The Big Maori Bang

Nau mai e te whanau.

Let’s have a slight tipihaere down a familiar yet unfamiliar path – that of the huge Maori economy.

$50b.

I love that figure, and I reckon it’s close, and maybe even a little conservative.

Most people point to the Fiscal Envelope/Treaty Settlement programme for that figure, yet Tainui, the first waka off the jetty, recently posted its equity value at $1.6b, and even all Hapu and Iwi whom have settled could not add up to fifty bil.

Then someone said “my bro it’s a combination of Maori small businesses, Maori who own their own homes and our whenua, which all combined is worth a few billion, easy”.

That’s right – the land.

The little bit of land the Pakeha didn’t take and the whenua we used to have to scrape together rates is now valued at market prices and that has skyrocketed some bottom lines. Add improvements, a farm here, a papakainga project there, some trees or two, a geothermal project on that side and an ecotourism venture up the road and ae, add another few billie.

If there were 3 things I wished we could do then would be to create a Maori Bank that could invest our Kiwi Saver funds, open up loan facilities, allow for credit card purchases, papakainga finance; create a centralised iwi data registry; and select a town to pilot drone, self drive and automation tech and call it – CyberRotorua. That’s so epic.

Anyway he whakaaro noa atu

p.

Potaua Biasiny-Tule

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Writer. Animator. Activist. Entrepreneur. Papa. Husband. I have a passion for sharing geeky things and love to challenge the unknown. Please join me...

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