WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: It seems more important to erase Māori than tackle sexual assault
The Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour, announced on Friday that she was removing the Māori name for a sexual assault programme in the Government’s latest game of trashing anything Māori.
The Minister claims ‘Te Puna Aonui’ was not inclusive enough and wants, ‘Executive Board for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence’ instead, because that’s a far more inclusive sounding name.
The Minister went onto claim, “This decision reflects the reality that all people are potentially victims of family violence and sexual violence, as well as the wishes of disgruntled former advisory board members who have asked for the gifted Te Reo name to be returned,”
The Minister went on to say that the changes were intended to broaden the ability to represent all New Zealanders affected by sexual violence, “not just the 17% who identify as Māori”.
The stats tell us a different story.
- 30% of Māori adults have faced sexual assault vs 20% of the non-Maori adult population.
- Māori girls face nearly double the rate of child sexual abuse than their non‑Māori peers
- 43% of Māori women have experienced sexual or physical violence lifetime
It seems that it is more important to the Minister to erase Māori for political point scoring than actually do anything meaningful against the scourge of sexual assault.
Just another free loading unelected no body maori basher pretending she is a pakeha .
So, how much is the cost for the extra sign writing? This seems an own goal from a party that claims to be all about cost efficiency.
‘Te Puna Aonui’ is a lot easier to remember than ‘Executive Board for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence’ so this minister is obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
NZ would forge a head if we did not decide everything by race and then focus on Maori being the problem .If 50 % of Maori commit crime that leaves another 50% of some other race doing the rest of the crime .If we said that a % of the population were living in poverty without setting out by race there would be an up roar .But we always say x number of those people are Maori .So how many are Chinese ,indian or any of the other 20 nationalities living here .We all know that poverty and crime is spread over all nationalities .
It is time we looked at the overall situation but it is easy to say oh 50% of them are Maori so if we shoot all Maori the problem will go away which we all know is not the case as then 100% would then be pakeha perhaps then what would the government be saying then ?
Those Maori that commit these acts of abuse are unlikely to be involved in learning the language. I have had the privilege of meeting some of these students at Ara . Calling the crime for what it is in plain English is a good idea 8nstead of hiding away behind a Maori title.