By Rebecca Wright
A suggestion by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett that iwi should "put their hands in their own pockets" and help pay for child abuse services for Maori has been called institutional racism.
Ms Bennett made the comments at an iwi leaders' forum last Friday, but reaction has been mixed.
Each year millions of taxpayer dollars are put into anti-abuse campaigns, and millions more are spent looking after the children for whom it's already too late. Half of those in care are Maori, and Ms Bennett is calling for a renewed focus by iwi leaders on abuse.
"The feeling I got was they're ready to talk about solutions, so let's not apportion blame - lets talk about who these children are, where they are and how we support them better," says Ms Bennett.
What do you think? Give us your opinion.
One idea she raises is for what she calls 'whanau finders' - a type of iwi liaison between Child, Youth and Family who would identify families within the iwi for children to be placed with.
Ms Bennett wants iwi to help pay for them and it has upset the Green Party.
"She's going begging in hand to iwi to ask them to pay for social services that she is responsible for and should be investing in," says co-leader Meteria Turei.
Whether it's an investment iwi want to make, the Maori Party says, will be up to them.
Perhaps proving there aren't many original ideas in politics, Ms Bennett's concept of a whanau finder isn't actually new at all. Labour set something similar up in the 1980s called Maatua Whangai. Some in Maoridom have been calling for a return to it for some time, but whether or not they 're happy to pay for it remains to be seen.
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