Maori wellbeing in Otautahi no better five years after disaster...

I did a quick post on the latest CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) Wellbeing Survey a while ago and promised an analysis of Maori experiences...

First, who's still struggling? Those less likely to rate their overall quality of life positively are:

• Those who have unresolved claims at the property they own and usually live in (49%)
• Living with a health condition or disability (56%)
• Living in temporary housing (57%)
• From a household with an income of less than $30,000 (59%) or $30,001 to $60,000 (72%)
• Of Māori ethnicity (62%)
• Of Pacific, Asian, or Indian ethnicity (66%)
• Renting the dwelling they usually live in (67%)

Two things are remarkable about these data.

First, they are essentially unchanged over the past few years. Here's a graph of Maori, those with health conditions or disabilities, of Pacific, Asian, or Indian ethnicity (lets ignore the diversity within these broad categories...):

The trend lines are actually UP for a each of these categories! (The slight decline, 63% to 62%, for Maori is within the margin of error of 2%).

Going through the report I'm struck by how often Maori respondents are recording negative experiences to the questions. For example, whereas 7% of those surveyed are more likely to say the 'loss of access to the natural environment' has had a moderate or major impact, twice as many Māori (14%) record their loss of access to te taiao has had a moderate or major impact (p. 63).

The second shock is that these poor data are despite the sampling being weighted towards Ngai Tahu Whanui, one of the most powerful and wealthy Iwi Authorities around. See the sampling data ...

I've posted before on the Mana Whenua/Nga Maata Waka demographics here in Canterbury. Here's a graph from the latest census...

So Ngai Tahu are around 42% of Greater Christchurch as against the 52-55% of the CERA sample (I'm not getting into the Waitaha/ Ngati Mamoe debate though I do think it informative that three respondents name these ancient iwi...). Yet still these ongoing negative wellbeing stats from CERA. 

WTF as one might exclaim...

If I was to list a third remarkable thing it would be the continuing propaganda publication of how great everything was and is for Maori and others in Otautahi. If CERA is getting it soooo wrong... oh, is that a stray chicken walking around our lawn...