Emissions scheme trade-offs deliver little

Labour leader Phil Goff says the supposed concessions the Maori Party gained for its support of National’s emissions trading scheme are far outweighed by the long-term cost of the scheme to Maori families.

The Maori Party is trumpeting a cut in the amount fuel was supposed to rise and the potential involvement of iwi in afforestation schemes as proof of its effectiveness.

But Mr Goff says Treasury figures show changes voted through under urgency last week will cost $110 billion more than the Labour scheme it replaced.

“What the National Party is saying, we’ll put a slight discount on power prices and petrol prices for the next two an a half years. What they’re not saying is what everybody else recognises, that this puts a burden on us outs a burden on our kids, and we’re not talking about saving $4 a week in power prices. We’re talking about tens of billions of dollars that will be paid by the taxpayer when they should be paid by the polluter,” he says.

Mr Goff say the ETS will cost every New Zealand family $92,000 during the life of the scheme.

ASB TRUST FUNDS SCHOOL OUTREACH PROGRAMME

While the Government is relying on new national standards to lift achievement in schools, an Auckland primary school is investing in stronger relationships with its mainly Maori and Pacific Island parents.

Sylvia Park School is using a grant from the ASB trust to hire a full time manager to liaise with parents and develop strategies for both home and school to lift performance.

Principal Barbara Alaalatoa says the Mutukaroa programme, named after the maunga next to the school, aims to cut through the jargon of assessment criteria.

“All assessment is is telling us what they know and what they need to learn next. It’s about sharing that stuff out of traditional files and stuff in our rooms and our offices and with our parents. Because it’s not rocket science and we have already trialing some of this data with our parents and they get it,” Mrs Alaalatoa says.

WHANAU THINNING COMPETITION UP FOR SECONDS

The winners of a whanau weight loss challenge will be announced at a gala event in Manukau tonight.

Public health advocate Anton Blank says the challenge, created by Ngati Te Ata health promoter Tahuna Minhinnick, has been a huge success as families combined to cut the kilos.

He says while the $21 thousand in cash prizes was an incentive, whanau support was the driving force.

“Getting one person in a whanau ain’t going to work because they’re going back to their whanau whose diet isn’t good, who are not exercising so you need to change the behaviour of the whole family and what we’re hoping is that this will become a national programme early days yet. Tahuna though he would get 60 people, he got 500 and they’re going to run the competition again in south Auckland again from next April,” Mr Blank.

GOFF DEFENDS ATTACKS ON MAORI PART DEALMAKING

Phil Goff is denying he’s playing the race card in his criticism of Maori Party support for the government’s changes to the emissions trading scheme.

The Labour leader told a Grey Power meeting in Palmerston North last week the Maori Party had put the treaty settlement process at risk by making special treatment of Ngai Tahu’s corporate arm a condition of its support.

It then attacked him for criticising what he calls a shabby political deal.

“They've got to show the maturity. They’ve got to debate the issue on the issues and not the smokescreen of ‘this must be a play for the race car’. I reject that. I haven’t played it. I won’t play it. But I will not shut up and not criticise things I know to be wrong or believe to be wrong,” Mr Goff says.

He says National’s changes to the emissions trading scheme shifts the burden of tackling climate change from polluters to taxpayers at a costs of $92 thousand for every New Zealand household over the life of the scheme.

CRASH CASTS DOUBT ON RALLY ROUTE

A Maori-organised charity rally around Northland will change its route next year after an accident in the Waipoua Kauri forest over the weekend.

The White Ribbon motorbike and classic car rally raised awareness and money to fight family violence.

Organiser Phil Paikea says about 300 cars and bikes took place, and it was going well until it headed into the forest.

“The road’s pretty narrow there and tourist van happened to cut the corner and there was nothing the rider could do but drop his bike and hope for the best, but the riders are okay and they’re keen to get their bikes fixed ready for the next run next year,” Mr Paikea says,

By shortening of the circuit, more time can spent in communities getting the message that violence against women and children is not on.

IDOL WINNER TO SING AT MAORI SPORTS AWARD

Organisers of next weekend's Maori Sports Awards feel they’ve already won big by getting Maoridom’s latest international winner to sing for them.

Dick Garratt, the executive director of Te Tohu Taakaro o Aotearoa Charitable Trust, says the performance of Australian idol winner Stan Walker to perform will complement the world-class field of finalists and champions.

Stan Walker will join Maisey Rika, Homai Te Pakipaki winner Roland Williams and world champion hip hop dance crew ReQuest on the stage.

Competitions to watch include whether Stephen Kearney or Yvette McCausland-Durie will be judged top coach of the year netball, and whether lawn bowler Shannon McIlroy can edge out rugby player Issac Ross and league star Benji Marshall as top sportsman.

ETS deal squalid politics - Moore

Former prime minister Mike Moore says the deal done to win the Maori Party's support for National's emissions trading scheme is squalid politics.

Five iwi whose treaty settlements included land with pre-1990 forests will be allowed to plant trees on Crown land to offset their carbon liabilities.

Mr Moore says treaty settlements can't be reopened every time future governments make changes which affect everybody.

He says good government means treating people even-handedly.

“Picking and choosing businesses because of politicians’ representations will end in tears. It creates what economists call a moral hazard. And the idea the government can decide this business will get this money despite its Maori competitors, despite its non-Maori competitors, I think takes us down a very dangerous road. I don’t think it’s right and I suspect New Zealanders don't think its right either,” Mr Moore says

He says the emissions trading scheme fails to give businesses the predictability they need to invest and grow.

FLAVELL DEFENDS MAORI PARTY AS ONLY ONE WILLING TO DEAL

But Maori Party whip Te Ururoa Flavell says the party's ETS deal was in line with the normal parliamentary process of negotiation and compromise.

He says the Maori Party is taking flak, but it won valuable concessions, including a Treaty of Waitangi clause which allows future review.
He says if the party hadn't stepped up, National would have looked elsewhere.

“And that might have been to ACT, and they’re pretty firm in their agenda that they don’t believe climate change is all around us or it would have gone to the Labour Party and what would they have got to gain, they already had their scheme in place so the would be staying where they were. Would they have gone to the Greens, no so if they had not been able to get agreement anywhere else they would have had to stop everything,” Mr Flavell says.

He says not doing anything would have created problems for the future.

PUBLICITY ABOUT FIND COULD PUT ARTIFACTS AT RISK

Otakou Runanga is concerned the find of an extremely rare pre-European waka outrigger beside the Papanui inlet could put the site at risk from illegal fossickers.

Manager Hoani Langsbury says the outrigger, only the third found in this country, was uncovered in an official archaeological excavation.

But he says any remaining taonga Maori may now be at risk from unofficial fossicking.

“Within the last year we’ve had a site identified that had both cultural and European archaeological material in it and as soon as the media made the local community aware of the find the material disappeared in 24 hours. People just came through and stripped the site bare,” Mr Langsbury says.

Runanga representatives will patrol the area and won't hesitate to take action against scavengers who try to steal artifacts.

TOMOANA GETS TOP JOB AT TE OHU KAIMOANA

Ngati Kahungunu leader Ngahiwi Tomoana is the new chair of Te Ohu Kaimoana, after Sir Archie Taiaroa from Whanganui stepped down from the post.
Sonny Tau from Ngapuhi becomes the deputy chair of the trust.

Mr Tomoana says in his three years in the job Sir Archie had advanced the work of previous chairs Sir Tipene O'Regan and Shane Jones, with 95 percent of the Maori fisheries settlement assets now allocated to iwi.

He says the job ahead is to position Maori at the front of the industry and get iwi to work together.

“Iwi collectively own 35 to 40 percent of the assets but they don’t act like it. We all act like we’re one or two percenters and fringe players and it’s about uniting the efforts and energies, recognising the mana motuhake of every iwi as well,” Mr Tomoana says.

The allocation process should be complete by the middle of next year, with Cook Strait iwi Ngati Toa this week becoming the 50th iwi out of 57 to receive settlement assets.

ACC REFORMERS DEAF TO MAORI NEED

The country's audiologists says cutbacks in ACC funding of hearing aids will have a particularly harsh effect on Maori.

A bill before parliament would remove ACC cover for people whose noise-induced hearing loss is judged to be less than six percent.

Lesley Hindmarsh, the president of the New Zealand Audiological Society, says Maori make up a high percentage of the workers in noisy industries such as forestry, construction and manufacturing.

She says they are already poorly served by the accident compensation system.

“They just find the process of applying to ACC too difficult. They just don’t have that help to help them find their way through the paperwork to get their claims initiated in the first instance,” Mrs Hindmarsh says.

Without hearing aids, sufferers won't be able to distinguish consonants like s,t, f and th which are critical for understanding, especially in noisy environments.

BEATLES TUNE WILL RAISE MONEY FOR THERAPY CENTRE

The force behind Auckland's Hineraukatauri Music Therapy centre is humbled by the generosity of two leading Maori entertainers who have rerecorded a Beatles track to raise funds for the centre.

Hinewehi Mohi says Che Fu and Boh Runga's cover of Come Together should be out early next week.

Ms Mohi says the centre, which is named after her teenage daughter who has cerebral palsy, touches the lives of dozens of disabled people who find relief and inspiration from working with musicians and sound.

She says Runga, a patron, has brought a lot of other musicians on board.