CEO of the Whānau Ora commissioning agency John Tamihere says more needs to be done to protect Māori from Covid-19 in the future, especially as winter approaches.
“What we’ve got to be very careful of is that COVID hasn’t been defeated. It won’t be defeated until a vaccine arrives so we’ve got to protect our whanau through winter,” he says.
Since the Alert Level 4 lockdown started, Whānau Ora has helped deliver supplies of up to 90,000 hygiene packs to their distribution centres across the country.
“So we just have to keep our organisation, our shape. To do that we're going to have to continue to deliver and upgrade from hygiene packs to kai packs pretty soon.”
Whānau Ora and Te Whānau O Waipareira have also worked to help Māori get tested for the infection. People living in Auckland have had the option of visiting the drive-in assessment centre at Whānau Centre, Henderson.
“It’s been testing and challenging for everybody but what we’ve got to be very proud of is our people have stood up to the test even when they didn’t have the resources to hoard, like other communities. They still handled it extraordinarily well.”
However, Covid-19 related job losses are expected to rise and there are fears Māori unemployment could reach as high as 20 percent nationally and up to 35 percent in some regions. So Tamihere is urging for more financial support for Māori when the government’s budget comes out in May.
“Any Crown money and government money that goes into any project, Māori must have a participatory right of no less than 30 percent, he says.
“So whatever social housing has built, I want 30 percent of that workforce to be Māori subbies if available and I want 30 percent of trade trainees to be Māori…Otherwise, I fear for our unemployment rate and I fear for us being locked in for generations at the bottom end of town.”
Employment Minister Willie Jackson says Māori ministers are working on an additional response package to help Māori unemployment.
“Included in that is, of course, our programmes that I have already been working on including Mana in Mahi, helping young people in terms of apprenticeships, He Poutama Rangatahi, where we’re working in the regions, working with communities in terms of uplifting young people," says Jackson.
Budget 2020 is due to be delivered on Thursday, May 14.