Act leader David Seymour believes people participating in Toitū Te Tiriti should instead “go to work” and “go to school” to “overcome challenges”.
“If you’re a student the most important thing you can do for your future to overcome the challenges that you face is actually going to school and learn useful knowledge, so that you’ll be able to provide for your family, so that you can contribute to your community, so that you are able to learn things overcome challenges and feel better off in your own future.
“The next question is, things are very tough economically what’s the best thing you can do today is actually go to work, earn money, serve customers, and also provide for yourself in order we all get wealthier and stronger together.”
Today, Seymour is gearing up for the Budget which will be announced later this afternoon. He told Te Ao Māori News that Māori are to expect what every other “human being in New Zealand is getting in this budget”.
“I don’t think this budget is gonna be based on race, you know. Actually this is something that this government opposed too, the idea that first of all what a person’s ethnic background is and then decide how to treat them.
“What we’re going to do is deal with people based on their needs. So, for example, we’re putting on almost $2 billion extra into Pharmac for medicines,” he said.
‘Nothing for iwi Māori?’
Reporter Kereama Wright then asked Seymour, “So nothing for te iwi Māori?”
The Act leader said: “No, people who are Māori will get the same benefits as anyone else. We’re just not obsessed with race, and you really have to ask yourself why is it, that you’re so focused on a person’s race before we talk about their practical needs, how do we build more houses, how do we get more infrastructure.”
He provided some insight into what the Kiwis across the motu could expect coming from the Beehive later on today.
“A government that’s going to cut wasteful expenditure because, when the government spends money without getting results, pushes cash into the economy, creates inflation, pushes up interest rates, higher mortgages, higher rents, that’s not good for any whānau.
“No 2, we’re going to see people that work, actually get to keep more of what they earn. A lot of people, especially working-class people, are really hard up and they see $300 [or] $400 of their money going into the government so that’s going to reduce, so they’re going to keep more of their money.
“No 3, fix on delivering those services that people need. If you look at the healthy school lunch programme, we’re going to feed more children each day with less money and that’s a pretty good example of what we’re doing across the board.”