"Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says a new $4 million pilot initiative he announced today as part of Budget 2017 will help young Māori obtain essential documents to help set them up for their futures.
"Successful young Māori have a significant impact on the country's social and economic success and we want to give them all a chance to share in the opportunities that are out there," says Mr Flavell.
The initiative, Passport to Life - Taiohi Ararau, will assist taiohi aged 15-24 to get all-important credentials for life.
"We want our young people to participate fully in society and this funding will help them to do that ensuring they have the documentation and certification they need.
"Some don't have photo identification, a bank account, driver's licence or an IRD number which can all be barriers to our young people entering the workforce, education or training.
I sincerely hope that Don Brash doesn't get wind of this policy as the Minister is talking about race-based funding, however any programme aimed at offenders, (as is the Howard League's initiative) can be open to anyone but still reach many of the young Maori most in need of the kind of "Passport to Life" the Minister describes.
Our experience is that the funding allocated for this pilot initiative would get licences, photo identification and birth certificates for nearly seven thousand of the neediest youngsters, so this is a very good idea. If it keeps just 38 of these people from a one year jail sentence, which it certainly will, NZ Inc will have got its money back.
Mr Flavell's colleague Marama Fox MP, who'll be standing for the Maori electorate which includes Hawke's Bay, has already accepted our invitation to come and see our programme in action in Hawke's Bay and I'll be inviting sitting Labour MP Meka Whaitiri to do the same.
United Future Leader and Associate Health Minister, Peter Dunne, following Gareth Morgan's initiative, has brought up the marijuana issue.
Dunne wants Class C drugs such as marijuana moved from being covered by the Crimes Act to the Psychoactive Substances Act.
This measure alone would not amount to legalisation of marijuana but it would be a step in that direction.
Peter Dunne is under heavy pressure in his Wellington seat of Ohariu from Labour Party candidate Greg O'Connor and could be accused of electioneering; however he does have a track record in this policy area.
This is an issue whose time has come or is very close.
California voted to legalise marijuana for recreational use in the same poll that elected Donald Trump.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party was elected in a landslide in Canada on a policy of legalisation.
States of the United States which legalised the drug early, like Colorado, are carefully watched and so far there seem only to be benefits, like getting gangs out of the trade as predicted by Peter Dunne.
There's another good reason to have another look at this matter.
With the ready availability of methamphetamine or P in this country and the spread of at-work drug testing, there is now a reason to switch from marijuana to meth, a highly addictive and a much more dangerous drug.
It doesn't take long for meth to become undetectable in the drug tests most widely used in New Zealand, whereas marijuana hangs around detectably for weeks.
The Economist reports:
"Americans are becoming more liberal about drugs: some 57 per cent of the public supports legalising marijuana, up from 12 per cent in 1969. Yet the consumption of illicit drugs has declined: one recent analysis shows that millennials consume less marijuana and cocaine than baby-boomers did at the same age".
My guess is that something similar is happening to public opinion in New Zealand. Bill English quickly distanced himself from Dunne's proposal, but history is on Dunne's side.
Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president. All opinions are his and not those of Hawke's Bay Today.
