McCabe joins Crown team at WA

December 21
The latest goverment appointment to the board of the troubled Te Wananga o Aotearoa, is a women who quit Westpac after giving her 6 yr old son a free ride on the Westpac rescue helicopter.

A spokesperson for Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen has confirmed that June McCabe is the fourth crown appointee for the wananga.

When news of the birthday flight broke in April, Ms McCabe resigned as the bank’s corporate affairs manager.

Ms McCabe first came to public attention when she shifted from being a Housing Corporation rental manager to being put in charge of Mortgage Corporation, the Fay Richwhite subsidiary set up to handle the privatized Housing Corporation loan book.

That led to her being identified as a successful Maori businesswoman, and a succession of appointments including to the boards of Housing New Zealand, the Accident Compensation Corporation, TVNZ, the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, the New Zealand Leadership Institute and the Turn Your Life Around charity.

The Government now has four appointees on the wananga board, including full time chair Craig Coxhead, and it exerts day to day control through a team of Crown managers from accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers, who cost the WA $1.7 million plus gst last financial year.

PIRIPI SAYS REST OF GOVERNMENT NOT SUPPORTING REO

Outgoing Maori Language Commission Chief Executive Haami Piripi says lack of support from other government agencies made for a disappointing 2006.

Mr Piripi will step down at the end of February to take up a iwi development role within his hometown of Kaitaia.

He says for the commission to achieve its goals of fostering Maori language survival, it needs backing across the state sector.

“We could have had more investment in Maori language from a number of sources, from Education sector for example, Culture and Heritage, Internal Affairs, haven’t really fully appreciated the need to plan and integrate language into their strategic business interests,” Mr Piripi says.

He says his new role as executive chair of Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is more about aroha rather than money.

EVERNDEN RETURNS FOR TENNIS BOOK LAUNCH

One of the best ever Maori tennis players has returned home to help launch a book celebrating 70 years of Maori tennis.

Aotearoa Maori tennis Chair Dick Garrett says Kelly Evernden will be one of the stars on hand at the lauch at Turangawaewae Marae during the annual Maori tennis tournament next week.

Dick Garrett while the book covers players back to 1936, Maori involvement in the game can be traced back to the 1890s.

Mr Garrett says in Kelly Evernden, who is now a professional coach at the Mercer Island Country Club near Seattle in the United States, has been a great ambassador for Maori tennis.

“Kelly you know reached 31 in the world, played at Wimbledon, beat McEnroe and Lendl and all them, took a set off Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon, he’s still tuturu about Maori tennis and where he comes from,” Mr Garrett says.

CROWN COSTS WANANGA CLOSE TO $2M

A team of Crown managers cost Te Wanaga O Aotearoa more than $1.7 million last financial year.

The mangers from accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers were put in charge early last year, after the government became concerned at the rate of growth of the country’s largest Maori tertiary institution.

A board weighted heavily with crown appointees has scrapped many of the more ambitious courses, and one of the wananga’s most significant sources of students, the Kiwi Ora course for new migrants, is being wound up.

Tertiary education minister Michael Cullen says the government acknowledges there are different ways of approaching tertiary education.

“There is a clear role for the wananga for example, and one of my jobs in the last year has been to make sure Te Wananga o Aotearoa is put back onto a sound footing, and the position now is a heck of a lot better than it was a year ago,” Dr Cullen says.

He says the Price Waterhouse crown managers will be replaced by a chief financial officer - but there have been no moves yet to advertise the position.

NEW MINDSET HELPS FISHERIES TRANSFER

Te Ohu Kaimoana Chief Executive Peter Douglas says a new mindset among Maori organisations has helped speed the transfer of Maori fisheries assets.

The Maori fisheries settlement trust mandated 37 iwi organisations this year, and expects the other 22 iwi to complete the process before Christmas next year.

Mr Douglas says it is an encouraging outcome given the time it took to come up with an allocation process.

“People probably had doubts about whether of not it was going to be possible, given the 12 years that had passed from the time of the settlement to the passage of the act. But we’ve developed not just useful templates but good relations with most of the iwi organisations that have gone through our process, and it indicates people have a different mindset. They’re thinking about what they are going to do next rather than what happened before,” Mr Douglas says.

He says iwi are now having to take on many of the responsibilities previously managed by Te Ohu Kaimoana, including participation in fisheries stakeholder organisations.

AGING POPULATION WILL BE MAORI BURDEN

Maori need to prepare for increasing numbers of Kaumatua developing mental health problems.

That's according to John Tamihere, who heads Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust in West Auckland.

Mr Tamihere says Maori face a range of health issues, but one that has recieved little attention is mental illness among the elderly.

He says Maori are now living longer and alzheimers is becoming more prevalent in Maori communities.

Mr Tamihere says the trust has developed strategies to address the health needs of men, women and tamariki, and next year will do the same for the region’s elderly.

“We've never lived to a level to be exposed to significant mental health issues in our elders, but it’s coming, and we’ve got to get ready for these things,” Mr Tamihere says.