KEY POINTS:
National yesterday said a new Maori business development fund was being set up to sweeten Maori voters before this year's general election.
In Parliament yesterday, National's Tau Henare criticised the Maori Trustee and Maori Development Amendment Bill which seeks to revamp the Maori Trustee and Maori Trust Office and uses $35 million of its money to set up the new fund.
Maori Business Aotearoa New Zealand would be used to foster Maori economic development as a stand alone agency.
"Isn't the real reason for this new fund [that it is] an effort to set up an election year slush fund administered by his personal appointees, free from public service scrutiny and neutrality," Mr Henare said.
He claimed the fund would "dole out over $10 million in every Maori electorate seat in the country, in a vain attempt to keep Maori tied to Labour's purse strings".
Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia said the fund was a positive development for Maori.
Mr Henare said the money was being taken from trust beneficiaries but Mr Horomia said it was coming out of the general purposes fund.
"Funds held in trust by the Maori Trustee, unclaimed money and other funds owned by beneficiaries will not be transferred to the Maori business development fund set up by the bill."
Earlier this month the bill passed its first reading. National and the Maori Party voted against it, while the Greens and New Zealand First expressed reservations.
The Maori Trustee administers land and assets where Maori owners are not known or haven't inherited it yet or where owners asked it to.
The trustee also manages funds held in trust for owners, and administers a number of reserves created in the 19th century.
- NZPA
