Te Pāti Māori has described the government's budget as "chocolate sprinkles on a vanilla cake" where Māori are only being left with the crumbs.
Under Labour's fourth Well Being Budget, $1.2 billion of it is for Māori - $579.9 million of that will go towards Māori health and well-being.
Co-leader Rawiri Waititi says when comparing this year's budget to last year, Māori funding had only gone up by 0.3 percent.
"Based on that logic, it will take 1840 years to get to 20 percent. Our whānau suffer from worse outcomes, we're dying seven to 10 years earlier than the general population. It's astounding to think the government think this is suffice."
He said the budget didn't make up 20 percent, which was close to the percentage that makes up the Māori population.
When it came to the amount given to the Māori Health Authority, Waititi believed the funding would make little difference.
"It's 0.7 percent of the total health budget going into the Māori health authority and that's not good enough, if we want to close mortality rates for we're dying seven-to-10 years earlier than everybody else, we're wanting to bring the statistics down of cardiovascular disease diabetes, where we're over-represented, we need a hell of a lot more investment than that."
He would have liked to have seen the government take bold action and remove GST off food.
He described the government's $188.1m towards the Māori Health Authority as "pathetic".
"We acknowledge the government for making progress in a few areas, and we are grateful that they have adopted more of our policies. It is, however, not a budget that delivers for Māori or honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the way we deserve."
Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was not impressed by the numbers either, and expected more for Māori.
"Today was an opportunity for this government to put their money where their mouth is and to learn off the success of Māori providers through Covid-19 when it came to protecting our whakapapa. The government have not learnt off this success and have decided to withhold our unique Māori potential."
But the Māori Party also acknowledged two of the benefits in the budget, including a boost in funding for Whānau Ora and Te Matatini.
"Whānau Ora however will get a boost of $145m, which is positive and reflects the outstanding mahi by the Whānau Ora network. Te Pāti Māori congratulate Whānau Ora providers up and down the motu for their contributions to the oranga of our whānau."
Te Matatini is set to get its biggest baseline funding increase ever with $4m over four years.
"Te Matatini will also get a $1m investment raising their budget to $2.9m in total. Whilst this is great it still falls short of our policy platform which would boost this to $19m. They are subject to huge scrutiny and are required to meet certain metrics such as one million viewers. There is room for further investment."
RNZ
