Plea to help young Maori and secure our economic future

Photo / Bay of Plenty Times

Former Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro has made an impassioned plea to invest more in Maori children - for the sake of New Zealand's economy.

She told a conference on welfare reform that Maori were "the canary in the coalmine", losing their jobs and being thrown on to welfare benefits before others when the economy was hit by recession.

The Maori unemployment rate leapt from 10.1 per cent in March 2008 to 16.4 per cent this June, while the national average unemployment rose from 3.9 per cent to 6.8 per cent.

The total of working-aged Maori on benefits rose 5.4 percentage points, from 23 per cent to 28.4 per cent, while the number of working-age non-Maori beneficiaries rose from 7.7 per cent to 9.3 per cent.

Dr Kiro, now an associate professor at Massey University's School of Public Health, said these differences were driven by a wider increase in inequality in New Zealand since the late 1980s.

"Maori and Pacific families and individuals are among the most deprived and this is part of the macroeconomic environment that we need to address," she said.

Income inequality grew steeply when unemployment last peaked in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Social Development Ministry figures showed it peaked in 2001, came down slightly with rising employment and Working for Families tax credits up to 2007, then worsened again with the recession.

Incomes were now as unequal again as they were in 1998, and among the most unequal in the developed world, although still slightly more equal than in 2001.

Professor Kiro said the ageing non-Maori population, combined with relatively high Maori and Pacific birth rates, meant the future NZ economy would depend on today's Maori and Pacific children.

"Quite apart from the moral imperative, we have an undeniable self-interest in making sure they grow up well-educated and well-adjusted. They must, to look after us oldies when it comes time.

"The scientific evidence about the importance of the early years in terms of good life outcomes, including productivity, is now overwhelming."

If Maori children were growing up in families on welfare, then welfare payments had to be high enough to support good lives in decent housing.

"Secondly, we have to think about what kinds of investment we are going to make so that they are growing up strong," Professor Kiro said.

MAORI AND WELFARE

Per cent of 18 to 64-year-olds on benefits, June 2010:

Domestic purposes
Non-Maori - 2.8
Maori - 13.0

Unemployment
Non-Maori - 1.8
Maori - 5.9

Invalid's
Non-Maori - 2.9
Maori - 5.2

Sickness
Non-Maori - 1.8
Maori - 4.3

Total
Non-Maori - 9.3
Maori - 28.4