Maori bear brunt of NZ's inequality gap

Social inequality in New Zealand has grown worse over the last decade, with the indigenous Maori and ethnic Pacific island groups faring worst in measurements of health, education and employment, according to research published on Thursday.

Researchers from Wellington's Victoria University found gaps between ethnic Europeans and Maori and between ethnic Europeans and Pacific people had increased in most of 21 social inequality indicators since a report by the Ministry of Social Development in 2003.

The largest increases in disparity were in cigarette smoking, obesity, suicide, proportion of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher, unemployment, proportion on welfare, median weekly income, personal income distribution and Internet access in the home.

Decreasing, but still significant gaps were found in some areas including life expectancy at birth, infant mortality and early childhood education participation.

The only measure indicating worsening outcomes for Europeans compared to Maori and Pacific people was housing affordability, said Associate Professor Lisa Marriott.

"Statistics show this worsening for European households and improving for Maori and Pacific households, although on the whole European households are still better off," Marriott said in a statement.

"The rate of tertiary education participation is the only measure where a gap no longer exists. Although participation has increased for all ethnic groups, there has been such a large increase for Maori and Pacific people that participation rates are now similar," she said.

"Despite considerable attention paid to the issue of inequality, the data outlined in our research indicates that New Zealand's strategy to address inequality as it relates to Maori and Pacific people has not been successful," she said.

"This growing gap in inequality clearly warrants greater government attention to stop the problem from getting any worse."

(China Daily 08/22/2014 page10)