Lakes trust teams up with Rotorua council

December 22

A Maori trust responsible for looking after Rotorua lakes has signed an historic protocol with the local Rotorua District Council.

Te Arawa Lakes Trust chairman Dr Toby Curtis says the protocol signed at the weekend will allow the two organisations to work together on a range of issues.

He says the Treaty settlement process is opening up wonderful opportunities for a joint approach.

“There's a great deal we can do together. Whereas at one time because we did not have the funding we now appear to be receiving we can now sit down and work together and develop some wonderful projects,” Mr Curtis says.

In the future they will be looking at geothermal projects, waterfront foreshore development and tourism opportunities.

LITTLE ROOM FOR WINSTON PETERS’ RESURGENCE

Maori political strategist Matt McCarten says Winston Peters has only a small chance of getting back into parliament.

The chief executive of the Unite Union and former Alliance president says the maverick New Zealand First leader has had his traditional turf taken.

Mr McCarten says while he might deny it Phil Goff has played the race card in recent weeks steeling ground traditionally occupied by Mr Peters.

“He'll want to get into a bit of Maori Party bashing to get his name up. He’ll have some success but it’s very difficult to come back when you’re out and he can’t do anything positive so he’s got to put the boot in but the problem for him is Key is very popular and the Nats are riding high and so the government of the day is not on the ropes,” he says.

Mr McCarten says Mr Peters will be in his late 60's at the next election and won't have the energy to orchestrate a political comeback for New Zealand First.

HOROMIA SANGUINE ABOUT FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR ADVANCEMENT

Meanwhile the most experienced Maori MP is indicating parliament is a place for younger politicians.

Parekura Horomia, the Labour member for Ikaroa Rawhiti, says he is unfazed by the burgeoning profiles of some of his junior Maori collegues.

He has singled out Kelvin Davis, Nanaia Mahuta as young Maori MP's who have bolstered their reputations with solid performances in the political arena this year while he says Shane Jones could one day lead the Party.

“You know I’m past being threatened. I’ve done everything from being a senior public servant. I’ve run most of our big operations in Maoridom. I’ve been lucky enough to have done all that and I’m knocking on the door of 60 next year, if you’re naïve enough to be threatened at this stage in your life you shouldn’t be doing it,” Mr Horomia says.

He says it’s up to old hands like himself to support the younger ones and he's right in their corner.

28 BATTALION VETERANS LAID TO REST

A senior Maori parliamentarian is calling on Maori MP's to take a lead from Maori who set aside differences and fought together in war time.

Former Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia says the recent deaths of two veterans from the 28 Maori battalion serves as a reminder of the need for Maori MPs across all parties to work more effectively together.

He says Hoturangi Tautau was laid to rest on Thursday at Tologa Bay, and with Paora Kruger lying in state at Totara marae in Ruatoki, that leaves less than 50 surviving members of the 28 Maori battalion.

PINGAO PROVES WORTH IN CONSERVATION EFFORTS

A native plant traditionally used by Maori for weaving and medicine has been voted favourite plant in the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network's annual poll.

Network committee member John Sawyer says thousands of entries were received in the online poll in which pingao... the golden sand sedge topped more than 100 species.

He says it wasn't only its traditional Maori uses which pushed pingao to top in the popularity stakes.

“Pingao is one of the most perfectly adapted species for using in coastal dune protection which is what we’re going to need a lot of if sea levels rise as a result of global warming,” Mr Sawyer says

When used in Maori weaving its yellow fronds are clearly identifiable making it quite unique.

Pingao known as pikao in the deep south won over three species on the verge of extinction - Bartlett's rata (native to the far north), kakabeak (from the East Coast) and the fish guts plant (from Canterbury and Otago).

GALLERY OFFERING COLLECTORS’ BOOK FOR DISCOUNT

Buyers are being given an opportunity to buy a unique book of Maori photographs likely to become a collectors’ item at a discounted price.

John Gow a co-author of "Out of Time: Maori and the Photographer 1860- 1940, The Ngawini Cooper Trust Collection" says less than two hundred copies of the book published two years ago have yet to sell.

He says publisher John Leech Gallery, of which he is a director, is offering the book with more than eighty vintage Maori photographs for $90 ...a 10 percent discount on the recommended retail price.

“As soon as we get down to the last 100 copies we will put the price up considerably to $1560, $200 because we don’t want to sell the last of the books really, we want to keep a stock of them," Mr Gow says.

The publication which cost $80,000 to produce will not be reprinted.

He says the aim was not to make money but to produce a record of New Zealand's early history and they will just break even when all of the 1400 copies printed are sold.

Emissions scheme could push poor into fuel poverty

Public health specialists are warning planned changes to New Zealand's emissions trading scheme will sabotage the economy and siphon money from health services Maori need.

Jamie Hosking, the lead author of an editorial in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal, says the legislation could increase emissions and saddle the taxpayer with huge bills.

Dr Hosking says subsidies will go to big polluters rather than to mitigate the effects of climate change policies on the most vulnerable in society.

“This emissions trading scheme needs to provide funding to avoid more people being pushed into fuel poverty and food insecurity. These are risks for low income families and we think that makes Maori particularly at risk here and that could be bad for Maori health,” he says.

DNA SAMPLE LAW BOUND TO PROVOKE BACKLASH

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples is predicting widespread opposition to a new law allowing police to take DNA samples from people they haven’t arrested.

The Maori Party and the Greens were the only parties to vote against the change, with the disproportionate rate young Maori are stopped and arrested by police being one of the reasons cited.

The Maori Affairs Minister says it conflict with Maori customs and beliefs about taking body parts and organs.

He says a high bar should be set for such intrusions.

“If someone is really charged and there is good evidence against them there may be a case for that but just picking people up and DNAing them which is what will happen, DNA straight away, is over the top and I think there will be widespread opposition to that, and it could well spread beyond Maori,” Dr Sharples says.

BONES NEED TO MOVE OR ROAD NEEDS TO MOVE

A Golden Bay representative of the Tasman District Council says Ngati Tama should have the final word on what happens to an urupa underneath a heavily used coastal road.

About 70 bodies are believed to be in the ancient cemetery, which the Office of Treaty Settlements says should either be removed or a bypass put in.

Councilor Noel Riley says while a solution could cost in more than $400,000, it’s not a question of money, and anyone would be upset if a road was built over their ancestors.

He says it’s important to maintain good relations between Ngati Tama and Golden Bay Pakeha.

SHAPLES HARNESSING KUIA POWER FOR SOCIAL WORK

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples is giving a whole new meaning to the term nanny state.

The previous Labour-led government was accused of nanny statism for policies such as stopping junk food being sold in school tuckshops or stopping children being assaulted by their parents.

Now Dr Sharples intends to pilot a project where Maori services providers will literally hire nannas to serve as front line social workers.

“I’m going to put a number of elders into a car, kuia, and let them go round, and where there are people having babies, visit them and look at the difficulties they are having and champion the good things that are happening and really put a safety net around them. In doing so they will obviously come into contact with other needs and this will spread to the community organisations who are supporting them, to come and intervene,” Dr Sharples.

It’s all part of a wider shift to whanau ora policies which address the health of the whole family.

DEFEATIST ATTITUDE TO CANCER TACKLED

Palmerston North's district health board wants to dispel a widespread belief among Maori that cancer inevitably leads to death.

Clinical cancer director Simon Allen says MidCentral Health’s four new Maori cancer coordinators will try to stop that belief becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

He says Maori get cancer at about the same rate as other ethnic groups, but they are almost twice as likely to die from the disease because they don't seek treatment early enough or continue with treatment.

“If we get the relationships right, the flow of people through a system the understanding, the communication and the acceptance of what we do, we will be doing that well, so if we can achieve that for Maori, it will be a huge difference to Maori outcomes when they develop cancer,” Dr Allen says.

Improvements in treatments mean 65 percent of people diagnosed with the five most common cancers will still be alive in five years.

MINISTER WANTS DIRTY FARMS CLEANED UP AROUND LAKE

Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell wants councils to get tough on farmers pouring effluent into the Rotorua lakes.

An Environment Bay of Plenty audit found effluent run-off into Rotorua lakes is at its highest level in six years.

Half the farms in the catchment had serious compliance issues.

Mr Flavell, who is also a member of Te Arawa Lakes Trust, says it’s just not good enough.

“If all the efforts that are being put in on one hand are being deteriorated by lack of effort on the part of the farming community at least then we’ve got some serious problems. It means we’ve got to get around the table, start talking, and get pretty serious or else the various councils, the local bodies involved with the need to take a harder line against the farming community if we are actually going move toward getting our lakes back to their pristine condition,” Mr Flavell says.

He says the farmers are a threat to tourism and the Rotorua economy as well as the environment.