Sharples’ electorate rejects GST rise

Pita Sharples's Tamaki Makaurau electorate committee has come out against a rise in GST.

Chairperson Eru Thompson says nine of the electorate's 10 branches were represented at the monthly hui.

He says the committee appreciates the party's confidence and supply agreement would require MPs to vote in favour if National goes ahead with its plan to up the tax to 15 percent, but sentiment was strong.

“We wouldn't be entertaining that idea, so a resolution was moved by the Auckland electorate to have dialogue with the rest of the electorates in the country,” Mr Thompson says.

The branches also supported Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira's proposal that the takutai moana issue be resolved by putting all foreshore and seabed under Maori title with full public access.

PRISON CONDITIONS SHOW NEED FOR REVIEW OF SYSTEM

Former governor general Sir Paul Reeves says Maori need to be concerned not just by moves to increase imprisonment rates but by current prison conditions.

Sir Paul visited New Plymouth prison at the weekend with the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu.

They were shocked to find young prisoners in their cells for 22 hours each day, and remand prisoners who had been locked up for more than a year.

He says iwi leaders must get involved in the debate around measures ACT's three strikes bill, which is likely to mean even more Maori in jail for longer.

“It’s a matter of public debate and I think we should get there and be part of that debate and to say well, the way to treat people who have infringed is not necessarily by locking them up and throwing the key away. There are other ways of dealing with these people to try and produce some form of rehabilitation,” Sir Paul says.

GROW YOUR OWN SUBSTITUTE FOR TOTAL TOBACCO BAN

A Far North Maori health group is proposing people be allowed to grow tobacco for their own use, if there are to be restrictions on commercial sales of cigarettes.

Errol Murray from Whakawhiti Ora Pai Community Health Services told the Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry that smoking has reduced the life expectations of generations of Te Aupouri and Ngati Kuri.

He says the ultimate aim is to stop the tobacco companies importing and selling tobacco, but there will still be people who are addicted to the drug.

“We also understand that people are still going to want to smoke so you will probably drive it underground so one of the proposals was they allow them to grow their own, only a certain amount and for personal use only,” Mr Murray says.

Hiss submission included details of industry marketing practices given by a former tobacco salesman, practices which the previous submission from British American Tobacco had denied.

ATTACK ON WAAHI TAPU DESPICABLE ABUSE OF POWER

Te Tai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia says blowing up of a two storey rock to make way for a power project was cultural vandalism.

On Monday Clearwater Hydro dynamited Te Rongomai o Te Karaka at Te Anga on the west coast of the King Country after police removed whanau from Marakopa Marae who were protesting the action.

Mrs Turia says the Lines Company subsidiary was aware of the significance of the natural feature to the hapu, and the behaviour of the company and its contractors was despicable.

“To sit there and cheer and celebrate and drink in that sacred spot, I just thought it was outrageous. It was really a display of power, of those who control asserting it and showing those whanau from there that they accounted for nothing,” Mrs Turia says.

Her personal appeal to Cleawater Hydro to hold off was simply ignored.

SCIENCE SUBJECTS NEEDED FOR START IN HEALTH CAREER

A national programme to bolster the ranks of Maori in the health sector was launched today at Auckland Airport's Te Manukanuka O Hoturoa marae.

Project manger Tuhakia Kepa says Kia Ora Hauroa aims to recruit another thousand Maori workers into the health and disabilty sector over the next 2 years.

The programme is overseen by Counties Manukau District Health Board, with the Waitemata, Lakes, Capital and Coast and Canterbury DHBs managing regional hubs.

Mr Kepa says a Kia Ora Hauroa website will give students information about the types of courses they need to work in health.

“So try and encourage Maori kids at secondary school to maintain some level of science qualification be it biology, physics or chemistry. With those subjects in their kete when they get to the end of secondary school, they will have an opportunity to look at probably 85 different health roles and health study pathways them might be interested in,” Mr Kepa says.

FORMER MILITARY CHURCH BECOMES CATHEDRAL 150 YEARS LATE

Former governor general and Anglican Archbishop Sir Paul Reeves says last weekend's dedication of a cathedral in New Plymouth is making people think about how a society heals a divided past.

St Mary's is the first new Anglican cathedral worldwide for more than 80 years.

It was built as a cathedral 150 years ago, but it was not consecrated because of the outbreak of the first Taranaki War, and instead became a church for the British garrison.

“It has the hatchments, the boards with the emblems of the British regiments and they’re hanging on the wall, and I’m sure there are relatives of mine who would say wasn’t St Mary’s the place where they stored the ammunition that subsequently was used to fire on our relatives. That may or may not have been the case but that’s the perception, so there’s a lot of work to be done and we’ve talked a lot about that,” Sir Reeves says.

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.