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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Jones steps aside from fisheries trust

Labour list MP Shane Jones intends to announce he will step down as chair of the Maori fisheries settlement trust at the trust's annual meeting on Friday.

Mr Jones was appointed to Te Ohu Kaimoana in 1993 at the age of 33, and elected chair in 2000 after the incoming Labour government dropped Ngai Tahu's Sir Tipene O'Regan from the commission.

Under his leadership, Te Ohu Kaimoana ended years of bickering and won iwi support for a fisheries settlement allocation model, which has now resulted in the majority of iwi now owning their fisheries settlement assets.

Mr Jones flagged last year that this hui a tau would be his last, but that did not stop sniping from Opposition MPs to his dual role.

“When you come into public life and you’re putting up with that irrelevant but potentially damaging rumour-mongering that you're a double dipper and you don't deserve to be in Parliament or you don't deserve to hold your other position, then you get to a position where the job is pretty much done anyway and there are some competent people to take over from me,” Mr Jones says.

Te Ohu Kaimoana will vote on a replacement chairperson when its two recently-appointed members join the board.

DYSON SLAPS DOWN SHARPLES DOLE PLAN

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson says Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples' call for a return to work for the dole schemes will get no backing from her government.

The Maori Party caucus today decided to back Dr Sharples' off the cuff policymaking on benefits.

But Ms Dyson says here and overseas it has been proven that work for the dole schemes are expensive to administer and do little to ensure people get into real jobs.

“Work for the dole assumes that people on an unemployment benefit don’t want to work, and in an overwhelming majority of cases, that is not the case,” Ms Dyson says.

BRIDGE FLAG REFUSAL STARKS ROW

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira has accused Transit New Zealand of double standards over its refusal to fly the Tino Rangatiratanga movement's flag from the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day.

Transit says the slot is reserved for flags of sovereign nations.

But Mr Harawira says the black and red flag, which has been widely adopted as a Maori flag after it won a competition run by the Kawariki movement, will be part of Waitangi Day Celebrations in Sydney, London, New York and Los Angeles -- but not in the city with the largest Maori population.

“You know the black flag with the silver fern on, I’ve seen that flying off the Harbour Bridge. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘When did they change the rules?’ Why all of a sudden because the Maori flag is proposed to be flown, they come up with this rule they only fly national flags. Because the silver fern on a black background is not a national flag,” Mr Harawira says.

TOI MOKO ON WAY HOME FROM ABERDEEN

Maori can expect more of their skeletal remains held by overseas museums to be returned home.

Nine toi moko or smoked heads are on their way back from the Marischal Museum at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland in the care of Apapata Hakiwai, the director of Matauranga Maori at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, and Ngai Tahu kaumatua Kukupa Tirikatene.

Te Papa's kaihautu, Te Taru White, says since 2003 the museum has stepped up its efforts to recover as many ancestral remains as possible.

“We're pretty experienced. We’ve moved about 18 institutions and also koiwi tangata, skeletal remains, from around 18 institutions so far, so we’re getting pretty efficient at this process,” Te Taru White says.

The toi moko will be welcomed to Te Papa at nine on Monday Morning, and will be put in a waahi tapu area in the museum.

FIERCE DEBATE IN MAORI PARTY ON DOLE IDEA

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples' call for a return to work for the dole schemes has won guarded support from his caucus.

Dr Sharples floated the idea last week, saying Maori are getting trapped on benefits.

The idea won support from National, which ran such schemes in the 1990s, but was rejected by Labour and the Greens, who said they don't work and they force beneficiaries to work for less than minimum wage.

Coming out of a two day caucus where the Maori Party MPs set their agenda for the year, Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira said the term work for the dole has been associated with beneficiary bashing.

But Mr Harawira says Dr Sharples won him over.

“During our caucus we hyad what’s known by Pakehas as a robust and vigorous debate on that particular issue. I’m happy to say that I back Pita’s instincts nearly all the time and I backed him on this one too,” Mr Harawira says.

He says the Maori Party is keen to find ways for Maori to break the cycle of benefit dependency.

TREATY PROCESS FALLING SHORT

National Party Maori Affairs co-spokesperson Georgina Te Heuheu says the treaty settlement process is falling short of Maori expectations.

Mrs te Heuheu, a former member of the Waitangi Tribunal, says the claim settlement structure put in place by National in the early 1990s is still substantially in place.

She says it may need to be reviewed when National is next in government, which she expects will be at the end of next year.

“I'm very much aware that a number of tribes, if not most tribes, would express dissatisfaction that settlements don’t come anywhere near their losses. And that’s their view and that’s what they’re entitled to,” Mrs te Heuheu says.

She can understand the Maori Party's concerns about settlement levels, but there is no way any government can offer full compensation.

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