Budget 2019: What do Māori want?

Lynne Whata, of Māori Women's Welfare League, believes Budget relief is needed across all generations and sectors. Photo / Leah Tebbutt

the Government will announce just how much money they'll put into each sector and for what. In Rotorua, Māori across the board are hoping for a slice of the pie. They tell Leah Tebbutt what they hope the budget will bring.

Education is at the forefront of many minds, but Māori wellbeing is core to this.

Māori Women's Welfare League life member and Rotorua president Lynne Whata hopes money will go towards the elderly in this year's Budget.

"The elderly are doing things that they need support with."

She said education facilities needed to be accessible for those who lived in rural areas.

"There needs to be more support for the kids in the country so that they have choices.

She hoped there was room for the Māori Women's Welfare League to help fight the war on drugs as too many whānau were affected.

Life exists outside Auckland, is what Te Tatau o Te Arawa chairman Te Taru White hopes the Government will realise when delivering the Budget next week.

Te Taru White thinks it is time for governments to mature and think longer term. Photo / File

"We want to see what resources and what Budget aligns with regional development opportunities and how that is encouraging community prosperity.

"Ultimately, you can pump more money into the social space, which is important because we need to be addressing the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, but we need to be seriously addressing the causes of this and employment is at the centre of that."

He would be waiting to see what the Budget allocated to encourage employment growth and support education in an evolving technological space.

"To grow the economy in communities doesn't happen overnight, it's generational thinking, and it might be beyond the Government's three-year usual thinking.

"Personally, it is time for governments to mature and think about the longer-term implications of developing solutions for causes."

Michael Naera believes it is a good time to bring confidence back to Māori that something is going to change. Photo / File

Mental Health Foundation advocacy alliance specialist Michael Naera has been fighting for Māori mental health for years and said he would like to see a considerable commitment to kaupapa Māori services in the Wellbeing Budget.

"I do know that they are going to commit to the aspirations of Māori but in what way and in what form I am not sure."

In regards to suicide prevention, Naera believed the Government hadn't quite got it right in the past because it was heavily focused on psychological concepts, models and frameworks.

"There is a disconnect from the Māori worldview, which we have been arguing for some time to be part of any strategy.

"The trend that is going around the country is that Māori voices have been lost so we are hoping the Wellbeing Budget rejuvenates our confidence in the Government to provide strategies that support Māori."