The Minister of Māori Affairs, Dr Pita Sharples, has announced consultation dates and locations relating to a new Māori language strategy. The Minister has indicated the new strategy will focus on language learning in the home, and also proposes new governance arrangements for Māori language sector entities (Pānui 45/2013 refers).
Month: February 2014
Last Thursday the third reading of the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill was completed in parliament, and then became law last Friday, upon receiving Royal Assent from the Governor-General. This change creates a single Arts Council; with Te Waka Toi, the Māori Arts Board of the Creative
The Associate Minister of Justice, Chester Borrows, has put out a media release seeking applications for projects to support the Youth Crime Action Plan. Pānui 39/2013 details this plan, which focuses on greater community engagement to reduce youth offending. The funding, $400,000 in total for this round, is available for
Statistics New Zealand has released research on non-participation in electoral voting. They found 20 percent of people had not voted in the 2011 General Election, and Māori represented 26 percent of this grouping. This is disproportionately high. Common reasons for people not voting included not being enrolled, forgetting to do
On Wednesday Statistics New Zealand released the Household Labour Force Survey results for the quarter to the end of December 2013. The survey shows a slight decrease in national unemployment from 6.2 percent to 6.0 percent. However for Māori the unemployment rate increased from 12.2 percent to 12.8 percent. That
The 2013 annual report of Aotearoa Fisheries has been released. Aotearoa fisheries manages its own fishing interests (on behalf of its iwi shareholders), and through its holding company, Kura, also has a 50% ownership interest in Sealord.[1] We advise the Aotearoa Fisheries direct fishing activities made a profit of circa
On Tuesday Labour Party Member of Parliament, Shane Jones, took the opportunity to criticise the Iwi Chairs for allegedly focusing their efforts on natural resources, at the expense of Māori social matters. In his words, “[It’s] high time iwi leaders stopped obsessing over the ownership of earth, wind and fire
Waitangi Day commemorations were held yesterday, with many senior political and Māori leaders attending events at Waitangi as per the norm. We also advise, along with the actual commemorations, the Iwi Chairs Forum, the New Zealand Māori Council, and the Māori Economic Development Panel all held their respective meetings in
John Tamihere has indicated he is suing MediaWorks for not renewing his Radio Live contract, which ended late last year. Mr Tamihere has been replaced on the show by Alison Mau. Near the end of his contract Mr Tamihere and co-host Willie Jackson undertook an interview of a potential
On Tuesday parliament recommenced for the year. The first item of business was the Prime Minister’s Statement (24-pages), which was followed by replies from other party leaders. (Opposition leaders were, predictably, against the Government’s proposals, while the Māori Party used the opportunity to defend Whānau Ora again against Winston Peters.)
Over the weekend major political parties attended the Ratana celebrations .[Footnote] In contrast to the previous day in West Auckland, at this event Mr Key indicated the National Party does focus on Māori, and he emphasised the progress of Treaty settlements that have occurred under his Government, housing improvements (including
At the end of last week the main political parties commenced the process of setting out their political views and policy objectives for the year. This process typically has two stages; semi-formal ‘state-of-the-nation’ speeches, including new policy ideas, given to a receptive audience; followed by formal statements in parliament. In
On Wednesday a cluster of major entities within the forestry sector indicated they would fund an independent panel to review safety within the sector. This has been endorsed by the Council of Trade Unions, the Māori Party, the Government, and other groups. (Previously the responsible Government Minister, Simon Bridges, had
This week the Gisborne District Council gave approval for a water storage dam to be built at Whatatutu. The dam will be built by the Wi Pere Trust, on its land, and will be designed to hold enough water to service their farmlands, vineyards and orchards for up to 20
On Wednesday the Government announced seven consortium groups who have been selected to deliver its Māori and Pasifika Trade Training initiative. (This initiative, of circa $10 million per year was announced in Budget 2013 and provides funding for Māori and Pasifika people aged 18-34 years to gain qualifications, apprenticeships and