Party scrapping undermining welfare policy

Labour leader Phil Goff says conflict between National and the Maori Party is creating confusion in welfare policy.

Mr Goff says a claim by associate social development minister Tariana Turia that she was only informed at the last moment of benefit changes indicates a huge rift with the senior minister, Paula Bennett.

He says that doesn't bode well for the Maori Party's flagship health and welfare initiative, the whanau ora system for service delivery.

“The government and he Maori Party have left a huge amount of confusion, one Tariana saying it’s by Maori for Maori, John Key saying it’s for everybody. Well, it can’t be both. The real question is how the money is going to be spent, who it’s going to spent on, where that money comes from and whether there are proper accountability mechanisms. Now all of those are big questions. None of them have been answered,” Mr Goff says.

The Maori Party has announced that it will be casting four votes against the government's welfare crack down, but Mrs Turia will vote in favour in line with her ministerial responsibility.

WHANGAREI KEEN TO SELL LAND BEFORE CLAIMS PROCESS

Whangarei Maori are crying foul over Whangarei District Council's plan to sell former Northland Harbour Board land.

Businesses which occupy the land, most of which is under perpetual lease, have been asked if they want to freehold.

Mike Kake, the chair of neighbouring landowner Rewarewa D Incorporation, says the land was taken from Maori under the Whangarei Harbour Vesting Act, and it should be returned to the original owners if it's surplus.

He says the council is running scared of what might come up in the forthcoming Waitangi Tribunal investigation of Northland land claims.

“There's been no consultation with tangata whenua at all. They look like they’re cashing up and I believe a lot of this activity is to get in before the treaty settlements. Once the hearing is done the pressure could come on,” Mr Kake says.

He says councils in other parts of the country have been prepared to make former harbour board land available for treaty settlements, but not Whangarei.

NEW NETBALL CENTRE MAGNET FOR RANGATAHI

Rangatahi in west Auckland have a new sports centre.

Te Pai in Henderson has reopened after a four year, $7 million refit.
It includes indoor netball courts and facilities for other codes.

Eru Thompson from Te Kawerau a Maki, who blessed the new building, says it's an investment in the city's future leaders.

He says Waitakere is taking the lead in programmes and facilities for Auckland's young people, especially rangatahi Maori.

TAMIHERE LISTS OBSTACLES IN MAYORAL RACE

Waipareira Trust head John Tamihere says he's not the man to become the third candidate for the the Auckland super city mayoralty.

The former Tamaki Makaurau MP has denied reports he's seeking the number two spot on Auckland mayor John Banks' ticket.

He says Waipareira, rolling out whanau ora and his talkback radio gig are keeping him busy ... and there are also major hurdles in the way of anyone contemplating taking on Mr Banks and rival Len Brown.

“You've got two candidates who have national political organisations, one National and one Labour. That’s a formidable organisatIonal base to overcome. As a consequence they’ve got a lot of money behind them. That’s something you have to overcome,” Mr Tamihere says.

He'd like to see a well funded, high profile alternative candiate emerge, because the current contest is a big yawn for Auckland voters.

FORESHORE DISCUSSION DOC WILL TEST RELATIONSHIP

Former Alliance president Matt McCarten says today's release of the Foreshore and Seabed Act rewrite will be a real test for the National-Maori Party relationship.

Mr McCarten says tensions between the two partners over things like welfare policy, Maori representation on the Auckland super city seats and the introduction of standards testing in primary schools are natural.

But if the Government does not deliver real gains on the Maori Party' defining issue, its supporters will be asking questions.

“If they don't get anything, I think they’re in real trouble, the Nats and the Maori Party both. I think you may see the relationship, the warm personal relationships they have will come under because the Maori Party will legitimately have to say what’s our role here,” Mr McCarten says.

He says the Maori Party needs to show what is offered is better than it got under Labour.

HARAKEKE WORKER CHOSEN ARTIST IN WAITAKERE RESIDENCE

A Ngapuhi flax artist is to serve as Auckland Regional Council artist in residence in the Waitakere ranges.

Maureen Lander was taught korowai and other weaving skills by the late late Diggeress Te Kanawa, and went on to teach Maori material culture at Auckland University's Maori studies department.

She says Waitakere has long been a source of inspiration, as well as the place she gets raw materials for her weaving and installation work.

She’s excited by the number of younger weavers emerging who are going back to traditional sources for inspiration.

Imprisonment rate internationally indefensible

As the Government looks at measures to lock up more people for longer sentences, the Race Relations Commissioner is warning the current imprisonment rate for Maori is putting New Zealand in a bad light internationally.

In his annual report released today, Joris de Bres highlights 50 percent of prison inmates are Maori.

He says it's a long term pattern which was raised at last year's United Nations periodical review and by the Committee on the Elimination of racial Discrimination, and it's likely to feature again this month in another UN review of New Zealand's civil and political rights.

“What this report is recommending that we do have long term targets and set specific targets to reduce that rate of imprisonment. It’s absolutely unsustainable. It’s internationally indefensible and we really do have to come to grips with it. We cannot sustain this,” Mr de Bres says.

The economic recession has increased the disparities between Maori and pacific workers and others, with 30 percent of young Maori now unemployed.

UNIVERSITY DOORS SHUT TO MAORI UNDER CHANGES

Greens co-leader Meteria Turei says Government changes to tertiary education will shut the university doors to Maori.

Ms Turei, who gained a law degree as an adult student, says the school system has failed many Maori and university is a way they can recover.

She says the changes will reduce the places for second chance students.

“So those of us like myself who failed at school will not be able to go to university unless we pass other courses first and try to get some sort of university entrance when we are adult students, and I think that is going to shut out hundreds if not thousands of Maori from university,” Ms Turei says.

She says the Government seems to want to keep the poor and Maori in their place at the bottom.

WAAHI TAAPU FIGHT IN KING COUNTRY ESCALATING

Marakopa Maori who were forced to stand by and watch power company contractors blow up a two-storey sacred stone are vowing to fight for other waahi tapu.

Clearwater Hydro, a subsidiary of Te Kuiti-based The Lines Company, removed Te Rongomai o Te Karaka at Te Anga to clear the way for a small hydro scheme.

Marae spokesperson Natasha Willison-Reardon says it's not the first sacred site destroyed by the developers.

“Blowing up one of our puna, our springs out there which is called Kimiora which was used to bless people. It comes from a waterfall called Tangiwai. They’re diverting those. There’s a whole lot of things we need to be working on now,” Mrs Willison-Reardon says.

The marae committee was contacted by the office of Maori Affairs minister Pita Sharples yesterday, and it hopes the government will step in to stop further desecration.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT CAUSE FOR RACE TENSION CONCERN

The Race Relations Commissioner says this year's local government elections will be a big test of how far the nation has come in finding a place for Maori.

In his annual report released today, Joris de Bres identifies political representation at local level, and in particular in the Auckland super city, as priority areas for action.

He says that applies especially to the Auckland super city, where there are still questions over how much of a voice Maori as well as Pacific and ethnic communities will have, and whether the new council will continue the relationships its predecessors have built up with iwi.

“These two issues of voice and of community programmes are vital ingredients in terms of the new super city and they have yet to be addressed adequately,” Mr de Bres says.

Other priorities include doing something to tackle the disproportionate number of Maori in jail, and the high rates of unemployment among Maori youth.

The report is being launched this morning in Henderson by Mr de Bres and Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey.

TAITOKERAU MARAE GRADUALLY GOING AUAHI KORE

A Northland anti-smoking campaigner says marae need to be the health centre for Maori people - and that's why they need to be smoke free.

Witi Ashby from the Patu Puauahi group says 19 marae in Tai Tokerau are now Auahi Kore, and the number is slowly rising as marae trustees are encouraged to enforce policies of smoke free environments.

But he says it means overcoming long standing practices and habits, especially from smokers who may be the engine room that drives a marae.

Mr Ashby will make a submission in Auckland today to the Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry, about how the early deaths of smokers has affected the cultural life of Tai Tokerau tribes.

YOUTH COURT REALISATION OF DREAM FOR FORMER JUDGE

Yesterday's launch of youth court sittings on West Auckland's Hoani Waititi Marae was the realisation of a dream for a champion of marae-based courts.

Former youth court chief judge Mick Brown says when he promoted the idea 20 years ago, it was labeled separatist.

He says it's a sign of times have changed.

“Socially I think we are on the move. I’m pleased at some of the big claims being settled. There’s a new attitude out there and that please me greatly,” Judge Brown says.

Marae-based youth courts are a logical extension to the family group conferences he pioneered as a way to make offenders aware of how the effect their crime had on victims.

Auckland sub-council not enough for mana whenua

Mana whenua groups are considering boycotting Auckland super city's proposed Maori statutory board.

The board is will contain up to nine members, seven of them mandated representatives of recognised mana whenua groups within the Auckland Council boundaries and two taura here representatives appointed by those seven members.

It will be able to appoint persons to sit on Auckland Council committees that deal with the management and stewardship of natural and physical resources.

Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua o Orakei says it's no substitute for having Maori seats on the full council, as the Royal Commission on Auckland governance recommended.

“The best they could come up with was a toothless powerless advisory board which they’ve tried to beef up with some kind of status by calling it a statutory board but at the end of the day we haven’t moved out of the 1990s,” Mr Blair says.

He understands Tainui is considering boycotting the committee, and Ngati Whatua could follow suit.

HARAWIRA SENTENCE SOFT OPTION AS MATES DROWN OUT CRITICS

Labour's Maori issues spokesperson says the way Taitokerau MP Hone Harawira has been allowed to keep his party status is an indictment of the Maori Party.

Mr Harawira yesterday apologised to any New Zealander who may have been offended by the language and sentiments used in an email to a party supporter, and he's been told to stay in his electorate until the New Year.

Parekura Horomia says the party's leaders have demonstrated they can't manage the maverick MP.

“The membership ignored the direction of the leadership. Hone’s outspoken mates have got their way. It’s a real Clayton’s fixture but it’s their choice and Hone seems to be settled with it but the public was expecting more. That’s a pretty soft option – don’t come back to Parliament until next year and don’t say anything more. That’s one think I know Hone won’t recognise because that's not his line,” Mr Horomia says.

MANUKAU LIBRARIES GET MORE TAMARIKI THROUGH THE DOORS

A programme to keep kids reading during the summer holidays is winnning over Maori in south Auckland.

Manukau Libraries has adopted a Mission Possible theme to set challenges for five to eleven year-olds.

Jolene West, the learning and literacy co-ordinator, says the number of Maori and Pacific kids taking part is 50 percent up on last year, many of whom haven't been as regular library users as those in higher decile ares.

She hopes the programme will continue once Manukau is absorbed into the new Auckland super City.

AUSTRALIANS MISINTERPRET DATA TO BASH OBVIOUS NZERS

A Victoria University demographer says the Australian media has misrepresented his work to paint Maori across the Tasman as bludgers.

James Newell's analysis of census data found Maori were migrating to Australia at a greater rate than Pakeha, and migrants also tended to be less skilled than those who headed further afield.

He says the fact Maori are more likely to be machine operators and labourers than accountants or lawyers doesn't mean they're not contributing.

“They're skilled. They work hard. They probably work harder than their Australian counterparts. They don’t put such a burden on their tax system and they have the benefit of the training they have had in New Zealand, so it would be good to get that message across in the Australian media at the moment,” Mr Newell says.

Maori have been targeted because they are so visible particularly, on Brisbane streets.

FRESH WATER CONCERN FOR GREENS LEADER

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says management of the countrys fresh water could be as contentious issue Maori as the foreshore and seabed.

Iwi leaders have called a national hui in Wellington next week to update people on work they have been doing with government officials about freshwater policy.

Ms Turei says pastoralists, agriculuralists and recreational users are competing for the nation's streams and rivers, but economic interests can swamp Maori cultural expectations.

“Iwi have to be able to express their mana over freshwater sources in their area and if Maori aren’t right central in the middle of it along with environmentalists who are trying to keep these areas clean for future generations too, we can see some real damage being done to our freshwater sources,” Ms Turei says.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT HUI TO DISCUSS MARGINALISATION

A hui in Auckland tomorrow is likely to come down hard on the government for its treatment of Maori in the Auckland super city

Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua o Orakei Trust Board says the local government hui at Unitec's Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae is well timed, with Minister Rodney hide today revealing how Maori will be represented in the city.

A nine-member statutory board, including seven mana whenua representatives, will promote social, economic, environmental, and cultural issues of significance for Maori.

Mr Blair says the structure leaves Maori toothless and powerless.

“I think all the tribes will be looking at Auckland now and wondering where it leaves them in Wellington and Christchurch and on the East Coast and so on. If anything, Maori in local government is a strong issue now,” Mr Blair says.

Ngati Whatua is considering boycotting the super city Maori board.