MEDIA RELEASE

6TH SEPTEMBER 2000

“BI-LINGUAL TAI TOKERAU NATION” PROJECT MUST BE CANNED”

“A Government-funded race-based educational project for Northland, Te Putahitanga Matauranga, which has as one of its outcomes the establishment of a “bi-lingual Te Tai Tokerau Nation”, must be canned immediately, claims New Zealand First Education Spokesperson, Hon Brian Donnelly.

“It is utterly reprehensible that the Government, through the Ministry of Education, should be spending millions of dollars on such projects.

“The project in question is ethnically exclusive, poorly devised, has been captured by certain Iwi interest groups, and is riding rough-shod over the legitimate powers of community-elected Boards of Trustees,” said Mr Donnelly.

“There is no place for such a programme, which has as another of its aims, the establishment of “Maori authority in all aspects of education,” in Northland.

“I have written to the Minister of Education “ said Mr Donnelly, “inviting him to can the project forthwith and to establish a Northland schools project which is inclusive of all Northlanders and is based on models of success, not failure.”

ENDS

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