulnerable of the lot," Pakilau said.
"When you've got so many things that are being cut, you can understand why our communities are so desperate that they'll go to loan sharks, they'll go to pyramid schemes."
However, while disappointing, Pakilau said it is in line with what he expected.
"You've got a coalition government...the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, you had [David] Seymour saying he wanted to blow it up, so I'm not surprised really."
Deputy Labour leader and her party's spokesperson for Pacific peoples Carmel Sepuloni is also disappointed.
"It just goes to show their lack of value for Ministry of Pacific Peoples and I think population agencies in general," she said.
Sepuloni said she would have thought programmes, such as the Tauola Business Fund, would have been a priority for this government.
"Pacific have the highest rates of unemployment, the economy is doing badly, New Zealanders have lost jobs en masse; and disproportionately that has effected Pacific communities."
RNZ contacted the Pacific Peoples Minister Dr Shane Reti but was told he was not available for an interview.
'We do have to manage our books'
Finance Minister Nicola Willis told RNZ Morning Report that, while the Budget is responsible, it has something for every New Zealander.
"More funding for learning support in our schools; more funding for our hospitals, for our doctors, for our health system. It's called more funding for our police," she said.
"Some people like to pretend that more funding just comes from a magic money tree, but actually, we're a country that is borrowing heavily at the moment.
"We're a country that has more than doubled its debt, that is in deficit. We do have to manage our books carefully. We've made sure that every single one of those dollars has been very purposed towards services that New Zealanders rely on."
Amongst the cuts, a new fund for Pasifika Wardens is being set up at a cost of $250,000 each year.
Pakilau said the funding allocated for it is not much.
"I suppose it's a good idea, but in the long game it's going to make very little dent in the problems that we're having on the ground, to be honest."
Meanwhile, New Zealand's aid commitment to the wider region will decline over the next three years.
As a percentage of national income, overseas development assistance had fallen from 33 percent to 23 percent.
Pacific aid researcher Dr Terence Wood said this may stop New Zealand from being able to meet international commitments.
"The aid budget is still falling, although the government has spent a little bit of extra money to prevent the fall from being as rapid as it had seemed like it was going to be at the last budget," he said.
