Mana Wāhine claim progressing

Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced $6.2 million funding for progressing the Crown’s engagement with the Waitangi Tribunal’s Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry, while speaking to the Federation of Māori Authorities Huihuinga Wāhine (Māori Women’s Leadership Conference) in Auckland today. 

“It is important the wellbeing of Māori women is prioritised and on the government agenda. That is why Budget 2019 allocated $6.2 million funding for engaging with the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry,” Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter said today. 

“Our priority is to build closer relationships between the Crown and Māori, and to build on the good work that Minister Davis and Minister Mahuta have already done.”

In December 2018 the Waitangi Tribunal started the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry into claims for wāhine Māori arising from Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, in both historical and contemporary times.

“The Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry will be looking for opportunities to make early acknowledgements of problems, and focus on what can be changed now and into the future to address injustice and inequality.

“The data confirms that wāhine Māori continue to have poorer social, economic, educational, employment, and health outcomes, compared to Pakeha women. 

“We have a responsibility to improve the wellbeing of wāhine Māori, the whānau they lead, and the communities they serve.

“We are working in particular to close the gender pay gap, in particular for Māori women,” says Julie Anne Genter. 

NOTE: Kaupapa inquiries are broad ranging inquiries by the Waitangi Tribunal into claims which raise nationally significant issues affecting Māori or groups of Māori as a whole, in similar ways, where the claim have not previously been heard.