Turia moves to correct the continuing misinformation about Whanau Ora

Co-leader of the Maori Party Tariana Turia, has reacted strongly to the emotive mischief-making issued by Mana candidate Sue Bradford following a political panel on Radio NZ this morning.

“Sue is doing a dis-service to the over 1800 whanau who have made a genuine commitment to Whanau Ora by creating an impression that there is room for doubt about future funding.

“Let me be quite clear. There is an ongoing commitment of over $160m over four years. The commitment given was of new money. Whanau Ora has not taken any funding off existing programmes – the funding used was unallocated funding invested across several votes.

"Spreading mis-information in the way that she has, is a deliberate undermining of the transformation that is occurring within Maori communities. I am so proud of what whanau are doing right throughout the motu and quite frankly I’m furious that Ms Bradford thinks it is ok to throw doubt into its future.

'Any funding decisions about the rollout of Whanau Ora will be made by the Prime Minister in negotiation with the Leaders of the Maori Party. Whanau Ora is a Maori Party policy so Minister Bennett was quite justified to not make any comments about decisions outside her role'.

'Alongside of Minister Ryall, she has been the most supportive Minister of Whanau Ora".

"We are very proud of the success of Whanau Ora and the initiative and enthusiasm of whanau to determine their destiny; to make plans for their future. The last thing they need is prophets of doom and gloom attempting to ensure our communities participate in initiatives that have not worked in the past, and discouraging them from believing in their own potential".