Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

My Photo
Name:
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Wellington settlement trust weighs up options

The new Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust will soon be considering whether it should take up its option to buy the Wellington Railway Station.

Elections for five open spots on the 11-member trust have finished, with chair Sir Ngatata Love polling top of the 18-strong field.

He says as well as considering development plans for some of the surplus school properties that came back last month as part of the multi-iwi settlement, the trust has a two year window when it can buy more than a dozen significant Crown properties around the capital.

One of the most appealing is the railway station.

“Morning and night it‘s packed with people. It’s an exciting precinct and a lot could be done with it. It has appeal. There are great tenants. Half of it is occupied by Victoria University on a long term basis and you’ve got Kiwirail there,” Sir Ngatata says.

ADDICTION SPECIALISTS KEEN TO SEE INQUIRY WIDENED

The Maori Party's inquiry into tobacco is winning support from those working with addiction.

Professor Doug Sellman from Otago University's National Addiction Centre says he'd like to see a similar investigation into the activities of booze barons.

He says the liquor industry targets young and vulnerable people, and the scale of the problem requires a government response to take on the global companies.

Public attitudes change over time, as can be seen with the smoking debate.

TE AITANGA A HAUITI TRAVEL WORLD TO SEE ANCIENT POU

A carving from an 18th century meeting house is drawing travellers from the East Coast to Germany.

A group of 30 from Uawa has headed for Europe to visit the battlefields of world war one and two.

Nori Parata from Tologa Bay Area School says the Te Aitanga a Hauiti ope will also visit the Tubingen University museum in western Germany to see a pou taken from the area by Captain Jemes Cook in 1769.

It’s the only known piece from Hinemateoro’s whare.

It's the second year a Te Aitanga a Hauti group has visited Tubingen, and many individual members are also structuring their travel plans around the pou.

EDUCATION MINISTER FIGHTING SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY

Labour MP Kelvin Davis says Education Minister Anne Tolley is trying to block a select committee inquiry into Maori educational under-achievement.

Mr Davis says that makes her calls to education sector union conferences this week to improve outcomes for Maori and Pasifika students ring hollow.

He says National is putting pressure on Maori Party members to vote against an inquiry.

“With Anne Tolley saying the sector needs to cooperate and work smarter and more together, I think it’s a bit rich that she can say that one week when the previous week she has prevented National, Labour and the Maori Party working together on Maori under-achievement,” Mr Davis says.

A vote on an inquiry will be made at the next meeting of the Maori affairs committee.

BRADFORD GEARING UP FOR TOUGH AUCKLAND CITY FIGHT

Retiring Green MP Sue Bradford will continue to fight for Maori representation in the new super city when she leaves parliament.

As a member of select committee considering the Auckland governance legislation, Ms Bradford was disappointed the Government refused to allow Maori seats.

She says that doesn't mean the right wing agenda of asset privatization will be successful, and it's important to organise.

“We're going to need to mount a really strong local government campaign next year and I hope we can find friends and allies and work across old lines and between Maori and tauiwi to try and stop that worst case scenario happening because we are at real risk in our region,” she says.

Sue Bradford leaves parliament at the end of the month.

PEACE MARCH ORGANISERS ON REKOHU FOR MORIORI BLESSING

A world march for peace and non-violence has been blessed at one of the remotest places in the world, Kopinga Marae on Rekohu ... Chatham Islands.

Maui Solomon from the Hokotehi Moriori Trust says the ceremony acknowledges the tradition of non-violence established on the island during their 500 years of isolation from the rest of Maori society.

He says Moriori were honoured the World Peace March international team accepted their invitation to come to their marae.

“To hear the voices from the different peace traditions around the world sharing their stories and their words and their peace gifts that they left with our traditions of peace was really fantastic and they were extremely moved by the whole occasion and we were too, so it is a dream come true.
Mr Solomon says.

Rafael de la Rubia, the Spaniard who instigated the march, was given a carved whalebone tokotoko to take with him around the world.

The New Zealand leg of the march starts at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in
Wellington on Friday morning, and the march will finish in the Andes on
January the second.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home