Garth George: High hopes for poor dashed by reality

Tariana Turia. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Considering the billions upon billions of dollars that have been poured into social welfare in this country over the years with no tangible result, particularly among Maori, in alleviating poverty and disadvantage, it makes sense to me to give something new a go.

And the new thing is Whanau Ora, conceived by the Maori Party some 18 months ago and delivered last week by its principal protagonist, party co-leader Tariana Turia.

In the highly complex Maori language, Whanau Ora lends itself to several definitions: well families, satisfied families, healed families, or even servant of families - all of which, of course, the proponents of the programme would like it to achieve or be.

How Whanau Ora is going to work, and who for apart from Maori families, is still up in the air, as is the nature and amount of funding to be made available to it.

The report of the Whanau Ora taskforce, released a week ago, has nothing to say about these practicalities. Having browsed through its 76 pages at length, I can only agree with John Armstrong, who observed in the Weekend Herald that it is a document of "mind-numbing mumbo-jumbo and indigestible twaddle ... Pitifully short of hard facts and analysis of the plight of Maori, but replete with platitudes, truisms and declarations of the obvious".

For instance: "The Taskforce strongly supports contracting practices that minimise fragmentation, target positive whanau development, encourage provider collaboration, utilise integrated data and communication systems, and enable whanau needs to be addressed in a coherent and integrated manner."

And: "The Taskforce considers that whanau participation in te ao Maori has the potential to improve whanau social, cultural and economic wellbeing and at the same time contribute to wider society."

The phrase "te ao Maori", which means "the Maori world", occurs at least 30 times in the taskforce report. I wonder about that. After all, the social welfare system, no matter how it is constituted, exists mainly in the modern Western world.

Many of the tens of thousands of people who are afflicted by poverty or otherwise disadvantaged may indeed be part of the Maori world, but they live in, and have to cope in, the modern Western world. And if Whanau Ora is, as Mrs Turia says, not just for Maori, then this emphasis on te ao Maori gives a strongly conflicting signal.

Not that I have any objection to Whanau Ora being just for Maori. Separatism has been the order of the Maori day for decades now and if Whanau Ora manages to alleviate the dreadful social problems that afflict that race, then all of us would benefit.

The idea, it seems, is that all the agencies involved in social welfare will get together and employ people to deal face to face with family units rather than individuals. This, of course, makes eminent sense.

But will it work? I doubt it, because any welfare programme depends not just on meeting the immediate needs of those it is setting out to help, but changing their way of life, too. And it is a truism that you cannot help people who do not want to be helped.

There will be a large majority among those whom Whanau Ora targets who want help, but only on their own terms. To be successful, any welfare programme must be able not just to support its clients financially and in other practical ways, but must find ways to try to get them to change their hearts and minds as well.

The difficulty in many cases of doing that is at the heart of the failure of social welfare systems since time immemorial.

For instance, Whanau Ora will be dealing with families for whom unemployment is often generational and who don't want to work even if there are jobs available.

There will be those whose demands on the health services result from uncleanliness and living in insanitary conditions, from smoking, excessive drinking and poor eating choices and habits.

There will be those who have been from birth brought up in an atmosphere of violence and crime, in whom knowledge of society's rights and wrongs is absent and who simply follow in the footsteps of their parents.

These are the things that Whanau Ora will need to address if there are to be quantifiable improvements in the lives of those to whom poverty and disadvantage are a way of life.

It is an almost impossible task, for the desire to change the way we feel, think and behave must originate in hearts of those in need. If the desire is not there, or can't be implanted, then there is no hope.

Nevertheless, let's give Whanau Ora our best shot. But let's not get our hopes up. After all, one of the great truths uttered by Jesus Christ when he was on Earth was this: "The poor you will have with you always."