Friday, 21 May 2021, 4:27 pm
When policymakers try to fix things, they often mess up
because of the way the problem is formulated and the ways
that subsequent policies are targeted. A classic example was
the Closing
the Gaps initiative in the early 2000s.
The
problem – albeit simplified – is that some people are advantaged and others are disadvantaged . In New Zealand,
one of the groups that were (and presumably still are)
disproportionately disadvantaged are Māori. (Another such
group was, and is, Pasifika.)
One useful way of
approaching the problem is that we can say as
stylised facts:
Thirty percent of Māori are