Orakei stalwart Cyril Talbot dies

Ngati Whatua o Orakei has laid to rest one of its most well known characters.

Cyril Talbot was a familiar figure around Auckland's courts, where he gave assistance to young Maori, and in representing the iwi in public events such as the blessing and dedication of buildings in the city.

A long time dialysis patient, he died at the weekend in his 50s.

Grant Hawke, Ngati Whatua's chairman, says Mr Talbot was one of 17 children, and he made his life helping others.

“He did a lot of that work helping communities that were struggling in the community here in Glen Innes and eastern suburbs and also a lot of that kind of work around the marae and the people around the marae. He had a lot of goodwill about him, and the size of his funeral told you about the caliber of people that he had dealt with,” Mr Hawke says.

MORE NEEDED ON GRANTS FRONT SAYS GREEN

Green MP Sue Bradford is welcoming an increase in the amount beneficiaries and low income families can claim for food.

The former unemployed rights activist says the effective doubling of Special Needs Grants is good, but more could be done.

“If you're in a situation where you simply don’t have enough food or money for food, you can apply for a grant and if you’ve already used up your grant for the year, you can go in sooner to get some, so I think it will be helpful. Of course it doesn’t address the big issue around benefit simply not being enough for people to live on,” Ms Bradford says.

A Ministry of Social Development report shows beneficiaries are now worse off compared to people on wages than they were in 1991 when the then National government cut benefits.

TAIRAWHITI SETTLEMENTS CUT OFF BY SLIPS

The sun was shining on the East Coast today, but communities are still marooned by floods and slips.

Keri Kaa from Rangitukia says the rains have been some of the worst residents can remember since Cyclone Bola 20 years ago.

Kemp's Hill, between Rangitukia and Ruatoria has been closed because of subsidence, but one lane has been open for short periods today for essential traffic.

Ms Kaa abandoned an effort to go to Gisborne a few days ago when the road at Tokomaru Bay became flooded ... and then she encountered rising rivers on the way back home.

“I've never been in swirling floodwaters before but what’s scary is it’s the trees, the foliage you can’t see, because you can’t see tree branches, little logs and things, We were too scared to go through the water so we had to stop at an auntie’s house and we hitched a ride home on a four wheel drive, but even those drivers were very cautious about floodwaters,” Ms Kaa says.

She says people living north of Ruatoria who want to go to Gisborne must go via Opotiki - a three-hour trip.

RADIO LIVE APOLOGISES TO KIRO OVER LAWS’ FLAWS

The Children's Commissioner has accepted an apology from Radio Live over on air comments by host Michael Laws ... but the Wanganui mayor is unrepentant about his fact-free diatribe.

The radio station said it accepted Mr Laws was wrong to claim that Cindy Kiro only got involved in abuse cases involving white families, and that she had not supported Maori initiatives on stopping child abuse.

In fact, she supported and funded a trust set up by the Reverend Hone Kaa to tackle the problem, and was involved in a wide range of initiatives across all ethnicities.

Dr Kiro says she laid a formal complaint not only because of the inaccuracies but also because of the level of vitriol expressed by Mr Laws, which went well beyond fair public scrutiny.

Mr Laws says he still has significant misgivings about the office of the Children's commissioner and its effectiveness with regard to child abuse.

SPECIALISED GRANTS NEEDED TO TACKLE HOMELESSNESS

The head of Auckland City Mission's crisis care team says more innovative grants may be needed to get people off the streets.

Wilf Holt says more than half of those sleeping rough in Auckland's central business district are Maori, and many are there because they can't afford to move into permanent housing.

He says a loosening of the rules around Special Needs Grants, which can be used to buy food, is a good first step, but there are up front costs to getting people under a roof.

“Any attempt to put more benefit is good but ultimately people want to stand on their won two feet, and perhaps at the same time looking at an establishment grant, a setting up grant of some kind, may in fact be more effective in the long run,” Mr Holt says.

SYMBOLIC RETURN NOT THE TICKET FOR TUHOE

There's a warning a symbolic return of the Urewera forest will not be enough for Tuhoe.

Rawiri Taonui, the head of Maori and Indigenous Studies at Canterbury University, says the Bay of Plenty iwi is unlikely to accept a distinction between Crown forests, which have been returned... and Conservation land which the Crown says is off limits for settlements.

Other settlements have included a symbolic provision where land is returned to claimants, only to be returned to the nation or placed under the control of central or local government agencies.

Mr Taonui says that won't work with the fiercely independent Tuhoe.

“They not only had their lands taken off them, but when the Crown was in pursuit of Te Kooti they went through that area and burnt all the crops, and people basically starved to death. We don’t know what the numbers were but there was horrific suffering there. And they’re not going to be bought off with a kind of postcard settlement I don't think,” Mr Taonui says.