For the Labour Party, employment and labour laws have traditionally been a central policy theme. This Government is clearly returning to that core political platform, with a number of labour market policy changes announced and underway. Many such changes are focused on ‘vulnerable’ employees, such as those on lower wages
Author: Seattle Ropiha
One of the key election policy commitments of the Labour Party is to reform the tax system, in order to reduce inequality and ensure a ‘fairer’ approach to taxation. However the party gave few details before the election of what this might mean, other than that there would be no
The next political race meet will be Waitangi Day. Again the Prime Minister has indicated strong pre-event form, by electing to stay in the area for five days – far longer than others before her, and noteworthy given former Prime Minister Mr English elected to attend ceremonies elsewhere last year.
On Wednesday, the Māori political year commenced with politicians of all stripes attending Rātana Pā celebrations as per usual, along with iwi and Māori dignitaries. The event is historically the celebration of the birth of the Māori prophet Tahupōtiki Wīremu Rātana, (1873-1939), although as we’ve advised previously the event has
Purpose This quarterly review provides a summary of significant Māori focused social, economic, Treaty and political policy developments for the period October to 15 December 2017. Within the quarter we reviewed five data set publications, four research reports, and four Government reports. Information summaries are provided in the following Appendices:
The briefing from the Office of Treaty Settlements is a short factual piece. It’s key points are: 61% of settlements are signed off (85 Deeds of Settlement); 53 settlements remain, and of these 47 are in active negotiations; the goal is to conclude all settlements with ‘willing and able’ groups
The Whānau Ora briefing covers some of the same material as the main brief in terms of the structure of Te Puni Kōkiri and the importance of Whānau Ora as a concept, but is written for Peeni Henare as the incoming Minister. It describes Whanau Ora as ‘leading edge’. For
The briefing from Te Puni Kōkiri is a mixed bag. It is strongest in discussing Ministerial functions, such as appointments the new Minister will need to make, and boards she will sit on. e. she (Nanaia Mahuta) has immediate appointments to make to the Waitangi Tribunal, and will be involved
All agencies have now released their Briefings to Incoming Ministers, (and there are circa 170 such briefings). We have reviewed the Te Puni Kōkiri, Whānau Ora, and Office of Treaty Settlements briefings.
This week a letter of resignation from Māori Party president Tukoroirangi Morgan has been circulated within the party. The resignation takes effect immediately. Mr Morgan has also called for Te Ururoa Flavell and Marama Fox to step down as party co-leaders, and noted that the party’s constitution was unwieldy, and
Yesterday the Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, used the Government’s December Half-Year Fiscal and Economic Update to (re) announce their commitments regarding tax reforms. This was required to halt the National Party’s tax cuts (that had been scheduled for 1 April 2018), and to introduce changes to the Working For Families
Last Friday the Waikato Branch of the Institute of Directors held a Christmas event. At the event, Chairperson of the Federation of Māori Authorities, Traci Houpapa was honoured, and received the Institute’s highest level of member, ‘Chartered Fellow’. However, later Sir William Gallagher, who was the keynote speaker, proceeded to
On Tuesday the Auckland Council Independent Māori Statutory Board (‘the Board’) released a media statement advising that its latest assessment of how well Auckland Council’s (‘the Council’) activities improve Māori well-being had been completed. The report is available on request.[1] The report has been prepared by the consultancy PCW, and
This week we are continuing our series of summaries from iwi annual reports, with reviews of the Waikato / Tainui report, Ngai Tūhoe and Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust. The tables that follow provide summary financial information. We have also applied two standard financial performance ratios shown as percentages –
Te Puni Kōkiri is continuing to publish regional profiles of the Māori population, and has now uploaded onto its website a profile for Te Tai Hauāuru. This is a one page infographic setting out key statistics, such as population age, education, housing, and other data. http://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/a-matou-mohiotanga Manawatu District Council has