FINSIA Submission to RBNZ

In our view, the paper appropriately captures the central issue relating to the under representation of access to Capital for Māori, and also the relative percentages by which that under-representation is evident. The paper also captures the problem of securitising small size assets that Māori own. One observation is that the paper misses the history of why Māori are under-represented in the business space. In our view, this was driven by a 40-year government strategy (post WW2 to the 1980s) that has, in essence, subsidised Māori to move from country provinces into the metropolitan areas for (typically) low-skilled employment opportunities. This strategy was underpinned with low-cost housing through the state, which ultimately meant that Māori did not have the property asset base to loan against when they went into businesses later in their working life.