Vote Compass: 56% of Māori voters say welfare services should be easier to access

That’s one of the findings from TVNZ’s Vote Compass tool.

The majority of voters on the Māori roll say New Zealand’s welfare services should be easier to access.

That’s one of the findings from TVNZ’s Vote Compass tool, which has now been used by more than 150,000 people.

People were asked, “How difficult should it be to access welfare in New Zealand?”

Thirty-four per cent of those voting in general electorates believed it should be either much less, or somewhat less difficult to access welfare.

However, 56 per cent of those in Māori electorates wanted it to be either much less or somewhat less difficult.

University of Auckland professor Lisa Chant says traditionally it has been harder for Māori to access services through the Ministry of Social Development.

“I think that really reflects the racism experienced, which is really well-documented by Māori,” she said.

However, Chant says there has been an overall shift from voters since 2014, with more now saying it should be easier.

Breaking it down

Green voters (35%) are more likely to believe it should be significantly easier to access the welfare system than Labour (19%), National (4%) or ACT (5%) voters.

To take part in Vote Compass, a survey tool which shows users how their views match up with party policies, go to tvnz.co.nz/votecompass.

Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by TVNZ. The findings are based on 58,669 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from August 30, 2020 to September 8, 2020.

Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, region and past vote to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.

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