Public Policy Forum for NZ Business Leaders; Waiheke Island

Business Roundtable Dunes Symposium;

Thursday 2 August 2007; 3.45pm

Tariana Turia, Co-leader, Maori Party

Maori Economic Development: Improvements and Impediments

I was delighted to accept the invitation from Rob McLeod and Catherine Judd to come here today to share in the conversation that our business leaders are engaged in, about policy matters that affect the wellbeing of our entire community.

And in thinking of the comments that I will make on Maori economic development, I cannot help but think of the appropriateness of the metaphor we have been provided with, as we gaze out on the sparkling foreshore and Onetangi Beach.

The Dunes Symposium.

For some, the concept of ‘dunes’ may conjure up war zone images. You know the drill - we will fight them in the trenches, from the beaches, behind the dunes, out from under the bunkers.

But in my mind, the dune habitat is an important niche for rare and endangered species. Our coastal dunes are important in protecting the land from storm waves, and improving the resilience of our natural environment.

The work that is undertaken right around Aotearoa, in planting native dune plants on our beaches, contributes to global biodiversity, and is an important factor in preparing for climate change. Dune restoration helps to protect our landscapes, and preserve our cultural sites of significance along our coast.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

And so it is with Maori economic development.

Some commentators would have you believe that the key drivers in Maori economic development are to be scorned – that settlements come out of a grievance industry, or Maori businesses are founded on nepotism.

The Maori Party has no interest in perpetuating such myths. And, we are pleased to know, neither it appears does the Treasury. In a paper distributed to the Hui Taumata in 2005, John Whitehead and Barbara Annesley said much that I would endorse.

They talked of Maori economic development and the growth of the New Zealand economy as closely intertwined – both driven by the same forces.

Central to this theory is that people are the cornerstone of Maori economic development. As the Treasury writers suggest:

“The most significant contribution to Maori economic development over the next twenty years is likely to come from improving the education and skills of Maori people. The effects of such improvements……include increased access by Maori to employment and higher incomes, the effective governance and management of Maori enterprises and the sustainable development of Maori commercial assets”.

I want to look further, at ways then, that Maori economic development will lead to a more inclusive, sustainable and dynamic Aotearoa.

Increased access by Maori to higher incomes

The importance of income for Maori is noted by the Ministry of Maori Development. The Ministry believes that“active and meaningful Maori participation in society, whether local, national or global, relies on both collective and personal wealth and income status” (2005, p18).

And yet, the Census last year told us that the median annual income for Maori at $20,900 is $3500 less than for all New Zealanders. And we know also that as of June 2006, some 87,003 working age Maori received a main benefit.

So how can we achieve active and meaningful Maori participation in society if our personal wealth and income status is below that of other New Zealanders, and trapped within the net of welfare dependency?

The answers may lie in the words of a shearing supervisor from Rob’s beloved iwi of Ngati Porou – a woman who Sir Apirana Ngata also referred to as a‘composer of genius’.

This woman, Tuini Moetu Hāngu Ngawai, wrote over 200 songs, each written for a specific, often pragmatic purpose. There were songs to welcome the Maori Battalion home; songs to sing in the shearing sheds; choral compositions; waiata which sought to restore Maori pride and identity through cultural revival.

One waiata called Te Matauranga o te Pakeha, includes the verse

Ka tuari i te penihana oranga

Hei aha ra, hei patu mahara

Patu tikanga a Maori e

A Maori e, a Maori e

It was a blunt reference to a western education system, and the mindset of welfare dependency which Ngawai attacked. She saw the imposition of the benefit system, as deadening Maori thought, killing our Maori customs, and endangering our life force.

While we in the Maori Party have shared Ngawai’s view, and spoken passionately and consistently against the mindset of welfare dependency, this is not to say that we do not recognise the significance of a safety net to support those who require it.

We absolutely believe that those who are vulnerable, or whose wellbeing is compromised, must be able to be supported by the social protection offered through some form of safety net.

Over the last five years, the numbers of Maori on income support have dropped by some 15,000.

While we may recognise this as a sign perhaps of growing self-sufficiency, we can not close our eyes to the reality that in this same time-span, Māori and Pacific people, along with beneficiaries and low-income families with children have reported significant increases in the proportions of people in "severe hardship”.

If we are truly committed as a nation, towards improving the wellbeing of ALL New Zealand families, then financial security must be an urgent priority.

The effective governance and management of Maori enterprises and Maori commercial assets

If insecurity and burgeoning poverty are the impediments to Maori economic development, then Maori economic activity, tribal and pan-tribal entities are certainly amongst the pathways to improving our position.

I want to recommend to this esteemed group of leaders here today, a paper by High Court Judge David Baragwanath, reviewing the formative case some twenty years ago, presented by Sir Graham Latimer and the New Zealand Maori Council.

Baragwanath describes the Maori Council case as marking a turning point. If you recall, on 29 June 1987 the Court of Appeal unanimously declared that the Labour Government’s proposed transfer of asset to State enterprise, without considering whether any claim by Maori claimants in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi existed, was unlawful.

The proposal would have affected the bulk of these so-called Crown assets – some 52% of the total land area; with other assets worth $11.8 billion at that time.

The turning point came in the recognition that in depriving itself of the capacity to return disputed assets, the Crown was in effect, and as Sir Robin Cooke said, acting in a way “unhappily and unacceptably reminiscent of a attitude, not past that the Treaty itself is of no true value to the Maori people”.

The Court of Appeal ruling demonstrated that Maori have the same right as all other New Zealanders to the protection of the law; that the Treaty promise is respected, that tangata whenua are entitled to justice.

So how has the Maori Council decision lead to Maori economic development?

Let me take the case of my own iwi, Ngati Apa.

We are a people left virtually landless by the land transactions imposed by the Crown over the last century. Our tribal structures, based as they were on collective hapu custodianship of our land, were eroded by native land laws, in particular the awarding of land to individual Ngati Apa, rather than to iwi or hapu.

Our lands became susceptible to partition, fragmentation and alienation. Our people became disconnected from our lands. All this despite significant petitions to Premier Richard Seddon; and two journeys to London to take our concerns to King George V.

Left owning less than one percent of our traditional lands, the Agreement in Principle signed three weeks ago in Turakina, offers a redress package which is minute in terms of the scope of the loss. A package of fourteen million and the transfer of thirteen sites of value back to Ngati Apa.

As the Minister himself admitted, that the settlement will recognise the generosity of Ngati Apa in contributing to the development of the nation. A gift to the country, which will continue to lead to the development of Aotearoa, despite the loss and prejudice suffered.

I would go further than the Honourable Mark Burton by saying that there are many people in this land who have been the beneficiaries of the theft, confiscation and alienation of Ngati Apa lands. Lest we forget.

But indeed, the Agreement can be marked as a milestone in our development. Alongside the Crown apology and the historical account, there is provision for cultural revitalisation, an opportunity to re-establish papakainga, to purchase lands through a right of deferred selection and to become active participants in the local economy.

We may not be asset rich, but we will certainly have the foundation to grow, to concentrate on the development of our skills and expertise, and to be able to have a positive influence over the ways we live our lives.

The hard work, of course, is from here on in.

The other feature of the package which is worth commenting on is that of the status it gives us in pursuing relationships with Crown agencies, to achieve our Article three entitlements – able to enjoy the rights of British subjects through the commitment of agencies to work together with Ngata Apa in pursuing our aspirations.

Finally, I want to share with you a quote that I was sent yesterday, out of the blue.

The quote comes from Martin Delaney, a black nationalist, who in 1852 wrote:

'Every people should be the originators of their designs, projectors of their own schemes, and creators of the events that lead to their destiny-the consumption of their own desires.

No people can be free who themselves do not constitute an essential part of the ruling element of the country in which they live.'

As we sit here together, in the protected enclave of the Dunes, I think about the huge gifts each iwi have contributed to the growth of this nation.

I think about the signs of continuing Treaty breaches evidenced in the justice, health and educational systems.

I think about the rhetoric espoused this week about Maori leadership and Maori problems and Maori bashing and Maori solutions.

And I know with all my heart, that Maori economic development, is a vital engine to drive our dreams, to resource our schemes, to fuel our desires and destinies.

And further that any improvements in Maori economic development will have positive and long-lasting impacts on the New Zealand economy as a whole. We must all use this opportunity wisely to steer the course of prosperity for Aotearoa in ways which are ‘inclusive, sustainable and dynamic’.

We must act together, in good faith, and with a willingness to listen, learn and embrace our different perspectives to achieve the solutions that I believe all of us here in the Dunes Symposium desire.

ends

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