Druis Barrett quits the Families Commission in protest

May 14, 2009

Druis Barrett resigned from The Families Commission today in protest at Christine Rankin’s appointment.

In an excellent interview on today’s Morning Report (listen below), she says “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that [Christine Rankin] was racist, but she’s damn well close to it”.  In the same interview, Hone Kaa agrees with her, saying that Rankin’s comments were unhelpful.

The Herald reports that Rankin’s comment that so upset Barrett was “Maori whanau don’t look after their own, and that [they] should be responsible for the many children that are at risk and have been killed”, implying that Māori were doing nothing about the problem.

In fact, groups like Te Kahui Mana Ririki, Save The Children, Barnardos and Plunket have been running Māori led programs to attack these problems for years.

Listen to the Morning Report interview: