WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Green Party $2b Marae fund is urgent Civil Defence funding
It is about time that Marae were recognised as the crucial civil defence infrastructure that they are.
This Government praise Marae for being the frontline in aid and support when extreme weather hits while paying lip service for the bills that comfort costs.
We have a Government that talks big about climate adaptation without doing anything for that climate adaptation.
What the Green’s have proposed with their Te Rangatiratanga Trust is a recognition of the work Marae do in civil defence and the long term investment desperately needed for climate change adaptation.
This is the very kind of investment our country urgently needs. The Super El Niño about to peak over NZ is going to cause immense environmental damage and once again Marae will be on the very frontline of that battle.
We need far more community resilience for what the future now demands. Pretending climate change isn’t real simply is no longer a credible option for any of us.
The ability to build, resource and fund the community nerve endings, muscle and bone required demands bold ideas and policy like what the Greens have announced.
The Government can not avoid our emissions targets while ignoring adaptation necessity any longer.
We are witnessing in real time a climate that is now permanently warped in ways that will make Marae’s more essential than ever before in terms of providing safety.
The Greens should be applauded for such visionary policy and it makes the possibility of the Kakariki MMP strategy in the Māori Electorates of candidate vote TPM and party vote Green a more perfect alliance.
Local marae always step up to the plate in an Emergency, so they definitely need funding.
Way better than flying in on a hellocopter with a couple of boxes of KFC .
As a grizzled old white Southland farmer I’ll write;
Move voting back to first-past-the-post then vote Chloe Swarbrick [in] as PM.
( And as a side hustle lets launch a public, royal commission of inquiry up and into every urban natzo and every rural minion to them since the formation of the national party back in 1936. You must thank me but you can wait until later.
It’s actually way past time for this country to collectively recognise the multitude of times our Marae/Maori have stepped in to bring humanity and practical aid to citizens affected by the worsening climate issues and have fed and provided shelter for so many who don’t appear to have the decency to show any respect or gratitude! This CoC has ‘cocked’ up so badly. It was never the role of Marae/Maori to provide civil defence, but they have done that quietly, with aplomb and using their own funds. Should there be a climate emergency between now and 7/11, under this current regime, we would all be up the creek without a paddle. Well done Greens you seem to be the main party prepared to put their brain into gear for our lovely NZ. Surely, the rest of you can now see, it isn’t all about MONEY, it’s about working as a community. So if you are one of the brainless out there, who are is still so stupid as to label climate changes as a hoax, then you too have totally lost the plot. Yes TPM voters – place your electorate vote with Maori but your PARTY vote with Green. It’s so easy you would have to be nuts to miss this one! NZ is under-populated – there is room for all of us, all that is wrong is the bulk of the money is with the greedy top-feeders! Time they paid their way!!!
This COC is so Anti-Maori they make the KKK look like Angel’s???
This policy will be seized on by anti maori faction. Why not a fund for every community to provide a safe haven during disasters. It might be a marae, it might be a local hall or community centre or school. There will be no cooperation between Green and TPM. The Greens might even think they have a chance to win a maori seat. TPM could also lose the north, unless Hone comes on board.
Yes the te taitokorau seat could go green.
Huhana Lyndon has a good chance of taking it.
The average NZ person has never been onto a Marae and do not understand the Maori World apart from what they read in the Press.
Not Likely