Turia defends whanau ora from Peters’ race attack

Tariana Turia is accusing New Zealand First leader Winston Peters of playing the race card with his weekend attack on her whanau ora policy.

At a public meeting in Tauranga, Mr Peters said using Maori providers to deliver social services was separatist and opened the door to back-handers and nepotism.

Mrs Turia, the associate minister of social development, says as a former minister Mr Peters knows Maori health providers have received government funding since 1993 ... and whanau ora merely streamlines the process.

“For Winston to turn around and make out that what’s going on is somehow denial of everybody else, he misses completely the point and whanau ora will provide a new way forward, and if Winston gets back into Parliament, he better get used to it,” Mrs Turia says.

She says most New Zealanders want better results from the billions in health and social spending, and whanau ora can provide those results.

MINERALS SOUGHT WITH HAURAKI SETTLEMENT

Hauraki iwi says their treaty settlement must include not only conservation land on the Coromandel peninsula but all the minerals underneath that land.

Paul Majurey from the Marutauhu confederation says the government's plans to open up parts of the peninsula to mining can't be divorced from the settlement negotiations.

He says recent Crown agreements in principle with other iwi have shown conservation land is not off the table as far as settlements are concerned.

“Our people have called for the land to come back, so if the land comes back then all those resources that go with it are what is being sought as well,” Mr Majurey says.

He is looking forward to talking with the government on this subject.

POOR PREPARATION LETS DOWN MAORI TERTIARY STUDENTS

The latest findings from Auckland University's long running Starpath research project shows most Maori students from low decile schools aren't properly prepared for university.

Director Liz McKinley says as a result their chances of success are lower than non-Maori.

She says many stumble with external exams, because at high school they tended to choose internal assessment.

“Many students who did not have the experience of have a lot of experience in sitting external exams at school suddenly found the external exams they were made to sit at university quite difficult to manage, almost as if they weren’t practised or skilled enough in approaching examination type conditions,” Dr McKinley says.

Maori students need good advice from early on about which subjects will better prepare them for university.

FISHFISH BETTER THAN SHELLFISH FOR AQUACULTURE COMPO

Salmon rather than shellfish are likely to be the focus of future Maori investment in aquaculture.

Parliament last week passed the Maori Commercial Aquaculture settlement, under which South Island and Hauraki iwi share $97 million.

Richard Bradley from Marlborough based Rangitane says the negotiation process involved a thorough analysis of the state of the industry, and it's clear from the price difference in water space that the future is in finfish rather than mussels.

“NIWA's been doing a lot of research around finfish and of course a lot of people are telling us it’s too early yet. When I hear that I know they’re in there and don’t necessarily want us there. The key part now is Maori are cashed up and want to invest in the top part of aquaculture, not just in contract gangs to open shellfish,” Mr Bradley says.

Aquaculture was on the agenda at today's Treaty Tribes Coalition Maori Fisheries Conference in Napier, along with a presentation on whaling by Dan Goodman from the Cetacian Research Institute in Tokyo.

ELIMINATION OF CARIES AIM OF DENTAL STUDY

The lead researcher for a 5-year study on how caries in early childhood affect long term Maori health patterns says his aim is to eliminate dental decay.

John Broughton from the Ngai Tahu Maori Health Unit at Otago University will work with Te Raukura Hauora O Tainui to track pregnant women and their offspring and monitor their dental health.

He says the $2 million project, funded through the International Collaborative Indigenous Health Research Partnership, should make a difference.

“The thing about oral disease, it’s all preventable, and there’s no reason with young children, why as they grow and develop and maybe get secondary teeth, they can go right through life without getting a filling in their mouth, and that’s the aim,” Dr Broughton says.

KAPA HAKA NEEDING EXPERIENCE TO CREATE NEW TEAMS

The head of the Wellington Maori Cultural Society says kapa haka from the region are disadvantaged by entry rules for the national Te Matatini competition.

Hema Temara says Pukeahu, which placed third at the Whanganui a Tara regionals on Saturday, was of national standard.

But because only seven teams competed, only winners Tu Te Maungaroa and runners up Nga Taonga Mai Tawhiti are off to Gisborne.

Mrs Temara says more rangatahi want to join roopu than there are places, and the region needs experienced tutors of the calibre of Auckland's Bub Wehi and Pita Sharples to form new groups.

Select committee tobacco inquiry starts

The Maori Affairs Select Committee kicked off its inquiry into the tobacco industry with a hearing in Rotorua today.

The inquiry is chaired by Nation's Tau Henare, but it came about through pressure from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira.

The Tai Tokerau MP says he has mixed emotions about the inquiry into an industry that leads to the death of more than 600 Maori a year.

“I'd rather have all of our people alive rather than have to go through this exercise but the tobacco giants don’t care that our people die from their products. They just want money. Someone’s got to do it and I’m glad it’s us, the Maori Affairs Select Committee. I’m looking forward to it,” Mr Harawira says.

He sees the inquiry as a step towards banning the sale of tobacco in New Zealand.

TE AUTE OLD BOY WINS GOLDEN SHEARS FIRST TIME UP

A new champion has emerged from the 50th Golden Shears.

26-year-old Cam Ferguson from Waipawa clipped his way to victory at Masterton over two-time winner Johnny Kirkpatrick and 17-time winner David Fagan, with Dion King 4th.

Commentator Koro Mullins says the win capped a great summer for the Te Aute Old Boy and shows he's got what it takes to compete at the highest level of the sport.

“When you're at that level it’s all a mid game and the young man, only 26, to step up in his first Golden Shear final, a lot of these guys have done 10, 12, 20 Golden Shears final, and for this man to step up to the plate and took it out, wonderful,” Mr Mullins says.

The win puts Ferguson into the New Zealand team heading to the world championships in Wales in July.

NGATI RANGIWEWEHI STORM BACK IN KAPA HAKA

Ngati Rangiwewehi's first equal placing in the Te Arawa kapa haka regional championships held at Rotorua's Energy Events centre on Saturday gave an extra thrill to the event's co-ordinator.

As tutors, Trevor Maxwell and his late wife Atareta won two national titles with the Rotorua group.

This year the group is coached by his nephew, Dan Vaka, and it came back strongly after failing to make the cut to years ago.

Honours were shared with Te Maataarae i Orehu, whose total was boosted after a recount, with Tuhourangi - Ngati Wahiao, Nga Uri o te Whanoa and Manaia also through to represent the region at Te Matatini in Gisborne next February.

Mr Maxwell says he was touched by the tribute his old team paid to Atareta and him.

The Kahungunu region picks its Matatini contenders at Te Aute College next weekend.

ACT IDEALOGUE LASHES OUT AT MAORI MEN

Former ACT deputy leader Muriel Newman says Maori men are the problem ... but the government shouldn't create targeted programmes to address the problem,

Mrs Newman is sticking by her claims to the ACT Party conference that the National Maori party relationship has brought race relations to an all time low, and there's no way the Maori Party's flagship whanau ora policy should just be for Maori.

But she says Maori men have abandoned the whanau.

“If you look back at 1968, 72 percent of children born into Maori families had a mum and dad who were married and by 2008 that had dropped to 22 percent. That is actually a real issue I wish Maori leadership would address. It hasn’t changed like that for any other group in New Zealand,” Mrs Newman says.

TOBACCO INVESTIGATION A MILESTONE

The director of Maori anti smoking group Te Reo Marama, Shane Kawentata Bradbrook says today's start of the Maori Affair's Select Committee's investigation into the tobacco industry is a milestone.

The committee heard evidence in Rotorua today, and sits at Alexandra Park Raceway in Auckland on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mr Bradbrook says it will hear from people who lost parents to smoking-related diseases.

“It's an historic moment to not only take on the tobacco industry but also to get some parliamentary inquiry into tobacco and the consequences on Maori which has been devastating since the 1950s when governments around the world knew that there was a link between smoking and cancer,” says Mr Bradbrook, from Ngai Taamanuhiri, Rongowhakaata and Ngati Kahungunu.

PATH TO KIWI TEAM FOR AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS

There was a strong Maori flavour at Sydney's Parramatta Stadium over the weekend as Kiwi coach Steven Kearny and captain Benji Marshall led a roots camp for young players eligible to play for New Zealand.

Players from the under-20s National Junior, Jersey Flegg and S.G.Ball competitions mixed with established NRL stars Roy Assotasi and Nathan Cayless and legends Tawera Nika and Ruben Wiki.

New Zealand Rugby league football manager Tony Kemp says many of the emerging players were born in Australia to New Zealand parents, and they need to know the door is open for them to wear the Kiwi jersey.

The day was capped off with a hangi put by the Sydney under 16 rangatahi team, who are raising money to attend the national Maori tournament in Rotorua over Labour weekend.

Harawira paranioa misplaced says Whatua

The chair of the Ngati Whatua Runanga, Naida Glavish, is defending the right of the Iwi Leaders Forum to talk with the Government about alternatives to the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira attacked the forum in a speech to Parliament this week, saying many of the leaders were absent from the 2004 foreshore and seabed hikoi to Parliament.

Ms Glavish says the Tai Tokerau MP is seeing conspiracies where there aren't any.

“We're not there with the Prime Minister or the Attorney General negotiating on behalf of our people. What we are actually doing is entering into discussion and then there had to be going back to the people,” she says.

LABOUR FORESHORE MODEL HARD TO REPLACE

Meanwhile, Waikato-Hauraki MP Nanaia Mahuta says National and the Maori Party are finding it hard to come up with anything better than Labour's foreshore and seabed legislation.

Ms Mahuta, who extracted significant changes to the Act before it was passed, says it allows iwi and hapu to negotiate with the Crown about foreshore and seabed issues in their area.

She says it protects treaty settlements and provides a mechanism for the courts to recognise customary rights.

“National and the Maori Party have realised that actually it’s a lot harder to try and deliver a result that’s better than is already there, and at the end of the day people all want to go to the beach and they currently can,” Ms Mahuta says.

She says it’s clear the government intends to ignore the recommendations of the review panel on the Foreshore and seabed Act.

SURVIVOR GIVES ADVICE ON LONG VOYAGE

The former Navy diver who survived three days in the waters off Kapiti Island has a new job.

Since his ordeal, Rob Hewitt has led water safety campaigns and coached league.

Now he's training crews from around the Pacific for the seven double hulled fibre glass waka which will sail to Hawaii in April to rekindle knowledge of the original waka voyages which brought Maori to Aotearoa.

The waka are being built in Greenhithe on the upper Waitemata.

POLICE ROOKIES NEED SENSITIVITY FOR SOUTH AUCKLAND STREETS

The patron of the latest wing of police college graduates says it's important they don't unfairly target young Maori because they don't understand their cultural behaviour.

All but one of the 38 graduates are bound for Counties Manukau as part of the government's commitment to put 300 extra cops into the area this year.

Sir Wira Gardiner says it's an area with a high Maori and Pacific presence, so it's important the increased level of policing does not lead to a disproportionate number of rangitahi being arrested.

“I suspect that a lot of young Maori get arrested because they act in a particular manner and I think that;’s why it;’s important for uyoung constables to be trained in a way they recognize the signs, that they are not a threat sign, the are a behavioural sign, soi they are better able to accommodate a response,” Sir Wira says.

He would have liked there to be more than six Maori in the group which also includes officers from South Africa, India, Portugal and Great Britain.

COCA COLA HAKA AN ATTACK ON THE CULTURE

A Maori academic is calling for a boycott of Coca Cola until the soft drink giant fixes up an ad featuring a pseudo haka.

Rawiri Taonui from Canterbury University's school of Maori and indigenous studies the chant used to sell a variety of no sugar cola in Japan is gibberish.

He says it's made worse by the fact the company originally approached Ngati Toa about using its haka Ka mate, and then withdrew from discussions.

He says the meaningless grunting in the ad denigrates the haka and is an offence to Maori culture.

“They could have done better. I reckon they should change it, and if they don’t change it, we should stop drinking Coca Cola until they do,” Mr Taonui says.

AWANUIARANGI SIGNING UP DOCTORAL STUDENTS IN NORTH

Whakatane-based Maori university Te Whare Waananga o Awanuiarangi's move into Tai Tokerau is paying off, with five candidates wanting to complete doctorates through the Whangarei campus.

Operations director Te Tuhi Robust says candidates must whakapapa to Te Tai Tokerau but don't have to be Maori.

He says Awanuiarangi is the only one of the three wananga which can provide PhDs, and it provides a real alternative for people who want to explore aspects of te ao Maori in depth.

“People used to have to go overseas, it was suggested they go overseas to study but now it has been accepted that what we have in New Zealand and now in the Tai Tokerau is equivalent if not better of course if it’s to do with Maori studies and indigenous studies than anywhere else in the world because it’s benchmarked against all of those universities from overseas,” Dr Robust says.

The doctoral candidates are studying everything from the role of Maori women in business leadership to church and family histories the cultural importance of William Shakespeare to Maori.

Still chance for iwi on polytech councils

The head of the Tertiary Education Union is encouraging iwi to move quickly to maintain their influence on the country's polytechnics.

The Government is slashing the size of polytechnic councils from up to 16 members down to eight.

Four of these members, including the chair and deputy chair, will be Government appointees.

TEU president Tom Ryan says councils are now determining how the remaining four members will be selected, and if Maori want to maintain the influence they have built up in the sector in recent years, they need to move quickly.

“If iwi around the country get themselves quickly organised they can probably guarantee themselves one seat maybe on these boards, but of course there are going to be a lot of losers, students and staff and whatever,” Dr Ryan says.

He says community representatives who understand the unique regional needs of each polytechnic will be replaced by bean counters and business people.

WORLD CUP JOBS POSSIBLE FOR TRAINEES

Wellington iwi are training young Maori for work around next year's Rugby World Cup.

Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust chair Sir Ngatata Love says Wellington City Council's decision to use the iwi's proposed $11 million waterfront wharewaka or canoe house as the base for a rugby village during the tournament is a huge boost.

He says with one in four young Maori unemployed, full advantage needs to be taken of such opportunities.

“It's not just about the one off occasion. It’s saying here we can develop the people, we can develop the tourist groups here in Wellington. We can combine to make it a great occasion not only for our tourists but for our people here,” Sir Ngatata says.

The wharewaka will be able to cater for up to 1200 guests at any one time.

TE ITI KAHURANGI CONFIRM DOMINANCE OF TAINUI KAPA HAKA

The first competitors for next year's Te Matatini nation kapa haka competions have been decided.

At the Tainui regional championships at Mystery Creek over the weekend, the top three teams in the last competition two years ago came through again.

Te Iti Kahurangi took out the top spot, followed by Te Pou o Mangatawhiri and Nga Pou o Roto, a young team formed after Taniwharau withdrew from competitions after its leading member Tuheitia became the Maori king.

Waatea reporter Mania Clark says Te Iti Kahurangi's winning performance drew on their experience backing the king on his trip to Rarotonga last year.

The next region to decide its Te Matatini line-up will be Mataatua in the Bay of Plenty next weekend.

PRISON VOTE DENIAL BREACHES INMATE RIGHTS

The head of prison reform group Rethinking Crime and Punishment says a push to deny all prisoners the vote would discriminate against Maori.

Inmates serving sentences of three years and up can't vote.

Now National MP Paul Quinn from Ngati Awa has a private members bill which would strip the franchise from all other prisoners.

Kim Workman from Ngati Kahungunu says when the issue was last discussed in 1992, the government was advised denying the vote could breach the Bill of Rights.

Just last month the United States Court of Appeal ruled that denying prisoners a vote breaches that country's Voting Rights Act, because it discriminates disproportionately against those ethnic minorities who are overrepresented in the prison population.

“Now if you took that reasoning into New Zealand where 15 percent of the general population is Maori and 51 percent of the prison population is Maori, it would seem to breach the Bill of Rights on another account; the effect of it is to discriminate unfairly and disproportionately against an ethnic minority,” Mr Workman says.

Up to 90 percent of prisoners are out of prison within two years.

GST HIKE HAS MAORI PARTY WORRIED

The government's proposed 20 percent hike in GST has the Maori Party scrambling to defend its base.

The party's co-leaders have acknowledged they are bound by their confidence and supply agreement to vote with the government on the increase.

But Pita Sharples wants more detail from Prime Minister John Key about how the effects on Maori families will be softened.

“The Maori Party has said to the Government, we are not happy with the GST so show us how the superannuation hike, how the working for families and how the benefit hike is gong to offset the increase in GST. Give us the figures before we can say yes we go along with the 100 percent,” Dr Sharples says.

The Maori Party will continue to push for food to be exempt from GST.

MAISEY RIKA TEAMS UP WITH TAMA WAIPARA FOR TOUR

Two of Aotearoa's most distinctive Maori voices are touring the North Island this month.

Maisey Rika and Tama Waipara's Tahi Tour will feature the pair doing solo acoustic set of songs from their own albums as well as duets written especially for the tour.

Rika says the approach from Waipara for her and guitarist J.J Rika to team up felt right.

The Tahi Tour's remaining performances are in Kaitaia, Whangarei, Auckland, Mahia and Gisborne.