Mike's Minute: Waikato-Tainui is a wonderful success story

My ongoing advice to the Government is: don’t make big announcements on a Friday.

I watched the Prime Minister from Waikato at the Ruakura Superhub.

This is what the Government lives for. It's what they dream of. It's what they preach.

The Superhub by the way is one of the great visions for this country. It services 45% of the population and 55% of GDP. It's part of what they call the "Golden Triangle" when it comes to business, servicing Hamilton, Tauranga and Auckland.

Anyway, at the press conference was a representative from the company with a trillion dollars in assets under management. I'm talking about the local tribe, Waikato-Tainui, with the Prime Minister.

Tuku Morgan from the tribe, who in another life became famous for expensive taxpayer funded underwear, spoke eloquently about what the Superhub means, how big it is, how massive the vision is and how transformational it all could be.

So, not just a miss for the Government in terms of coverage for exactly what this country needs, but also the chance for us to see a part of the so-called Māori economy we don’t often see.

Waikato-Tainui are a wonderful success. The sadness for me is I don’t see them as Māori. I see them as a business, and a good one. Race should not be part of business because performance is the key to business, not race.

But there is no denying their money came out of the Treaty settlement process and they have taken it and run with it.

Not only don’t we get to see the successful side of the Māori economy, we don't ask often enough how it is you can have that much success and yet still have so much Māori deprivation?

That’s the news we do hear a lot about - poverty, addiction, violence and bad health. It's all bad news. Why?

If Māori can do well why are we so obsessed with why they aren't? And if there is a way out for those who need it, and Māori have provided the blueprint, why is it still an issue?

Māori are held back, we are told. Are they? Why haven't Waikato-Tainui been held back? Or Ngai Tahu?

If you listen to the Willie Jackson's of the world, he will tell you colonialism has ruined the Māori dream.

I didn’t see that on Friday. Quite the opposite.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's my ongoing advice to the government is don't make

(00:03):
big announcements on Friday. So I watched the Prime Minister
from the Waikato on Friday at the Ruakura super Hub. Now,
this is what the government lives for. Of course, this stuff,
it's what they dream of, it's what they preach at
this Hooper Hub, which by the way, is one of
the great visions for this country services forty five percent
of the population, fifty five percent of GDP. It's part
of what they call the Golden Triangle when it comes
to business. Hamilton Tower on at Auckland. Anyway, at the

(00:26):
press conference, there's a rep from the company Brookfields with
trillion dollars in assets under management, the local tribe Taianui,
and the Prime Minister took who Morgan is from the tribe,
who had another life, of course, became famous for expensive
taxpayer funded underwear in his current life, spoke very eloquently
about what the superhub means, how big it is, how
massive the vision is, how transformational it all could be.

(00:48):
So not just amiss for the government in terms of
coverage for exactly what this country needs vision, risk taking
and growth, but also the chance for us to see
a part of the so called Maori economy that we
don't often see. See Taynui are a wonderful, wonderful success.
The sadness for me is I don't actually see them
as Maori per se. I see them as a business,
and a good one. Race should not be part of business.

(01:09):
Performance is the key to business, not race. But there
is no denying their money came out of the treaty
settlement process and they've taken it and they've run with it.
And not only don't we get to see the successful
side of the Marie economy, we don't ask often enough
how is it you can have that much success and
yet still have so much Mara deprivation? That's the news.
We do hear a lot about poverty, addiction, violence, health

(01:33):
issue it's all bad news. Why if Maury can do well,
why are we so obsessed with why they aren't? And
if there is a way out for those who need
it and Murray have provided the blueprint, why is it
still an issue? Maria held back? We are told, are they?
Why haven't Tyyo even held back? Or na Tahu? And
if you listen to the Willie Jacksons, he'll tell you
colonialism has ruined the Mari dream. I didn't see that

(01:56):
on Friday, quite the opposite. For more from The Mica
King Breakfast, listen live to news Talks at B from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio