The 9th Annual Maori Legal Forum – Wellington Town Hall
Thursday 29th July 2010
Te Ara Ahu Whakamua – Examining Current Policy, Law and Governance
Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

Just over a month ago, over three hundred people gathered at Taita Marae in Dargaville, to celebrate and commemorate the life of an outstanding young Maori leader.

Included amongst the masses were some fifty lawyers and judges who came to pay their respects to Jolene Patuawa-Tuilave.

Jolene packed in a lot to her 33 years. She was the co-president of the Maori Law Society; a partner at Jackson Reeves law firm in Tauranga; a graduate of Otago University specialising in Treaty, environmental and Maori law.

She would have been exactly the type of mentor for a hui such as this – someone passionate about finding new pathways forward, taking a proactive stance on issues in policy and law.

But although she is not physically with us, my contention is that actually the legacy of this young woman could never be more apt than for the challenge of the uncertain times in which we find ourselves.

Times in which the Maori youth unemployment rate sits at 27.7%; when just under half of Maori school leavers leave school without even having attained NCEA level one and when persistent and disproportionate inequalities are still experienced by Maori in health, in justice, in employment.

And I return to the uncertainty of outlook that faced Jolene.

This young woman was told by doctors she needed treatment to survive the cancer that had recently returned, but they could not treat her if she was pregnant. Jolene faced all the odds and chose survival – but it was her baby son Lui that was the one to survive.

I thought of her courage and her utmost bravery as I prepared for this Forum. Jolene made the ultimate sacrifice in her pursuit of survival - the survival of her whakapapa; the survival of her child; the survival of a legacy shared with her partner.

I come then, to the context of Te Ara Ahu Whakamua, thinking of survival, survival of the people.

The Maori Party is placing our faith, our hope and our investment in the transformation that we believe will come with Whanau Ora.

It is a transformation in approach and outcome.

The approach was signalled in our 2008 policy manifesto, he aha te mea nui, where we outlined three central pou:

- Te Tiriti o Waitangi – to build our future together;

- Investing in ourselves to lead us to productivity on a grander scale – a focus on economic prosperity and wealth creation;

- And Whanau Ora – investing in our children and their children yet to come. We talked about feeding their minds, nurturing their creativity, inspiring them to appreciate the wonders of their identities, their languages and their cultures.

What is of great interest to me is that when the Whanau Ora Taskforce, headed by Professor Sir Mason Durie, reported back to my colleague Tariana Turia last year, it appears that the focus on Whanau Ora was able to embrace the widest set of outcomes that one might expect.

The outcomes recommended by the Taskforce are that Whanau Ora will be met when whanau are: - living healthy lifestyles - self-managing - participating fully in society - confidently participating in te ao Māori - economically secure and successfully involved in wealth creation

- cohesive, resilient and nurturing.

It is in many respects, as clear a strategy for survival as one could get.

I believe that one of the most distinctive achievements of this innovative new approach to social services, is that the Government has basically signalled through the 2010 Budget that it is prepared to put support in behind organisations operating in a manner that supports whānau to do for themselves.

Through Budget 2010, Whanau Ora received $134.3 million of new funding over four years. In addition to this new money, participating providers will retain the funding they receive through existing contracts, which will be developed into Whanau Ora contracts.

The money is not massive, but one of the things that really impresses me whenever Maori providers come into my office to talk about it, is that the money isn’t even on their mind.

They speak of the direct challenge that Whanau Ora makes to the state that it will not be able to continue on unabated, underperforming and under-delivering to Maori.

Maori providers also express considerable joy about the development of the Whānau Ora approach that it will adapt the system and the work of agencies supporting whānau to provide a more seamless and integrated approach to address social issues.

I don’t want, however, to suggest that this is about survival of the same old system; simply for survival sake.

The problem as identified by countless reports and consistent anecdotal evidence, is that results for whanau are disappointing because of the poor performance across the state sector with such things as inconsistencies, fragmentation, overlaps in service delivery, duplication of effort, and frequently confusion and frustration for those seeking assistance.

The implementation of the Whānau Ora Approach is intended to address these issues.

So we are expecting a big turnaround, to ensure the door is open, and to be advised by whanau, hapu and iwi about how they want to take the action necessary to be self-managing and take responsibility for their own social, economic, and cultural development.

One of the biggest developments is the shift from output based, tick-box contracts to outcome based relational contracts.

Instead of working to contracts which record mindless levels of detail about how many telephone contacts were made in a month; or numbers of pamphlets allocated, the focus must be on the needs of whanau not the compliance requirements of the provider.

Another major expectation upon Whanau Ora providers and provider collectives will be to make substantial contributions to whanau outcomes by delivering integrated and coherent services. In other words, a radical concept admittedly, but the approach calls for cooperation, collaboration and coherence.

That means taking an all-of-whanau approach; demonstrating a spirit of collaboration between funders, providers, practitioners and whanau to enable coherent service delivery, effective resourcing and competent and innovative provision.

The feedback that I have had is that already groups are collaborating and working together to understand how to best work with a Whanau Ora approach.

So where are we up to now – and what does the horizon look like?

In just three months the Whānau Ora Governance Group has been formed, and has called for Expressions of Interest from providers and collectives looking to gain support to work with whānau to deliver on the high level of expectation from the community.

Regional and local input has been a critical feature of the development process to date. And just last week, Tariana tabled the list of movers and shakers that will help to determine the first waves of Whanau Ora providers.

It is just so fantastic to look over the composition of Regional Leadership Groups.. 51 community representatives and 23 officials have been confirmed as members across the 10 regional groups. They will form a critical part of the strategy and the momentum onwards.

From the point of view of politicians, what is so important about Whanau Ora is that it requires Government agencies and NGOs to better coordinate and align their service settings and priorities. There is also potential for the approach to influence multiple appropriations across the Government sector.

But that is only one aspect of the transformation.

The most significant aspect of this transformation policy approach; in that it represents Government trusting whanau to create their own solutions.

This is Government actually involving whānau in decision making processes or in planning interventions.

This is Government agencies saying that they are prepared to be responsive and flexible enough to align with and support whānau, hapū and iwi aspirations.

And this is us - reminding us of the power of our potential. It is about being self-managing, self-reliant, self-driven – while also taking up the responsibility of looking out for each other for our collective well-being.

That means that we pick up on the opportunity to enable whānau to be more capable rather than dependent – through building on their strengths and helping them take ownership of solutions and actions.

A critical factor in the process of transformation is having the resource to capture evidence in this way of working - that includes both action and reflection. Whanau will be involved in participatory action research - involving a regular review process to ensure that progress is being made and that whanau priorities are addressed the way that they have envisaged it would.

In many ways it is the manifestation of Te Ara Ahu Whakamua in action. We will know we have made the difference because in looking backward over what we have achieved, we will be better equipped to carve out a new pathway forward. It is, I believe,a sound basis for ensuring our survival.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all, and look forward to the ongoing discussion and debate about how we create the future that we all aspire towards. Tena tatou katoa.

ENDS

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