PM’s comments upset mobile phone insurgent

Mobile phone operator Two Degrees is taking the Prime Minister to task for his suggestion New Zealand may not be big enough for three mobile networks.

John Key made his comments in a discussion with Radio Waatea host Dale Husband on why Maori seemed reluctant to invest further in the company, which uses frequences gained through Treaty claims.

Two Degrees chief executive Eric Hertz says many countries of comparable size or smaller have multiple networks, including Sweden, Switzerland, Ireland and Iceland.

He says Mr Key needs to create the conditions for fair competition.

“I would like to see the government drive down those wholesale costs tat each carrier pays each other so that 2Degrees customers aren’t subsidizing Telecom New Zealand by the high cost to call those customers and I think that’s really the key thing that will level the playing field and make it much more easy to be successful over the long term, to drive those wholesale prices, those mobile termination rates down more quickly,” Mr Hertz says.

He says a Commerce Commission recommendation that Telecom and Vodafone be allowed to gradually lower wholesale prices won't benefit New Zealand consumers fast enough, and the Government needs to regulate.

COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS MAORI DAIRY PRESENCE

The chief judge of this year's Ahuwhenua awards for Maori dairy farming excellence says unemployed rangitahi should look towards the industry.

Opotiki dairy farmer Doug Leeder says Maori are already major players in dairying, and more opportunities will be created if plans come off for a Maori-owned processing plant.

He says when one in three young Maori is jobless, the sector needs to be seen as a source of job creation.

“The days of agriculture or the dairy industry being seen as the poor cousin to other types of employment is long gone. It’s now a skilled industry and I think the future is looking good both in terms of employment for Maori and the success of Maori enterprises,” Mr Leeder says.

He employs a number of young Maori on his Opotiki farm.

TA MOKO ARTISTS WORKING LIVE IN EXHIBITION

An East Coast ta moko expert says the wider public is keen to learn more about the ancient Maori art form.

Mark Kopua and his colleague Turumakina Duley have spent the past week tattooing people in the Face Value Exhibition at Waikato Museum.

The photo and video exhibition, curated by Serena Stevenson, explores the relationship between ta moko artists and their subjects.

He says there is a lot iof interest from Maori and non-Maori, who get a surprise when they see some of the artists featured in the exhibition are in there working.

Face Value is at Waikato Museum and Art gallery until the end of March.

REGULATION NEEDED FOR FAIR COMPETITION

The chief executive of 2 Degrees says the Government needs to regulate the mobile phone market to give his company a fair chance to compete.

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday New Zealand may be too small for the third network being created around frequencies which were allocated to Maori as a result of treaty claims.

But Eric Hertz says many comparable countries are running three or four networks.

He says if Mr Key wants real competition, his government needs to reject a Commerce Commission recommendation that Telecom and Vodafone continue to set the wholesale price for switching calls between networks.

“The role of the government and the regulator in this situation is to make sure that the playing field is leveled so you can stimulate more competition because it is competition that brings out innovation and brings prices down. What the commerce Commission has recommended will not bring the benefits to New Zealand consumers fast enough,” Mr Hertz says.

He says apart from wholesale pricing, most of the conditions for true competition are now in place.

GLAMOUR NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OFF GAMBLING

A Maori lawyer says Maori should think about ways to get rid of gambling machines from their communities.

Moana Jackson addressed an international problem gambling conference in Auckland yesterday on the indigenous responses to gambling.

He says gambling has long been a part of Maori life, but were often community activities housie or poker schools where the benefits flowed back to the marae or hapu.

That's change with modern state-sanctioned initiatives like Lotto and poker machines.

“When it became industrialised it got marketed and sold as this glamorous activity and when you do that the costs then get swept under like for years smoking was a glamour acticity, it was cool to smoke It took a long time to break that down but I think the same process is happening with gambling and that needs to be broken down as well,” Mr Jackson says.

He says pokies are disproportionately in poor and Maori areas, but the profits are taken out of those areas.

MAORI DOCUMENTARY FEATURES IN EDGE FESTIVAL

The director of the Documentary Edge Festival says viewers might be challenged by a documentary which is almost completely in Maori.

He Wawata Whaea - The Dream of an Elder profiles educator and Ngati Kuri kuia Meremere Penfold.

Dan Shanan says it was chosen for the New Zealand Competition section not only for its subject but because director Shirley Horrocks wanted the entire documentary to be in Maori.

The Documentary Edge Festival starts in Auckland tomorrow.

Whanau key to gambling help

Problem gambling expert Max Abbott believes a whanau-based approach helps indigenous people fight problem gambling.

The AUT University pro-chancellor Max Abbott is hosting a think tank of experts on the topic from around the world.

He says New Zealand is a leader with its family approach to fighting problem gambling among Maori.

“It’s very much a whanau issue. It’s a ripple effect. For every individual that develops a problem, it ripples out and affects family and children and that’s one of the things that makes it so toxic. But therein likes the solution also because those forces can be used to assist and make changes in people’s lives,” Professor Abbott says.

The two-day problem gambling think tank will be followed by a three-day International Gambling Conference which has attracted 200 delegates to the city.

GOFF DISMISSES WISDOM OF MAORI PARTY GST CAMPAIGN

Phil Goff says the Maori Party's push to have some types of food exempted from GST won't work.

The Labour leader today set off on a nationwide bus campaign to protest the Government's proposed 20 percent jump in the goods and services tax.

He says the Maori party's idea creates major compliance and collection problems.

“Is a chicken bought from a takeaway still paying gst but not a cooked chicken bought from a supermarket. There are all those sorts of things And then you cay maybe we shouldn’t have gst on rates and maybe we shouldn’t have gst on kids’ clothing and by the time you exempt everything that is a basic necessity you are left with hardly anything and therefore no revenue, so it probably won’t work to do it that way,” Mr Goff says.

Few Maori will be among the 8 percent of the population earning over $70,000 who will benefit from National's tax cuts, which are being promised to offset the rise in GST.

PANEL ON JUDITH BINNEY CONTRIBUTION

The work of historian Judith Binney is the focus of a special panel during next month's International Arts Festival in Wellington.

Convenor Paul Diamond says as part of Readers and Writers Week, Claudia
Orange, Wayne Te Kaawa, and Rawinia Higgins will discuss the Auckland University professor books on missionary Thomas Kendall, prophets Rua Kenana and Te Kooti Rikirangi, and her massive study of Te Urewera, Encircled Lands.

Professor Binney herself is recovering after a life threatening accident late last year.

The Lost Histories panel is at the Embassy theatre on March 12.

NGARUAWAHIA WARRIOR STATUE FOR THE SCAP HEAP

The Waikato District Council has scrapped a plan to erect at giant bronze statue of a Maori warrior at the gateway to Ngaruawahia.

The council spent $10,000 on designs for the fearsome warrior, but the completed work would have cost $2 million.

Tini Tukere, who rallied opposition to the plan, says the statue got the universal thumbs down from residents.

“The majority of people, Maori and Pakeha, didn’t like the ugliness of the work and its warrior stance, it wasn’t a dignified, peaceful Maori, it was that looked like he wanted to have a fight,” Mrs Tukere says.

It was not the impression the people of Ngaruawahia and the Waikato wanted to present to visitors.

MAORI SUCCESS BETTER INDICATOR OF MONEY WELL SPENT

A Canterbury University researcher says the Government better value for money by looking at Maori success rather than Maori failure.

Janinka Greenwood along with Lynne-Harata Te Aika has written Hei Tauira, which identifies the principles behind successful tertiary programmes the Te Wananga o Raukawa's distance learning programme and the Toihoukura art course in Gisborne.

She says what they have in common is commitment by iwi and institution, integration of tikanga Maori, strong leadership including Maori role models, and a constant process of identifying and removing barriers to learning.

Hei Tauira is available through Ako Aotearoa, the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

WAKA TOI CHAIR ENDORSES JOB END

The chair of Te Waka Toi, Darrin Haimona, says the Maori arm of Creative New Zealand has had its time.

Culture and Heritage Minister Chris Finlayson plans to ax the Maori and Pacific arts funding boards and go back to a single arts council.

This is expected to save at least $200,000 a year in members' fees alone.

Mr Haimona, who was appointed last year, says change is needed.

“The current structure separates the strategy and policy development, which is the domain of council. Te Waka Toi and the arts boards mostly function around arts funding decisions. So the merger will provide Maori the opportunity to participate in the whole strategy, policy and funding that will happen in the future,” Mr Haimona says.

Ill-judged policy could close uni doors to Maori

Massey University's vice chancellor says the Government's policies could exclude Maori from universities.

The Prime Minister has signaled students with low marks or who take too long to get through their studies could be weeded out.

But Steve Maharey, a former Labour minister of education, says that could hit Maori students who typically enter university after a break in the workforce, rather than coming straight from school.

“If they don't pay attention to that and we are forced as universities to simply to take people say from schools on a grade average, then we are going to be in a position where we see very few Maori coming into universities. This is not where the country needs to go. It needs to open up opportunities for Maori to get into tertiary study,” Mr Maharey says.

The government needs to be working with iwi who want to invest in their people through tertiary education.

TUHOURANGI CHIEF DEFENDS TARAWERA WALKWAY

The chair of the Tuhourangi Trust Board says opponents to a walkway around Lake Tarawera should have raised their concerns earlier.

Some tribal members have companied Tuhourangi will gain little from the $4 million project, which is due to start construction next month.

But John Waaka says the land trusts that administer the whenua along the walkway have worked on the project for 4 years because they are convinced it will create economic opportunities.

“There was a buy in from the trusts that have the ability to build lodges on their own properties to accommodate some of these walkers. This is the whole thrust of it, to give the iwi some income and some purpose,” Mr Waaka says.

TEN METRE WAKA MAUMAHARA BOUND FOR SHANGHAI

Rotorua's deputy mayor says a 10-metre waka maumahara will be an international window into te ao Maori.

Trevor Maxwell, who is a kaupapa Maori advisor for Tourism New Zealand, was at Te Puia Maori arts and crafts institute yesterday for the poroporoaki for the 3000-year-old log of Northland kauri, which is now on its way to the World Expo in Shanghai.

The carvers have until the Expo's New Zealand day on July 9 to turn it into a canoe-shaped gateway to the New Zealand Pavilion.

Up to 70 million visitors are expected through the expo between May and October.

GAMBLING FOUNDATION LOOKING FOR TECHNOLOGY CURE

The Problem Gambling Foundation wants technology to come to the aid of Maori who are addicted to gambling machines.

Chief executive Graeme Ramsey says tools are available which allow people to put a limit on the amount of money and time they intended to spend, and when the limit is reached, the pokie closes.

He says the government should make use of such software mandatory because of the damage gambling is doing to groups such as Maori, who are over-represented in problem gambling statistics.

Mr Ramsey says more than 80 percent of problem gambling in New Zealand comes from pokies.

MAORI KING IN NGAI TAI FOR KAPA HAKA FESTIVAL

The Maori king will be the special guest at tomorrow's Mataatua Regional Kapahaka competitions in the small Tainui enclave of Torere.

Organiser Kareen Hotereni says the eastern Bay of Plenty community, which has about 300 residents, expects about 6000 manuhiri.

Sixteen teams will vie to go through to next year's Te Matatini nationals, including reigning champions Opotiki Mai Tawhiti, Te Whanau A Apanui and Tauira mai Tawhiti.

Ms Hotereni says the visit by King Tuheitia will be a highlight, some 13 years after Ngai Tai hosted the late Maori queen.

NGAI TAHU CULTURE FESTIVAL ON POUNAMU TRAIL

Ngai Tahu holds its second culture festival this weekend on a tribally-owned property on one of the ancient pounamu trails to the West Coast.

Organiser Tracey Tawha says Southland's Te Koawa Turoa o Takitimu, also known as Blackmount Valley, was the way the tipuna got between Murihiku settlements like Riverton area to Piopiotahi, the Milford sound.

Being only 20 minutes from Manapouri and Te Anau, it seemed an ideal venue to bring the iwi together.

Tracey Tawha says the festival includes kapa haka, bands, sport, art and culinary displays.

Ngapuhi line-up preparing for hearing

Northern iwi Ngapuhi is fine tuning its attack for next month's opening hearing on its claim over the meanings of the Treaty of Waitangi and the 1835 Declaration of Independence.

Mere Mangu, who coordinated a meeting this week of Te Kotahitanga o nga hapu o Ngapuhi, says the iwi is adamant their tupuna never conceded sovereignty.

She says the hui was impressed by the line up of kaumatua and tribal scholars who will put the case.

“Nuki Aldridge is talking about the world view of Maori. Rima Edwards will concentrate his korero on the word ‘mana’ in He Whataputanga. Patu Hohepa has a paper on the language that was used in both He Whataputanga and Te Tiriti,” Ms Mangu says.

A further Kotahitanga hui will be held in a fortnight on Oromahoe Marae.

CONSTITUTIONAL ROAD TRIP GOODBYE PORK BARREL

Meanwhile, Maori Party MP Hone Harawira wants this year's promised constitutional review to be taken out to the nation.

With the party's co-leaders now government ministers, the Tai Tokerau MP and protest leader has been delegated to front the issue for the party.

He says it's not something that can be left to Wellington.

“We have to make sure it gets on the road, it stays on the road, we get it onto Maori radio, it becomes something people can talk about and understand and not just up there in the air. We’ve got to keep it low to the ground. There’s the whole issue of Maori rights, human rights,” Mr Harawira says.

He's optimistic the Moana Jackson-led roopu put together by the Iwi Leaders Forum to work on the review will provide a useful balance to the official process.

PROBLEM GAMBLING SETS UP PASIFIKA UNIT WITH MAORI INPUT

The Problem Gambling Foundation's new Pasifika unit is drawing on the experience of Maori-focused services.

Mapu Maia unit manager Pesio Ah-Honi Siita says gambling causes huge problems in both Maori and Pasifika communities.

She says the challenge is to create culturally focused interventions, including talking to people in their own languages and less emphasis on counseling.

“We don't have that concept in the Pacific. We call it talanoa which is talking, sharing stories and talking about our families and where we are connected and building that trust first before we can talk about the problem so developing different ways of doing things and delivering those services in a Pacific effective way,” Pesio Ah-Honi Siita says.

WHANAU ORA TAILORED FOR MAORI PROBLEMS

Associate social welfare minister Tariana Turia says if non-Maori want whanau ora, they can develop their own version.

In this week's statement to Parliament, Prime Minister John Key said the Government will ensure Whanau Ora is available to New Zealanders of all races who are in need.

Mrs Turia says while she doesn't mind other people having the same opportunities, the Whanau Ora taskforce led by Sir Mason Durie is working on Maori solutions to Maori problems.

“It's not a welfare progamme but when you transform people’s lives to take back more control over their lives, to be more self-determining about their future, to reconnect them to the essence of who they it is no doubt that we, through doing this, will address many of these social ills that impact on our people,” Mrs Turia says.

TE ARAWA SEEKS TO LEARN FROM WAIPAREIRA EXPERIENCE

Now it has completed its land settlement, Te Arawa is talking with other Maori groups around the country about social services.

Police superintendant Wally Haumaha from Ngati Ngatauranui was part of a Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa group which met with Te Whanau o Waipareira.

He says the West Auckland trust has built up considerable expertise in service delivery which the iwi can draw on.

“Now that we’ve come through treaty settlements and mapping our economic future within the tribe, we’ve also got to look at what that means for the well being of whanau, so our social programmes and social development aren’t left behind and forgotten,” Superintendant Haumaha says.

It's important to develop service delivery structures which are tailored to Maori needs and aspirations.

OWAIRAKA KAUMATUA PUT TOGETHER ROOPU TO OFFER MARAE HELP

A kaumatua group in Auckland has reformed to offer assistance to urban marae short on speakers.

Te Roopu kaumatua o Owairaka ki Tamaki was started in 1992, but went into recess a few years later.

Yesterday about 40 kaumatua met to breathe life back into the kaupapa.

Spokesperson Hone Komene says all members are over 60, and have put their hand up to help wherever needed.

The group will meet to learn waiata, tikanga and kaupapa which will help on the marae.

Hone Komene says as well as strengthening paepae when invited, the kaumatua roopu will continue to visit maori inmates in jail.