The Māori development minister is hailing Budget 2026 as a "meaningful" boost to te reo Māori and Māori culture, while critics ask where the targeted Māori funding is.
By Pokere Paewai and Tuwhenuaroa Natanahira of RNZ
Māori broadcasting gets $48 million over the next four years, emerging as one of the few Māori specific initiatives to get funding since the coalition took power. Budget 2026 also saw deeper cuts to Te Puni Kōkiri, the Māori Development Ministry, and Te Tari Whakatau.
Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka told RNZ that funding for Māori broadcasting showed the coalition was serious about te reo Māori.
"We recognise that the Crown has an obligation to actively protect Te Reo Māori and we put the money of taxpayers and our money where our mouth is. We don't just talk about it, we do it.
"This Budget is about being fiscally responsible but also recognising that we have a duty to actively protect Te Reo and to support ahurei Māori or Māori culture. We've done that in a meaningful and genuine way," he said.
Potaka said the final details on how the funding would be allocated between Māori broadcast funder Te Māngai Pāho and broadcaster Whakaata Māori would be due out in a couple of weeks.
Broadcast funder Te Māngai Pāho (TMP) chief executive Larry Parr told RNZ while he was grateful for the funding because without it, the funder would have $16m less in its budget.
"It's not certain exactly how much of that funding comes to Te Māngai Pāho - some will go to Whakaata Māori - so we're not sure exactly what the numbers will be. But certainly, it's better than losing $16 million a year."
The sector has struggled recently. Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori, the representative body for iwi radio, threatened legal action if TMP's budget was cut but withdrew days before the Budget was released publicly.
Parr said the Māori media sector was "OK" at the moment.
"We talk about the Māori media sector being poor cousins, but actually a lot of whānau are really feeling the pain. We need to be grateful for what we've got, I think, personally," he said.
There is also $10m for Te Māori Tū over the next five years and a $400,000 boost for the Ngārimu VC & 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships.
Minister Pōtaka said the Te Māori Tū kaupapa went back to the late 1980s, when the Te Māori exhibition was showcased in the United States.
He said it would be an opportunity to show Māori culture and set up a platform for business and trade.
"It was really the first time globally that millions of people had seen our tikanga or our kawa in action, because it was broadcast, it was on TV, lots of photos.
"One of the appealing aspects of Te Māori is that it can springboard other commercial opportunities and economic opportunities for people."
In a media release, Labour's Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said National was only making life harder for Māori with more cuts and "more pain".
"The most revealing line in the entire Budget is Tama Potaka cutting millions from his own department.
"Te Puni Kōkiri's budget has been cut by $23.6 million, with another $73.6 million of cuts already locked in for the years to come. That's nearly $100 million stripped away by the Minister of Māori Development. You couldn't make this up."
Jackson said there was no new funding for things that matter to Māori, like unemployment, housing and hauora.
In response, Minister Potaka said Labour "haven't even got a policy" and the Budget was about being fiscally responsible.
He pointed to broader investments in health and infrastructure being for all New Zealanders, including Māori.
"If you think about the roads, when you fix the road between Waioweka, Ōpōtiki and Gisborne, you can enable whānau to attend their whānau hui, to go to tangi, go to birthdays, to visit their relatives, to carry goods and services on that road.
"We're really focused on making sure we've got the infrastructure in place, the health and education in place, that can deliver effective public services for Māori, Kiwis and all New Zealanders," he said.
Associate Dean Māori and Professor of Economics at Massey University Matt Roskruge (Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Tama) said the Budget contained hardly any surprises for Māori.
It looked like a Budget that basically had one plan, and that was a return to surplus, he said.
"It's really hard to see how whānau are going to be made hugely better off. How are we going to overcome a lot of the cost-of-living crisis, the exodus to Australia, all of the other issues that we seem to be facing just by a return to a meagre surplus."
Roskruge said Māori priorities in the last few Budgets had almost been erased and he was not seeing investment in by Māori for Māori priorities much at all.
"It really feels like this government is hanging its everything on this return to surplus. And somehow this magical slim surplus is going to make everybody suddenly better off ... there's all sorts of areas where you want to see a government invest ... maybe it requires borrowing, maybe it requires increasing taxes. But these are social problems, they're genuine problems, they're genuine deficits that need to be addressed by a government of the day and this government isn't."
One area where he did see an opportunity for Māori was in the government's interest in privitisation, for example by getting in on the procurement process for the new Road of National Significance the Cambridge to Piarere Expressway.
"So there is contracting opportunities, I think, for the Māori economy and we want to be positioned to take advantage of some of these that are coming through."
There was a similar whakaaro from Former Labour MP and chair of the Tūwharetoa Iwi Māori Partnership Board Louisa Wall who told RNZ that despite health being a big winner, hauora Māori spending within that remained static at just 2.7%.
"There was actually a $20 million reduction in the hauora Māori allocation, we're either static or going backwards in terms of this government's investment in Māori providers and iwi providers and those of us who are meeting the needs of our whānau and community.
"Effectively, we've been ignored," Wall said.
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