Manukau lacking housing policy

Manukau City Council is considering taking a hands-on role in getting Maori into their own homes.

Treaty relationships manager Moana Herewini says a study by the Centre for Housing Research and Te Puni Kokiri highlighted the fact the council did not have a housing policy.

The researchers interviewed Maori home owners and renters from six regions, including south Auckland, about housing quality, pricing and relationships with landlords.

Ms Herewini says it should be a wake up call for the council.

“The housing policy as such hasn’t been developed at all in Manukau City Council, so as a result of this report to the treaty committee, that’s one of the key recommendations we put up and we hope council will endorse, to start looking at what we can do from here, which could include developing a policy which might address the issues of Manukau people, including Maori,” Herewini says.

BRADFORD THANKFUL OF IWI SUPPORT FOR SMACK BILL

Green MP Sue Bradford says she has been bouyed by Maori support for her anti-smacking bill now before parliament.

Ms Bradford says the bill should help Maori who are trying to address violence within their communities.

She says iwi in the north, where she lives, were the first to offer support.

“Seven iwi came out in favour of my bill, and I thought that was an incredibly courageous thing to do. They know the impact of violence in those houses and want to do anything and everything to bring that to an end. Really we’re all working together for that goal, but when it comes to front on services, by Maori for Maori is I’m sure the best way to go,” Bradford says.

MAORI TV PICKING UP AD REVENUE

The head of Maori Television says the channel is starting to attract the interest of some of the large corporate advertisers.

Jim Mather says wining a Qantas Award for its Anzac special has helped raise the profile of Maori Television, and it is winning a loyal audience by offering an interesting and entertaining range of programmes.

He says advertising revenues will grow as audience numbers grow.

“Slowly but surely you’re seeing some of the big corporates and commercial organisations start advertising with Maori Television. There have been primarily government ministries with social messages, that’s constructive in its own right, but it’s good now to see the Kiwibanks and McDonalds and other organisations come on board,” Mather says.

HARAWIRA SAYS TREATIES ONLY BETWEEN NATIONS

Taitokerau MP Hone Harawira says the Treaty of Waitangi is not just a domestic issue.

He's just returned from a United Nations-backed conference on international treaties, held in Canada.

Mr Harawira says most of the indigenous peoples at the conference were aware of Maori efforts to have their treaty recognised.

But he says Maori may have made a mistake in viewing the Treaty of Waitangi as being about relationships between separate iwi and the Crown.

“I guess the thing I learned most from the trip, from listening to others, was that our treaty was not a domestic issue. Our treaty is an international issue, because treaties are only signed between sovereign states. We have to start acting like we are,” Harawira says.

RAHUI ON ALCOHOL A LESSON FROM THE PAST

It may be time for Maori to consider imposing booze bans on their own.
That's the view of Tuari Potiki, the South Island manager for the Alcohol Advisory Council.

He says he doubts there are any Maori families who have not not been subjected to the negative side of alcohol abuse.

Mr Potiki says in Christchurch, 80 percent of people arrested on a Friday or Saturday night, or are admitted to accident and emergency departments, have been drinking.

Mr Potiki says it's time for Maori to take matters into their own hands.

“As communities and as whanau we need to take control. We know what we need. Just give us the ability and the resource to do it. Let us fix our own problems and maybe going back to a tipuna like Rewi Maniapoto, who put down the rahui on alcohol in the King Country. He did that for a reason. They knew right back then that alcohol was causing a problem, was going to cause a problem, for Maori whanau and communities,” Potiki says.

Tuari Potiki says he's sick of picking up a newspaper on a Monday to and find another Maori killed on the road, or as a result of domestic violence.

ACADEMICS WANT REO ONLY HUI TO RULE

Maori need to go back to discussing their issues in te reo Maori, rather than battling it out in English.

That's the korero coming from the first To Tatou Reo Rangatira Maori language conference this week at Massey University's Palmerston North campus.

Keynote speaker Taiarahia Black, the head of the university's Maori language programmes, says hui have become too reliant on the use of English, which changes the way kaupapa or issues are perceived.

“All of those issues in the past and to the present have always been discussed in English. We want to create a platform over the next ten years. Every two years there will be a Maori language conference where Maori speakers can deliver papers and keynote addresses in the Maori language, and the issues they are dealing with are issues that are relevant to Maori,” Professor Black says.