Photo: RNZ
Cuts to funding for Pacific Peoples in the Budget will not come at the cost of "effective measures", New Zealand's Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti says.
Total funding for Pacific Peoples has been slashed by about NZ$26m, from $116m under the previous government last year to $90.2m this year.
Budget has Pasifika's best interests at heart - Dr Shane Reti
The Ministry for Pacific Peoples will get $6.4m less funding each year.
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti said the reduction has "not been at the compromise of any of the targets or ambitions and endeavours that we have for the Ministry for Pacific People".
Reti said, since 2017, full time equivalent staff at the Ministry had increased by 269 percent - one of the biggest increases of any ministry - yet it was hard to find tangible outcomes from the increase.
"We want to reprioritise our attention and funding towards really effective measures that improve the outlook for Pacific peoples and remain absolutely committed to Pacific peoples," he said.
In 2023, $44.5m was set aside for housing Pacific families "toward the costs of developing new affordable homes for Pacific peoples". This year $35.9m has been allocated.
When asked how this lines up with housing being a priority for Pasifika, the Minister said his party is committed to "actually delivering houses" and he is not aware of "any houses that have been built per se in the recent past from the portfolio".
Funding for skills, training and employment of Pacific peoples has been cut from around $18.3m to $12.5m.
Reti said he is focused on outcomes.
"We will have a more focused approach and be more target driven to making sure that we actually get real value for that money.
"It's not just the amount of the spend, it's the quality of the spend and we want to focus on the quality of the spend as well."
He said other savings made from cutting the amount allocated to Pacific Peoples by $26m had come from other initiatives naturally concluding.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Pacific Business Trust chief executive Mary Los'e said the budget - including the Ministry of Pacific People getting $6.4 million dollars less funding - is what she expected.
"Overall, not too surprising and the cuts to Pacific peoples via the Ministry for Pacific peoples is in line with the overall instruction from government to make the cuts to operations, so no real surprises there.
"For us this government has been very clear on its priorities, the economy, education, health, infrastructure, law and order and they have also been very clear on investment tagged to measured outcomes, business relates to this direction."
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Green Party has described the government's Budget as pathetic and missing in action on Pasifika issues.
The party's Pacific Peoples spoeksperson Teanau Tuiono said it was not just cuts to frontline public health and education services that hurt Pasifika.
Tuiono said refusing to guarantee ongoing funding for the free school lunch programme is also a blow.
"The Greens value the enormous economic, cultural, and social contributions of Pasifika to Aotearoa New Zealand and will continue to speak out for Pasifika because, as the Budget underlines, this government lacks a heart for the needs of Pacific communities," he said.
Secretary of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone declined an interview by RNZ Pacific.