Māori rights advocate calls out minister over ‘race-baiting’ language on school lunch issue
A Māori rights advocate says the government is “failing its responsibilities to tamariki and whānau”, and doing so in a way that stirs racial division for political gain, but the ACT Party says criticism like this is causing more division, with David Seymour labelling the comments as an “obsession with race.”
Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata, has criticised Children’s Minister Karen Chhour for comments directed at whānau Māori and the Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme.
A recent Facebook post by the minister responded to a petition calling for an overhaul of the government’s free school lunch contract, describing some of the food as “horrible, disgusting and inedible.”
Photo: Screenshot / Karen Chhour
The post was shared by the ACT Party’s Facebook page, and Seymour.
In her post, Chhour highlighted a section of an RNZ article quoting the author of the petition, Tania Waikato, explaining the concept of manaakitanga in te ao Māori and the important role kai plays in upholding this tikanga.
In her Facebook post, Chhour wrote: “If that’s the case, why are so many Māori kids not being fed at home? Parents need to take some responsibility.
“And the Government’s opponents should be ashamed of themselves for using hungry kids as political props to push their agenda.”
Ngata believes this type of language not only incites harm but deflects focus from the real issue, which she said is the government’s failure to deliver on its responsibilities.
“The point was to distract from the fact that they have a core responsibility, that they have dedicated funding – and with that funding and their accepted responsibility to deliver a service which they have failed to deliver, they’ve tried to push that off to whānau,” she said.
“Well of course we always have responsibilities as whānau, but the fact of the matter is that they have millions of dollars and a responsibility to deliver on those millions of dollars.”
Ngata told RNZ that the minister had “obviously misdirected the attention towards whānau – as if they have that responsibility and the funding that goes along with it.”
She also accused Minister Chhour of using her experience in state care to claim moral authority, while ignoring structural harm and whakapapa-based duties to care for tamariki Māori.
“You’ve used your own mamae as a political tool. You abused her too. And of course, you had to do that in order to abuse all of our children as well.”
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Compass got the Bellamy’s contract yet?
ACT is a tool of oligarchs to undermine democracy.
Lies, division, poisoning children, and war are all on the table
Parents should feed the kids. Not the rest of the people in the country via inefficient redistribution.
Why these useless parents get a free pass from you socialists?
Useless parent you knob???? Your class of parasites destroyed all the structures that kept workers wages sufficient to feed their kids.
Useless parents underpaid due to right wing governments self proclaimed low wage economy maninblack. Not everyone can say , ” I get it, Im” rich and I’m sorted” like Luxon, not every job is paid his wage and not everyone has equal opportunity to do so, that is a myth like trickle down theories.
Socialists are always running out of other people’s money.
So why is National giving landlords our money again Annus if the squeeze is on? Trickle down is a neoliberalism wet dream by conservatives.
A question that annus will never be able to answer .The money used for school lunches is being redirected to the ali smelter who now get $75 million a year from government to pay the power bill when they pay 5 cents a kwh already which is 30 cents cheaper than what I pay .And my parent company does not have an $8 billion profit per year .More corporate welfare
DAVID SEYMOUR: we can’t afford to feed hungry kids with woke sushi school lunches, when we need the funds to spend on something much more worthwhile, like top shelf military equipment, such as adding firepower to our Orion’s, with the latest hyper velocity over the horizon fire and forget stealth enabled bunker buster self aware enhanced yield armor piercing triple warhead cluster munition smart mega missiles, at 100 million a pop.
Come to think of it, all this military strategizing and putting my boot into the treaty, is making me a tad peckish…I think I’ll have a quick snack of totally unwoke working class good wholesome, prime wapiti butterfly steak terrine, marinated in a crisp 1952 Grande Champagne Sauvignon, topped with an oyster truffle hollandaise, and sprinkled with honeyed pistachios and a snifter of Bulgarian saffron…yum yum, that should hit the spot.
‘Parents should feed the kids. Not the rest of the people in the country via inefficient redistribution.
Why these useless parents get a free pass from you socialists?’
Because when you are old and helplessly lying in a pool of your own excrement( as opposed to now when you are spraying us with it) the children of now will be the young adults who will tenderly clean your repulsive carcass and make sure you are comfortable.
This is if they are well fed and healthy at school and learn the necessary skills and have the outlook that we are all part of one society that cares for each other.
Alternative when you are old, helpless and unable to defend yourself, the young thugs who beat you up and steal your possessions, will be the alienated and angry young adults that cannot study properly because they are always ill and hungry.
As you do not feel obliged to care for them now, they will not feel obliged to listen when you beg for mercy when they put the boot into you.
I am sorry to shout but try to get it into your head.
CHILDREN BELONG TO ALL OF US! There is absolutely no point in punishing children for whatever their parents may, or may not, have done.
‘A rising tide lifts all boats,’ if we can produce generations of useful citizens we ALL benefit( even short-sighted, unimaginative, petty, miserly, warped, perverted, vicious arseholes who do not deserve to).
SOCIALISM FOR EVER
Useless parent you knob???? Your class of parasites destroyed all the structures that kept workers wages sufficient to feed their kids.
Seymour was a sucker for taking this on because it would always result in a media beat-up no matter the real-world outcome.
It represents about 1.5% of the education budget so instead he should have focussed on school absenteeism, particularly among Maori and de-woking the syllabus.
It was a strange hill to decide to die on.
The ‘Transport Supremo’ from Yes Minister springs to mind.
It’s much bigger than ACT.
But we already know this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6K5I5uK_d0
‘So tell me stevie how many Socialist countries have you lived in, or indeed even visited?’
Aotearoa when it had a flourishing welfare state and full employment and both National and Labour governments knew the value of ‘State Socialism in New Zealand’ (published by the Labour Party).
The days when the state provided from the cradle to the grave, ( Also from ‘womb to the tomb” and from ‘erection to resurrection’ )
So tell me Bob when are you ever going to properly study the history and culture of the country you live in?
SOCIALISM FOR EVER! DEATH TO CAPITALISM!
I have a great idea lets starve the kids and pay the power bill for the ali smelter down south instead .But wait we are already doing that .I would doubt that that business really contributes to NZ at all after the free power and other subsidies it enjoys .Do they pay any tax in NZ ? probably not .$75 million per year in hand outs and their own power station paid for by the taxpayers of nz .
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