Fatherhood focus brings peace to gangs

A weekend parenting hui has led to a peace accord between all Hawkes Bay chapters of Black Power and the Mongrel Mob.

Hui organiser Dennis O'Reilly says the Fatherhood, Gangs, Drugs and Choices programme brought fathers and sons from the two largest Maori gangs together with New York based facilitator John Wareham.

He says intense discussion led to the leaders signing the Otatara Accord, named after the historic pa where the wananga took place.

“I'll quote from it. The leaders of the Mongrel Mob and Black Power who are resident in the Hawkes Bay collectively declare the following intentions: to improve our parenting skills; to support whanau ora; to strive for understanding of each other’s issues as a step towards peace on the streets and in the jails,” Mr O'Reilly says.

POWER CO SELL OFF ATTRACTS INTEREST FROM MAORI AUTHORITIES

The chief executive of the Federation of Maori Authorities says FOMA members will be lining up alongside iwi for shares in the state owned power companies.

Waikato-Tainui chairperson Tukoroirangi Morgan says his iwi will seek a stake in Mighty River Power and Genesis Energy if National wins the election and goes through with its pledge for a partial sale.

Ron Mark says land trusts and incorporations along the river will also be interested for both investment and strategic reasons, including his own Wairarapa Moana Incorporation which owns the Poaukani block at Mangakino.

“The land that the water sits on in the hydro scheme that is Mighty River Power was land that was taken from us and is the subject of a treaty claim and what sticks in the throat of Kahungunu Wairarapa people and Wairarapa Moana, the one thing they need to develop their land more on the banks of that river is water for irrigation purposes and who blocks that supply. Mighty River do,” he says.

Mr Mark says there is potential for iwi and FOMA members to clash over their responses to the proposed asset sales.

TAITOKERAU BRANCH UPSET AT MP’S TREATMENT

The chair of the Maori Party's Taitokerau electorate says the party is going down the wrong track in dealing with the complaint against its MP.

A five-member disciplinary and disputes committee will consider the complaint by whip Te Ururoa Flavell that a Sunday newspaper article by Hone Harawira was in breach of the constitution and brought the party into disrepute.

Lisa McNabb says last week's electorate meeting at Whakapara Marae found no breach of tikanga or the party's constitution in Mr Harawira's criticism of the support agreement with National.

She says the right thing now would be bring Mr Harawira and Mr Flavell together to settle their differences face to face, rather than escalate the row.

“We do not believe this disciplinary process should be happening. I personally thinki it is totally unfair that this is now the second reproimand that opur MP, it’s a slight on people from Taitokerau who are very much supporters of the Maori Party,” Ms McNabb says.

The disciplinary committee, which is chaired by the party's deputy president, te Orohi Paul, does not include any representative of the tai Tokerau electorate.

HARAWIRA OFFERS ALTERNATE VENUE FOR MEETING

Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira has asked for Maori Party whip Te Ururoa Flavell's complaint against him to be dealt with by a hui at Te Mahurehure Marae in Point Chevalier on Thursday.

The Maori Party leadership had summoned the MPs to a hui on a Rotorua marae tomorrow, in a bid to avert the disciplinary hearing against Mr Harawira on February 9.

This followed a meeting last Thursday of the Tai Tokerau electorate committee at Whakapara marae near Whangarei, which said its MP's newspaper column criticising the Maori Party support agreement with National did not warrant censure.

Mr Harawira says kaumatua and kuia from the north want to meet kaumatua from Waiariki, with the MPs present, in a neutral venue.

“It's a good idea. I can live with that. I think it would have been difficult for Te Ururoa and Ken (Mair) to have come up to Whakapara. I think back to 20009 when some of the leadership came up to Kaitaia, it was actually a very stressful hui for them I would have thought because you had them, a small group, and everyone else against them, and it would have been very much the same the other day in Whakapara,” he says.

TURIA BACKING ASSET SALE PROGRAMME

Meanwhile, Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is supporting the sale of state assets.

Mrs Turia says she can't see a downside for Maori in John Key's plan to sell shares in the state-owned power companies and Air New Zealand after the election.

“If you look at all of the opower companies, power rises, there’s no benefit in actual fact to ordinary New Zealanders for the government to own these assets because we pay through the nose to keep them,” Mrs Turia says.

She would be concerned if the shares ended up in foreign hands, so it would be better for the country if the government sold the shares to iwi.

POLYNESIAN MOVES BASIS FOR FITNESS PLAN

You've heard of Zumba, which turns South American dance styles into a fitness regime.

Now a pair of recent graduates from the Whitireia Performing Arts School in Porirua want to use Polynesian dance to teach the benefits of staying healthy.

Hamilton-based Nikki King and Kimberley Jones are starting their KIWA lessons at Te Runanga o Kirikiriroa's Fitness Gym in Dinsdale on Wednesday.
Ms King says finding a kaupapa Maori gym was a bonus.

They came up with the KIWA name for their dance-based programme because it encompasses the whole of the Pacific, Te Moana Nui A Kiwa.