Tribal business

Some people - especially on the left - seem surprised that the Maori Party and Maori businesses want Ukrainian fishers working in New Zealand to be paid a pittance. The Treaty of Waitangi settlement model and the Maori Party have always been about enriching a Maori elite, and it should be no surprise that Tariana Turia is now adamently opposed to a plan to raise the hourly pay rates of foreign fishing crews to $12.75. Such workers are contracted to catch 80% of the Maori fishing quota, and it's therefore in the interest of Maori capitalism to keep wages of these very exploited people as low as possible. But it shows just how reactionary people like Turia are, that they oppose any measures to improve these people's lot. A recent report apparently showed that some of these workers are being paid as little as $195 a month in New Zealand.