Transcript
Housing was amoung issues of concern for Pacific people on the streets of Wellington.
"Education would be one of them. My mum is a teacher aid so she has a lot of students coming in with no school lunches."
"Equality. If you were going in scales it would be New Zealanders, Maori and Pacific Islanders under that."
"Housing. We had a decent house and were in a good place and then they found out that we were islanders and they were like 'yeah, no, you gotta go now, sorry.'"
The government's annual budget was revealed last week, and Labour's spokesperson for Pacific people, Aupito Su'a William Sio, says it will increase inequality.
Aupito said that rather than tax cuts, Pacific people needed a budget that improved their education, health, and, most importantly, housing.
"The home ownership rates for Pacific are at its lowest. The overcrowdedness that I see in my electorate and parts of South Auckland - it's just tearful. With the tax cuts, not only does it favour people on high incomes rather than those who needed it the most, but it also means that people living in garages, people living in cars become normalised."
But in a statement the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Alfred Ngaro, said the Labour Party's claims were "quite simply wrong"
"The budget included a great deal to help families with housing, including $NZ205 in additional funding for social housing and the Government plans to build 34,000 more houses in Auckland. The Family Income Package, in particular, will make a big difference for many of our people. The Family Income Package, in particular, will make a big difference for many of our people. We've set aside 2 billion dollars to improve incomes for those with high housing costs and increased the accommodation supplement."
Mr Ngaro says the budget also increased health funding to fight bowel cancer and improve mental health, areas that he says disproportionately affect Pacific people.
He said the budget also increased funding to his ministry by three million dollars over four years for research and policy development.
