Key takes softer line on Whanau Ora

The Prime Minister is reassuring Maori who fear his demand Whanau Ora be available for all could dilute the new welfare delivery model.

Details of the policy are under wraps while Cabinet considers the recommendations of the Whanau Ora Taskforce led by Sir Mason Durie, but John Key told Parliament last week it would be available to all families who are struggling.

But he now says it's designed around a Maori kaupapa, and like kohanga reo it is likely to be largely used by Maori.

“In the end it might suit some families in the way that kohanga reo and kuras are welcome to any individual. It’s largely Maori kids that go there but not exclusively,” Mr Key says.

He says whanau ora means the state will trust poor families to take greater responsibility for their own care.

MAORI PARTY LOOKING FOR FLEX IN EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Maori Party wants to see more flexibility in the education system to help Maori children do better.

Education spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell says he's backing the call from an Inter-Party education working group for the top five percent and bottom 20 percent of children to have the right to switch schools, because Maori make up a big percentage of the bottom 20 percent.

He says the needs of students in Mangere are different from those in Remuera or Ruatahuna... so the solutions needs to be flexible too.

“Some schools have had the choice of locking in to the resources of the Correspondence School and have been able to make advances for rangatahi Maori thorough their programme so there are advances that can be adjusted and moved,” Mr Flavell says.

The Inter-Party Working Group wants more work to be done by MPs or officials on the broad brush ideas in its report.

SIR DOUGLAS GRAHAM DEFENDS TRIBUNAL CONTINUITY

Former treaty negotiations minister Sir Douglas Graham says the Waitangi Tribunal needs to continue after historical treaty claims are settled.

The government has a target of 2014 to settle such claims.

Sir Douglas, who acted as facilitator on a comprehensive multi-iwi Auckland settlement, says the tribunal will still have a role considering new issues that arise.

“If Maori people feel that the Crown or the government is not acting properly, they ought to be able to go off to the Waitangi and say so. So I’m not one who thinks after the historical claims are settled, we ought to abolish the tribunal and forget about it. I think it ought to remain there as a safety valve and somewhere for Maori to go,” Sir Douglas says.

The country should be proud of itself on the way treaty settlements are progressing, and he's happy to continue to be involved if asked.

PETERS PREFERS TARGETING OVER SIMPLE REPETITION

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says there's a case for a targeted welfare delivery system for Maori, but it should not be turned into a one size fits all model.

The Whanau Ora policy being developed as part of the Maori Party's support agreement with National was supposed to use Maori providers to help Maori families in need deal more effectively with government agencies.

The Prime Minister, John Key, now says will be available to all families in need.

But Mr Peters, who was Maori affairs minister in the Bolger government in 1991, says a well-designed policy can make a real impact in Maori families ... but be meaningless to non-Maori.

“To do what they’re intending in a way is not to understand the Polynesian character and culture and the Maori character and culture. Maoridom, as the Maori, as the army has proven, thrives on direct intervention and leadership and certainty as to where they are going, and they do not like a vacuum,” Mr Peters says.

He says the controversy over the policy shows the Maori Party's political naivety.

KEY KEEN TO USED TALENTS OF FORMER MINISTER

The government has more work for former treaty negotiations minister Sir Douglas Graham.

Sir Douglas helped bring together Auckland tribes to develop the framework for settlements across the isthmus.

Prime Minister John Key says the government is considering where Sir Graham will be dispatched next.

He says the former National MP has a sharp legal mind and can see a way through complex situations.

“I think he is someone who is respected as someone who comes to iwi talking with the voice of the Crown. He’s not just some junior official we’re putting out there and I think that does help progress issues,” Mr Key says.

ATAMIRA DANCE TROUPE KEEN TO SPREAD REPERTOIRE

Atamira Dance Company has the world in its sights.

Executive director Moss Patterson says an infusion of Creative New Zealand funding has given the 10-year-old Maori troupe confidence about its future.

It will take two new works, Memoirs of Active and Taonga, to present to bookers at next month's Performing Arts Market in Wellington and at other such markets such as the Tokyo performing arts market.

Atamira will showcase its younger dancers and choreographers at special event at Corban Estate in West Auckland the first weekend of March.

Whanau Ora sale bungled - Peters

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Maori Party has mishandled the development of its whanau ora policy, and it's now unlikely to win the support it needs from either Maori or government.

Associate social development minister Tariana Turia last week received a report from the Whanau Ora Taskforce led by Sir Mason Durie on streamlining delivery of services to struggling Maori families.

But she won't make the report public until Cabinet has considered its recommendations, and Prime Minister John Key is now saying whanau ora must be for all families.

Mr Peters says when he wanted to make major changes in the Maori affairs portfolio in the early 1990s, he didn't give his Cabinet colleagues a chance to rewrite his Ka Awatea policy.

“I went to the Maori people and said here are the details, tell me what you think, it’s been written in consultation widely with you, if you are in and signed up let’s go, if not, let’s not waste anyone else’s time. Then I went to Cabinet. But now, with Whanau Ora, no one in Maoridom knows what's going on,” Mr Peters says.

He says there are arguments for creating Maori-specific service delivery systems, but not for Mr Key's one size fits all approach.

WHANAU ORA CONFUSION COULD STRANGLE POLICY AT BIRTH

Meanwhile, Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the confusion around whanau ora doesn't bode well for what could be a very good programme.

She says the Greens will support programmes by Maori for Maori and anything that reduces inequality and poverty.

But all it's hearing is confusion about how the policy will be funded or delivered.

“This could mean existing services not getting access to funding, those with a track record losing access to their funding, that their won’t be any new money put into it,” Ms Turei says.

There are concerns that public money for whanau ora could go to private for profit service providers rather than the community sector that has a history of supporting whanua.

ATAMIRA SHOWCASES YOUNGER DANCERS

Maori Dance company Atamira is kicking off the year with a showcase of works by its younger dancers and choreographers.

The performance is on the first weekend of March at the Corban Estate in Henderson.

Executive director Moss Patterson says Hou will introduce dance audiences to newcomers like Gaby Thomas and Nancy Wijohn, who use contemporary dance to explore their whakapapa and identity in urban Auckland.

“So really exciting ideas about hw modern dance, contemporary dance and theatre can be used to tell stories of the past and really that’s what Atamira Dance Company is about. It’s about drawing the stories of our tupuna, letting them come through our bodies, letting our bodies be the conduit for those stories and putting them out on to the stage,” Mr Patterson says.

New funding from Creative New Zealand means Atamira can run a full programme of performances this year.

WHANAU ORA A HIGHER TRUST MODEL

The Prime Minister says the Whanau Ora programme is about trusting Maori and other families to take greater care of themselves.

Details of the new service delivery model are yet to emerge, but John Key last week told Parliament the Maori Party initiative will apply to all New Zealanders in need.

He says much of the $20 million spent every day on social welfare is ineffective because government departments don't co-ordinate their activities.

Mr Key says Whanau Ora will move money into the community where families will be expected to take greater responsibility for themselves.

“They have to have their own plan. They have to be ambitious themselves. They have to take some responsibility for themselves and it’s a higher trust model from the state,” Mr Key says.

In some cases that could mean reconnecting Maori families with their iwi.

MAORI PARTY ENDORSES ACT REWRITE OF EDUCATION CHOICE

The Maori Party says it wants to see choice in education for Maori parents and children.

Education spokesperson Te Ururoa Flavell was part of an Inter-Party Working Group that recommended the top five percent and bottom 20 percent of pupils should be able to switch schools.

He says the group, which was set up as part of ACT's confidence and supply agreement with the National Party, visited a wide range of schools, kura and teacher training colleges in compiling its report for Education Minister Anne Tolley.

“The whole kaupapa was about choice. Some people might equate that with vouchers. I didn’t necessarily by itself but the whole notion about choice is something that I believe needs to be given some consideration in particular around the under-achievement of a certain percentage of our children in the education system so we need to look at all options,” Mr Flavell says.

It's not acceptable that Maori students are more likely than non-Maori to leave school without qualifications.

TAI MAORI WELCOMES DEMISE OF RIVAL TE WAKA TOI

Arts body Toi Maori is looking forward to a smoother funding relationship with the restructuring of Creative New Zealand.

Arts and Heritage Minister Chris Finlayson intends to scrap the separate Maori funding board, Te Waka Toi, and instead have four people with knowledge of Maori arts on a new 13-member arts council.

Garry Nicholas, the chief executive of Toi Maori, says the artists' organisation often found itself competing with Te Waka Toi.

“The Maori staff are still in place which is one of the concerns we had with the proposed changes and we would hope that strengthens so the officers do work directly with organisations like Tai Maori and we can assist them much mire cleanly than the previous structure offered us,” Mr Nicholas says.

The new arts council needs to align its funding more with where artists see their arts going.