Speech: Sharples - Te Waka Awhina Conference 2009
Hon Dr Pita Sharples; Minister of Māori Affairs
Te Waka
Awhina Conference 2009
“Hangaia to Whare Kōrero –
Creating Your House of Learning” at
Tangatarua Marae,
Waiariki Institute of Technology; 27 November 2009;
9.30am
[To be delivered by Makoha Gardiner]
I am honoured to be invited to speak to Te Waka Awhina in your annual hui; this year focused around Hangaia to whare korero - “Creating Your House of Learning”.
It could not have been a more appropriate time to be considering the context for which our learning evolves.
As you gathered here yesterday for the opening of this hui, the airwaves and cyberspace were flooded with a breaking news story. The Scoop website headed their front page: Race Relations : Goff gives speech to Orewa Rotary Club Grey Power Palmerston North.
In the website heading, Orewa Rotary Club was crossed out and replaced by Grey Power Palmerston North; but I think the point was clear – that the similarities between utterances made by Opposition party leaders in 2004 and 2009 were uncanny.
Both speeches focused on supposed divisions between Maori and Pakeha; the role of the Treaty; the finality of Treaty settlements; and of course the ever sensational foreshore and seabed.
Five years on from Orewa, the politics of race is once again being called on to excite the public appetite.
So how does this relate to Te Waka Awhina?
What do such debates add to the status of Maori working within local and regional government? How do the phrases that have been bandied around Parliament this week about iwi – phrases like iwi corporates; or “narrow privileged Southern elite” – impact on Maori? How will this very public discourse in which Maori have become a source of criticism, affect the house of learning for Maori?
Without putting too fine a line on it, the very public reaction that is fed by such debate will inevitably create further challenges and barriers to you all in your efforts to improve the effectiveness of local government in setting and achieving outcomes for Maori.
As Minister of Maori Affairs – and as a former Chief Executive of the Race Relations Office - I am always disappointed when the vital context of ethnicity and identity; and our most sacred relationship – the relationship that emerges from the Treaty covenant - becomes caught up in the crossfire of political attack.
This last month has been one in which hostilities have been expressed; offence has been taken; complaints have flooded in; and the lines of conflict have been drawn. All of this causes me much sorrow.
But it also strengthens my resolve to continue to face up to our responsibilities, to do what we can in contributing to nation-building in a positive and constructive way. We can all do better.
While the debate is played out in Parliament, on talkback radio and through blogs and virtual networks; the deepest impacts are felt in communities.
As Members of the New Zealand Parliament we have the collective responsibility to be the ultimate public servant – to serve our public well with a vision of a nation moving forward.
For this Government, we know that the capacity for the nation to move forward is based squarely and fairly on the basis of the Treaty, the foundation of our land.
In the relationship agreement between the National Party and the Maori Party it is spelt out that both parties will act in accordance with te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi.
This is an incredible opportunity to work together, to truly understand what it means to act in accordance with the Treaty. We cannot do that by taking sides, or by creating false divisions between Maori and Pakeha.
It is organisations such as those involved in Te Waka Awhina, that will know best whether the public mood has changed dramatically or whether the race relations debate is a Wellington phenomenon.
You will be the best placed in your various roles across local government to instruct us as to how the social, cultural, environmental and economic well-being of our communities is looked after.
You will be best placed to understand how what is happening at a national level is received at a regional level – to tell us whether policies and practices are in accordance with the Treaty.
As Māori working with or within local government you are at the critical interface between our people and local bodies.
You have a key responsibility as facilitators of Māori participation in local government
And in doing so, you are living up to the aspiration of the Local Government Act 2002 for local bodies to “foster Maori capacity to contribute to the decision-making processes of the local authority”.
Some of you may have attended Local Government New Zealand’s annual conference a few years ago when Justice Joe Williams [then Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court] addressed the hui.
Justice Joe concluded that local government was where “the rubber meets the road”. He said that it was at the local level that communities have to resolve the real issues of growing diversity. And it must be face-to-face; kanohi ki te kanohi.
I fully endorse those thoughts.
Within local and regional government the rubber meets the road to nationhood; it reminds us what it means to be Maori today; it establishes alliances and allegiances which build community cohesion; it brings people together.
You may be aware that Cabinet has now approved proposals to improve the transparency, accountability and financial management of local government. The changes work towards better local government and easier and more effective participation by communities in council decision-making.
Within the current reforms, the community outcomes process will be merged into the long-term council community planning process to reduce the costs and inefficiencies of running two long-term planning processes.
The golden question in front of us all is exactly how you will all go about recognising and responding to community expectations. Will the changes mean less consultation? Or will it be more effective, more flexible models to identify and respond to community aspirations and needs?
The key thing for us all to hold on to is that local government activities permeate every aspect of our daily lives.
There are a dozen regional councils, sixteen city councils; nearly sixty district councils and just over twenty district health boards.
Across this range of local government organisations then, we need to share best practice in the ways in which we improve understanding of kaupapa and tikanga Maori across our Councils and across our Maori workforce.
Perhaps if there’s any spare time in the hui programme there may be opportunity to collaborate and coordinate a picture of how your various organisations relate to Te Tiriti o Waitangi; biculturalism and resource management processes. To have an opportunity to reflect and assess your own Council’s compliance with the principles of the Treaty, the treaty in action.
I am
always staggered by the range of responsibilities and
functions that local government has to take care of:
• our environmental health and safety'
• our
roading and transport, sewage and water and storm water
needs;
• management of our resources including land use
planning and development control;
• our recreational
and cultural needs;
• management of biosecurity of
regional plants and animal pests;
• river management,
flood control and mitigate for erosion;
and
• management of civil defence.
And where do Maori fit within that?
Everywhere and anywhere.
The message for Māori is clear – local decisions affect your whānau, hapū and iwi as well as your wider community and putting your hand up to be counted as a local body politician on any one of the mechanisms available is one of the ways we can make a difference.
And if you think that was a bit of lobbying you’re absolutely right. With the next local elections now less than a year away [Saturday 9 October 2010], it’s important that more Māori not only get out there and vote but consider seriously putting themselves forward as candidates.
As you all know, Councils have a statutory responsibility to engage with Māori and to recognise the Treaty of Waitangi.
But we still have a long way to go before full and equitable representation of Maori is considered as a logical starting point for making the Treaty work in daily settings.
In April this year, Cabinet decided that there should not be Māori representation on the Auckland Council. Since that decision was made, I lobbied consistently for that decision to be re-considered, because I believe that there must be Māori representation on the Auckland Council.
It brought into focus even more clearly the urgent need for Māori to turn the situation we experience in local body elections, not just in Auckland but across the motu.
I think it also reinforces the importance of Māori working with and within local government as facilitators of Māori participation in this arena.
We want to be at the decision-making table but if we cannot be there, we must work within the machinery of local government to facilitate Māori involvement in that way.
The Local Government Act 2002 places specific obligations on councils to facilitate Māori participation and as we all know already, there are many practical ways that councils and Māori can improve their engagement with one another.
It is all about relationships but especially about making a long-term investment in that relationship across a comprehensive range of policies and activities rather than adopting an approach based on issue-by-issue contact.
Councils are learning that Māori are as diverse as councils are and that having relationships with Māori must be at a number of levels – as residents and ratepayers, as a particular community of interest as well as tangata whenua.
There are also some very exciting activities occurring to increase participation via the increasing interest in and actual examples of co-management arrangements to involve one another in managing resources within communities.
In 2007, Local Government New Zealand published a report which summarised the findings of five case studies. It reported that in 2004, over 24% of local authorities then had at least one active co-management arrangement with Māori.
The 2007 report delves deeper into these arrangements in order to provide a better understanding of what happens around the operational arrangements of such agreements. And it describes an exciting range of case studies at:
• New Plymouth Port Assets (New Plymouth District Council, Port Taranaki Ltd and Ngati Te Whiti);
• Te Whiti Park (Hutt City Council and Te Runanganui o Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui);
• Ohiwa Harbour (Environment Bay of Plenty, Opotiki District Council, Whakatane District Council, Whakatohea, Upokorehe, Ngati Awa, Tuhoe);
• Taharoa Domain - Kai Iwi Lakes (Kaipara District Council, Te Roroa, Te Kuihi); and
• Okahu Bay/Whenua Rangatira Reserve (Auckland City Council, Ngati Whatua o Orakei)
I thought it was really interesting to learn what local authorities and iwi identified as significant factors within their co-management arrangements; and that was the acknowledgement of iwi history and circumstance; common goals and objectives; strong leadership; and the importance of planning.
All of these initiatives, the context of race relations I referred to earlier; the roles for local government as prescribed in legislation and the current reform, are all significant challenges in achieving the aim of strong Council-Māori engagement.
I wish you great courage and forebearance in creating your house of learning and in developing lasting and meaningful relationships for stronger communities.
Ultimately, it is about achieving Māori wellbeing – and there can’t be any greater outcome than that.
ENDS