Tariana Turia:Closing The Gaps & Capacity Building
Hon. Tariana Turia
Associate Minister of Maori
Affairs
Lecture Notes
Closing The Gaps & Capacity Building
07 June 2000
8.30am
Te Puawänanga Ki Te
Ao
(Masters Class)
Waikato University
HAMILTON
Tena koutou katoa i runga i nga ähuatanga o tenei ra.
It is my great pleasure to be speaking to a Class
in Development Studies within Te Pua Wänanga ki te Ao. I am
especially heartened by the opportunity to focus on
development and, therefore, capability rather than
deficiencies.
The history of whänau, hapü and iwi and
the Mäori race generally is full of examples of our people’s
predisposition to development. One could go right back to
our origins, when Täne separated Rangi (the sky father) and
Papa (the earth mother), he did so to allow light,
enlightenment and energy into this dark world. So in the
process of creating a ‘gap’ he was also closing others,
however, it is worth remembering that this did not happen
without a certain amount of conflict and dissent. Our
ancestors’ adoption of technology as a tool for future
development is one example. Our people’s pre-occupation
with building upon our own structures, institutions and
processes to keep pace with the pressures and consequences
of development, is another.
In recent times, we have
become obsessive about the needs our people have, all too
often at the expense of their dreams and aspirations. Yet,
for me, development is about finding ways to fulfil dreams.
It is not about deciding whether to dream or not. However,
when people are deprived, alienated and disaffected to the
extent that our people have been, they tend not to have
dreams.
This Government accepts the Treaty of
Waitangi as New Zealand’s founding document and as the basis
of constitutional Government in this country.
By signing
that Treaty, the Crown guaranteed the rights of hapü and
undertook to protect them. The Crown also recognised Mäori
as co-signatories under the Articles of the Treaty. This
Government is committed to fulfilling its obligations as a
Treaty partner to support self-determination for whänau,
hapü and iwi.
The current strategy for Mäori
development was not effective and the Crown, under the
Treaty of Waitangi, had a responsibility to ensure Mäori
progressed in the same way as other people in New Zealand.
That hasn’t happened, so there’s a lot of work to do and for
the first time, I think, we do have a Government that is
committed to saying ‘look we don’t have all the answers for
indigenous peoples in this country’.
Around the world
it’s been shown that indigenous peoples progress at a far
greater rate when they are in control of their own
development, and this is really what we are committed to
doing. Mäori communities must be involved at all levels in
developing solutions.
Mäori people are ambitious
people, and we have had to face many challenges to ensure we
survived as a visible presence in Aotearoa. Even though our
presence is explicit and enduring, we still face the
challenges posed by our rates of unemployment, low
educational achievement levels, health status, crime rates
and so on. At the same time, we have the dreams (passed on
by our tüpuna) that we want to fulfil. The question is how
can we deal with both these challenges at the same
time?
I am part of a Government that has a clear view about this.
We have recognised a number of things, and
they are reflected in our Mäori Affairs policy that is
underpinned by:
The Treaty of
Waitangi
Mäori development
Capacity building
Closing the socio-economic gaps between Mäori and non-Mäori
and, Tracking expenditure on Mäori outcomes.
The Government expects all five
elements to be reflected in the activities of government
departments. My particular expectation of departments is
that they will:
Uphold the Treaty of Waitangi as
the primary factor in the relationship between the Crown and
whänau, hapü and iwi
Actively support the rangatiratanga of tangata whenua in managing and controlling their own development
Aid, sponsor and resource capacity building as a developmental process
Make a concerted effort to close the gaps between Mäori and non-Mäori
and, Ensure their respective contributions to Mäori outcomes can be tracked and measured.
Clearly, all of these elements are important in themselves as well as collectively. However, today I hope to clarify, as much as I can, what we consider the relationship is between the Government’s strategies and Mäori development, since I think this is likely to be of the greatest significance to you.
To do this, I will
cover issues around the Closing the Gaps and Capacity
Building policies:
1. People are the most significant
resource we have, and the socio-economic gaps between Mäori
and non-Mäori are unsustainable. Therefore, we need to
address the socio-economic disparities they endure. Hence
our Closing the Gaps policy.
2. Mäori want to manage and control their own development, and they should be supported by the Government to do so. Therefore, we have also developed a Capacity Building policy.
A Closing the
Gaps Strategy for Te Puni Kökiri
Te Puni Kökiri’s mandate
to report on its analysis of Mäori outcomes in education,
health, employment and training and economic resource
development, comes from both the Ministry of Mäori
Development Act and from Cabinet.
The Ministry of
Mäori Development Act 1991 requires Te Puni Kökiri:
to
monitor and liaise with each department and agency that
provides or has a responsibility to provide services to or
for Mäori for the purpose of ensuring the adequacy of those
services.
[section 5 (1) (b)]
In 1995, Cabinet agreed that Te Puni Kökiri should not only analyse Mäori outcomes, but also communicate these results to iwi, hapü and Mäori.
To do this, Te Puni Kökiri, in 1998, released
the report entitled Progress Towards Closing the Social and
Economic Gaps Between Mäori and non-Mäori.
The
Report drew on data from across the key sectors in the Act,
and provided a benchmark to assess progress in reducing
disparities between Mäori and non-Mäori. Until then, it had
been difficult to assess the overall social and economic
position of Mäori, or to gauge whether or not improvements
had occurred across the relevant sectors.
The content
will evolve over time as more data on Mäori outcomes becomes
available, existing indicators are refined and new
indicators are developed. The coverage of the report will be
expanded to include other aspects of Mäori social and
economic well being.
The Closing the Gaps
Reports
The 1998 Report acted as a benchmark against
which the Government could measure progress towards
achieving the strategic objective for Mäori
development.
The report used key statistical
indicators to assess changes in the education, employment,
economic and health status of Mäori. It was based on data
collected by state sector agencies, either through their
administrative data collections or through regular surveys.
The Closing the Gaps report pulled together historical data
across each of the key sectors and provided an assessment of
progress made over time.
The findings presented in the
report were not new. There was no denying that Mäori had
experienced and continue to experience poorer educational
outcomes, higher unemployment, lower income levels, lower
rates of home ownership, and poorer health than non-Mäori.
However, up until the Closing the Gaps report, it was
difficult, if not impossible, to assess whether disparities
were improving or getting worse.
The indicators used
in the Closing the Gaps report were chosen because time
series, or longer term, data was available for them and
because they represented areas of importance where
considerable disparities were seen to exist. While they
provided only a partial picture of the social and economic
position of Mäori, a narrowing of disparities in these areas
would have signalled an improvement in the status of Mäori
within the particular sector.
Key findings of the
Closing the Gaps 1998 report
A striking feature of Mäori
education status over the decade prior to the report was the
increased participation of Mäori at all levels of the
education system. By comparison, the labour force status of
Mäori deteriorated as a result of the economic restructuring
of the 1980s, which also resulted in severe job losses for
Mäori.
In terms of economic status, levels of
Mäori self-employment and household incomes increased over
the 1990s. However, housing became less affordable and
Mäori were still more reliant on social welfare assistance
than non-Mäori.
Although the 1990s saw
continued improvements in Mäori life expectancy and declines
in the infant mortality rate, Mäori health for almost every
other indicator (e.g. cancer incidence, Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome and pneumonia) presented in the Closing the Gaps
1998 report deteriorated.
Overall, the report
findings indicated that the gaps between Mäori and non-Mäori
education, employment, economic and health status were
significant, and were either stabilised or widening.
Key Findings of the Closing the Gaps Report, 2000
All of
the indicators in the report show that there is considerable
disparity between Mäori and non-Mäori.
The report
demonstrates that Mäori continue to experience:
poorer health status
lower income levels
higher unemployment
higher rates of prosecution and conviction
attain fewer educational qualifications
lower rates of living in owned homes than non-Mäori.
Overall, there have
been few reductions in disparity since the last Closing the
Gaps report, and in those areas where Mäori rates have been
improving, corresponding improvements in the status of
non-Mäori mean that disparities between Mäori and non-Mäori
are not closing.
Poorer outcomes for Mäori are evident from the start of life:
Mäori infants are more likely to die than non-Mäori infants
Mäori children are less likely than non-Mäori to be participating in early childhood education, an area that is important for future educational development.
Disparities continue to exist throughout childhood and young adulthood
Mäori are leaving secondary school with much lower levels of qualifications than non-Mäori
majority of young Mäori are leaving school with qualification levels that will disadvantage them when attempting to gain access to quality post school education and employment
Mäori youth are less likely to move directly into tertiary education than non-Mäori, and are far less likely to be participating in formal tertiary education
Mäori are over represented in second chance schemes, such as the Training Opportunities Programme (TOPs).
There are
significant disparities between Mäori and non-Mäori social
and economic status throughout adulthood
Mäori unemployment and long term unemployment rates continue to be significantly higher than for non-Mäori
Mäori are also less likely to be participating in the labour force
Mäori incomes are lower than those for non-Mäori
Mäori are more likely to require government assistance or to be totally dependent on a benefit
This impacts on Mäori access to adequate housing, Mäori health status, and contributes to the much higher offending and victimisation rates within the Mäori community.
So What is the Government’s Closing the
Gaps Policy?
The gaps between Mäori and non-Mäori are
especially apparent in areas such as housing conditions and
home ownership, educational achievement, rates and periods
of unemployment, health status, numbers of prison inmates
and children and young persons in need of care, protection
and control.
This Government has agreed it will work
to close those gaps because they have an impact not just on
Mäori people’s ability to participate in all aspects of the
life of New Zealand, but also on their ability to manage and
control their own development. So the Government’s priority
sectors for closing the gaps are health, housing, education,
employment, justice, welfare and business and enterprise
development.
The closing the gaps policy provides the
Government with further impetus to focus its attention on
its own departments, strategies and systems, to produce
positive results for Mäori. The Government expects its
departments to improve their contributions to make a
positive difference to the health, housing, education,
employment, justice, welfare and business and enterprise
outcomes for Mäori. In my view, this suggests departments
will need to be responsive to the needs, interests and
priorities of Mäori.
It also suggests, to me, that
departments will have to be more rigorous in the development
and implementation of their strategies, policies, programmes
and services in terms of whether they work well for
Mäori.
Closing the Gaps means there is even more
reason for departments to engage with whänau, hapü, iwi and
Mäori organisations to deliver specified services to Mäori
communities. However, it is a ‘needs-focused’ policy
through which Mäori are treated as clients.
Iwi have a
number of qualities that can enhance the ability of
Government to meet its stated commitment to closing the gaps
and support whänau, hapü and iwi self-determination through
effecting a Treaty-based partnership.
For Mäori, the
main point of the closing the gaps policy is to ensure Mäori
are not prevented from having the best possible chance to
lead, manage and control their own development. Until now,
the disparities between Mäori and non-Mäori have had the
potential to be seen as a record of the failings of Mäori
people. This is neither sustainable nor appropriate.
Closing the Gaps does signal, however, how much of the
Government’s authority, expertise and resources need to be
brought to bear to make a substantial difference to
socio-economic outcomes for Mäori.
The ‘effectiveness
audit’ of spending on Mäori across government departments
would not be completed in time for the June 15 budget, so it
was not possible to take funding from those departments for
the new strategy. Extra funds would be injected into the
Budget.
I am confident the Budget will show the
Government’s commitment to closing the gaps in social and
economic development between Mäori and Pakeha.
Capacity
building is only part of the process. It’s an important
part and certainly I expect it to be funded so that over the
next 2½ years we are going to see iwi organisations and
Maori organisations in other settings being able to take up
this challenge.
And what is
capacity-building?
Capacity-building is a sign that the
Government considers whänau, hapü, iwi and Mäori generally
have a unique part to play in creating an environment in
which Mäori will realise their economic, political, social
and cultural aspirations. Capacity-building focuses on
enhancing capabilities so Mäori become the managers and
controllers of their own development.
This means
capacity-building should be an empowering process whereby
Mäori have the chance to continue to drive, formulate and
implement their own development strategies.
Some iwi
have completed a ‘stocktake’ of the needs for their hapü,
which would help the iwi to establish what sort of services
and skills are needed.
The next step would be to
produce a development plan which would go to the relevant
Crown Agency that held the resources that were needed. It
would then be up to Te Puni Kokiri to monitor how Government
Agencies responded to those plans.
An example of
capacity building at a micro level would be early
intervention in a family suffering from domestic violence.
The downstream effects of that violence were inhibiting the
woman in that family from being able to care for her
children properly, and meant the children were living in an
environment that had an impact on their learning. So more
serious problems for the family were likely further down the
line unless intervention took place.
Under the
capacity building strategy, a whanau worker might go in, sit
down with the family and establish what could be done, and
to ensure that it was done.
The same goes for other
social services, and in considering current practices one
may well ask:
Do people want to continue to have children
taken away from their families and placed in care? Some of
these placements cost $110,000 a year for one child.
Do
they want that to continue because that’s the system we’ve
got in place?
Do they want to see youth prisons being built? With a cost of around $50,000 a year for people to be kept in prison.
I mean, where do we intervene?
Where do we actually stop and say we want to intervene to
make a difference?
There are some iwi and Maori
organisations that could pick up the strategy immediately
and start work, because they already have experience running
their own social services.
Capacity-building is
envisaged by the Government to be a process which supports
the rangatiratanga of whänau, hapü and iwi.
It also
includes whänau, hapü, iwi, Mäori organisations and Mäori
communities’:
Assessing their current capacity,
identifying and prioritising needs
Creating development plans
Enhancing the skills and capabilities of their people
and, Implementing their development plans.
Government’s role in
capacity-building is to:
Fund or purchase
capacity-building initiatives
Develop and/or provide resources (such as policy, information, advice, programmes and services)
and, Support the ongoing development of capability amongst whänau, hapü, iwi, Mäori organisations and Mäori communities.
Capacity building
will take all the entrepreneurial skill and task-focused
aptitude of Mäori people, because it requires them to be
focused on capability and not on needs and deficiencies.
Our people will also need people like you to help and
support them in their endeavours.
Development and,
therefore, capacity building, is not a nebulous process for
which the results are invisible. Indeed, it is a process
the results of which can be seen on our people’s faces, and
is evident in their hearts and minds.
Development is a
changing and evolving process. It should never be treated
as static. Nor should the mechanisms and processes by which
it is achieved.
The policy is about enabling those
groups to build their own strategies, systems, structures
and skills so that they can move forward.
It is about
building a capacity that supports active iwi participation
in strategies to alleviate the disparities between Mäori and
non-Mäori and facilitate whänau, hapü and iwi
development.
It might cost some money up front to deal
with all of those issues, but in the end it should, in the
long term, save considerable money, because as people build
more skills, and families are able to identify what their
own needs are, and to have their needs addressed.
It
should result in people being able to take charge of their
own lives and their own situation.
A community
development approach to the reduction of disparities
requires that opportunity be provided for communities to
respond to their own needs and preferences. This is
critical in Mäori development. Old service delivery
mechanisms based on a centralised model of planning will not
produce the kinds of results the Government wants. They
will certainly not lead to the self-determination of whänau,
hapü and iwi.
The resources for the strategy would
also be on top of current government contracts for iwi and
urban Maori organisations to deliver social
services.
There are some iwi and Maori organisations that
could pick up the strategy immediately and start work,
because they already had experience running social
services.
Under-resourcing and inappropriate
contracting processes have lead to ad hoc development with
the priorities of government agencies taking centre stage.
This type of scenario must be avoided at all costs if the
Government is sincere in wanting to advance
self-determination for whänau, hapü and iwi. Centralised
control will not lead to this.
Cabinet has signed off
the funding for the ‘capacity building’ policy, which will
see hapü, iwi and other Mäori organisations around the
country producing their own community development plans that
will eventually go to Government agencies for
funding.
The alternative is for taxpayers to continue
to fork out massive amounts of money in crisis-point
interventions, dealing with Mäori who fell through the
cracks in existing government programmes and services.
I am really hopeful that by combining the resources
of the Government with the hearts and minds of our people,
we can truly make the progress we need to make and fulfil
the dreams we have always had.
It’s a huge task. It’s
a mammoth task but its necessary if we are going to ‘make a
difference’.
No reira, ma te wä pea ka kitea tatou he huarahi pai, hei häpainga, hei whakakaha i tena whänau, i tena hapü, i tena iwi ranei.
Kia ora mai
tatou.