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Dr Pita Sharples and Shane Jones - Source: Q+A -
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Labour MP Shane Jones says iwi leaders should spend less time "dreaming of ways to profit" from sales of state-owned assets and more time on salvaging the children of their tribes.
Jones, who is Labour's spokesman on economic development for Maori, has lashed out at tribal leaders and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples after a report today from his department said government agencies are failing the children of Maori prisoners.
The report released by Te Puni Kokiri , the Ministry of Maori Development, criticised police for arresting many offenders in front of their children, and prisons for subjecting children to stringent searches when visiting their parents in jail.
Sharples has announced he will launch a review in the wake of the report to see what can be done to help inmates' children.
However, Jones says there are already reviews into economic, treaty and constitutional issues and we do not need another review of what is happening to the children of prisoners because this is already known.
"What we need are short, sharp solutions. In the absence of leadership from Dr Sharples, iwi leaders must focus on salvaging the children of their tribes instead of sucking at the teat of asset sales that won't solve anything long term for Maori."
The Maori Party is fighting the removal of a Treaty clause, which makes it compulsory for the Government to consult Maori over its plan to sell 49% stakes in four state power companies.
Meanwhile, the PSA says up to 50 jobs could go at Te Puni Kokiri under a restructure outlined earlier this month.
"It is hugely ironic that this report has been produced by a Government agency that is in the process of being made anaemic by Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples," Jones said.
Sharples, who is also Associate Education Minister, says schools could be more active in helping the children of prisoners, to prevent a new generation of offenders being created.
Jones says the logic of this is "outstanding".
"On one hand the Government is saying class sizes don't matter particularly at the margins, and on the other Pita Sharples wants schools to do more to help our children who are at risk."
Jones says Sharples is presiding over cuts to his department and at the same time trying to force greater burdens on it.
The Te Puni Kokiri study - the first of its kind in New Zealand - used research data collected by charity Pillars, which surveyed 217 Maori prisoners, men and women.
The children involved in the study exhibited serious health problems including eczema, asthma and psoriasis, and emerging behavioural and mental health problems, the report found.
