Māori, the state and self-determination in the neoliberal age

Māori pursue their claim to ‘sovereign and economic independence’ (O’Sullivan & Dana 2008: 364) in a neoliberal age of paradoxical influences. Neoliberal reforms to the public sector, beginning in the mid-1980s, have had significant yet inconsistent influence on Māori legal, political, economic and cultural opportunities. On the one hand, unemployment levels rose significantly as, for example, large state sector Māori employers were corporatised; while trade liberalisation compromised manufacturing’s competitiveness. By 1992, Māori unemployment was 25 per cent, in contrast with a national rate of 10 per cent (Mitchell 2009). In 2018, the Māori labour force is growing and the unemployment rate has reduced to 12.2 per cent. While this is more than twice the national rate of 5.2 per cent, it is partly explained by a disproportionately young Māori population (Statistics New Zealand 2016). On the other hand, under the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori could advantageously challenge the terms of the privatisation of state assets.