…Massey University Te Au Rangahau co-director Dr Matt Roskruge, who is a senior lecturer in economics and finance, said he welcomed the focus on creating jobs in the regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The regions are probably going to be the hardest hit in terms of employment and the slowest to recover,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The $200 million for the regional economy will certainly go some way to supporting M\u0101ori regional economic development, but the devil is going to be in the detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We need to be a little bit careful to make sure there are not communities, towns, rural areas that are isolated and that are forgotten in the recovery story.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To date, there has been no targeted M\u0101ori economic support package to help M\u0101ori businesses deal with the impacts of Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Roskruge said he is disappointed there is no specific focus on M\u0101ori businesses in the Budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I didn’t feel like there was an awful lot of thought put into how to pass money over to M\u0101ori organisations to help them find on the ground solutions for the M\u0101ori economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“In saying that, $200 million isn’t a small amount of funding, it is probably at a level that is going to make a difference but I don’t think it is going to be enough to make the level of difference that we perhaps need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think the government has perhaps hoped that the M\u0101ori economy is going to get caught up in that big spending package.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story on RNZ<\/a> or NZ Herald<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government will spend $900 million in Budget 2020 to support wh\u0101nau, hap\u016b and iwi to deal with the fall-out of Covid-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-whai-rawa-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n