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News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, published until 2012, plus other content

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Friday, November 27, 2009

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.

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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Poutama Trust celebrates business development

The Poutama Trust celebrates its 21st anniversary today.

The trust was one of the initiatives that came out of the 1984 Hui Taumata, acting as an initial source of advice and support for Maori seeking funding from the Maori Development Corporation.

Once the MDC folded it refocused itself on providing advice to small and medium size Maori businesses.

Chief executive Richard Jones from Ngati Maniapoto, Ngati Whakaue and Ngati Pikiao says it has has helped dozens of businesses get started.

He says Maori entrepreneurs are better prepared than when he started 15 years ago, and far more likely to have a professional business plan.

Tonight's celebration is at an innovative Auckland Maori business the trust has worked with, the Big Picture Wine Adventure.

PROFESSIONAL APPROACH ENDEARS MAORI PARTY TO SMITH

Environment Minister Nick Smith is praising the Maori Party for helping National get changes to the emissions trading scheme through parliament.

Dr Smith says while every private discussion he had with Labour on the ETS appeared in the media the next day, the Maori Party MPs conducted themselves impeccably throughout their talks.

“The Maori MPs conducted themselves with total integrity. Yes they bargained hard, yes they had issues they felt strongly about but there was an integrity and a mana there that I think too many in the media in the broader community underestimate,” Dr Smith says.

Without Maori Party support, National would have had to do a deal with ACT and action on climate change would probably have been deferred for a year.

MAORI BETRAYED BY ETS – HOROMIA

Meanwhile, Tairawhiti MP Parekura Horomia says the Maori Party has betrayed its supporters by voting for the bill.

The former Minister of Maori Affairs says it failed to tell the public where the money for the scheme will come from.

“When you put up $110 billion over a short time, it’s things like health, education, and you can already see tinges of that now, things being clawed back, and that's the issue,” Mr Horomia says.

In her newsletter to supporters yesterday, Maori Party MP Rahui Katene said the party still preferred a carbon tax, but accepted the reality that there would be an emissions trading scheme which the public would pay for through either higher taxes or higher prices.

POU OF ANGLICAN CHURCH JANE MARSDEN DIES

A stalwart of the Maori Anglican church and pou of Ngati Kuri and Ngai Takoto from the far North has died.

Jane Marsden was the widow of the late Reverend Maori Marsden, and worked alongside him at Maori missions throughout the country.

MP Shane Jones says his aunt was a gutsy women who gave a lot of support to young people, especially those who got involved in land claims.

“Jane and her husband worked tirelessly to see the establishment of the Pihopatanga which is the Maori Anglican church with its own bishop. She was a tireless campaigner alongside Sir King Ihaka, Bishop Vercoe, Bishop Bennett, she goes right back to the days of Bishop Panapa. Embodied in her really was an entire history, starting from the missionaries in the far north, of Maori involvement or dare I say entanglement with the Anglican church,” Mr Jones says.

Jane Marsden is being taken back to Maemaru Marae at Awanui.

Haere atu ra e te whaea, ki taha o nga tupuna, ki reira oki oki ai.

CONTEST ORGANISERS REFUSE TO CENSURE TOBACCO BARONS

Organisers of tonight's best practice workplace awards have refused to withdraw the nomination of tobacco giant British American Tobacco despite protests from Maori and other anti-smoking organisations.

Te Reo Marama says the company contributes to the deaths of 600 Maori a year.

John Robinson from organisers JRA says nominations come from staff within companies, and it would not be appropriate for JRA, a management consultancy, to exclude nominations for ethical reasons.

John Robinson says he's a non-smoker.

OUTRIGGER FIND ELEVATES SIGNIFICANCE OF PAPANUI SITE

The kaitiakitanga of Papanui inlet on the Otago Pensinsula wants the area recognised as a site of national significance after the discovery of an extremely rare outrigger from a pre-European waka.

Hoani Langsbury, the manager of the Otakou runanga, says a series of archeological digs were undertaken says the discovery two years ago of Koiwi and other objects which were more than more than 200 years old.

This led to the unearthing of an eroding oval wooden structure which has now been confirmed as being made from both local totara and adzed timber from elsewhere.

“One of them is associated with a waka outrigger of which there has only ever been two other finds in New Zealand so indications are this site is of national significance,” Mr Langsbury says.

The runanga will meet Historic Places Trust and DOC representatives next month about the finds.

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