Goldsmith on advocating for Pacific peoples in govt | RNZ

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Ah well uh um there's all these portfolios across the uh across government and you never know what you're going to get uh uh asked by the prime minister to do. It's a privilege to do anything and so um uh I'm very excited about the prospect. Um it wasn't something that I was expecting. I mean there's there's a a sort of narrow slice of things that the Ministry of Pacific people is responsible for and do and they've got serious things. Um but of course that's only a very small slice of what the overall government effort is that uh has beneficial outcomes for Pacific peoples and all New Zealanders.

[00:00:35]So you if you think about it you know the the the education system is critical to um Pacifica outcomes and you know getting kids at school having a decent curriculum all those sorts of things are very important. Likewise in health getting immunization rates up is all very important. So um uh there's sort of two levels at it then. I I I see myself as and the and the ministry as as a an advocate or or a um a person who will always ask the question um how's this going to impact Pacifica people and how are we going to get better outcomes for Pacifica people in in general government and then separately uh within the in the Pacific people's realm we've got a you know 50 or 60 odd million dollars that's focused on on particular programs and projects and I want to make sure that they're getting the best results as they they can out of Those