Minister for Pacific Peoples says ministry can still 'shine' despite proposed staff cuts

Minister for Pacific Peoples, Dr Shane Reti says frontline work won’t be affected as MPP’s workforce faces a proposed 40 per cent cut.

Labelling it as an “operational issue”, he says the ministry will still be effective despite losing almost half of its workers due to government spending cuts.

“I’m reassured that the functions of the Ministry for Pacific People will not be significantly affected and will still be able to deliver outcomes.

“Let’s also remember that it was one of those ministries that had the biggest growth of any other ministry across government.”

Reti says despite it being a challenging time, it’s a decision to help spend taxpayer funding effectively.

“I love this portfolio. I love these [Pacific] people. Every moment and every ounce of energy I have [will go] to help the ministry shine to help outcomes actually be real and tangible so that the Pasifika people in New Zealand can feel an improvement in their quality of life.”

The outcomes include improving home ownership for Pacific people as the rate currently sits under 30 per cent.

Watch Pacific Mornings interview with Dr Shane Reti below:

Reti also urges Pacific communities to get their children immunised amidst a predicted measle outbreak this year by health expert Professor Michael Baker.

“I’m reassured that Pasifika immunisation is generally higher than Maori.

“But the variation that we have across the region particularly for measles which is the biggest childhood infection is what I’m most concerned about.

“Let’s remember this [measles] was exported to Samoa and people died in 2019 when we had the measles outbreak. This is not trivial.”

With an immunisation workforce plan in place, Reti says the government is focused on increasing accessibility for vaccines.

“There’s 54 recommendations and we’re making our way through those recommendations, primarily increasing access.

“That is what we did with pharmacists, giving pharmacists the ability to vaccinate. Increasing access so it’s easy for people to do the right things is what we’re looking at.”