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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Turia angry at super city seat denial

Monday August 24

Maori party co-leader Tariana Turia says the government is ignoring the democratic process in deciding there should be no Maori seats on Auckland super city.

Mrs Turia says Maori have never had equal citizenship and opportunity as agreed to in the Treaty of Waitangi because if voting had not been on individual land tile which ignores Maori collective ownership of land Maori would have had eight seats on the council since 1840.

She says the government has ignored democratic checks and balances such as the Royal Commission of Inquiry and the Select Committee which is due to report in two weeks.

“Why bother. Why go through all these checks and balances and have these processes in place, when in the end they still go and do what they want anyway. This is what happens to our people time and time again and we’re never surprised by it but you do get sick of it,” Mrs Turia says.

She says the government feared that if they let Act leader Rodney Hide resign because they allowed Maori seats they feared losing votes to Act at the next election.

WANANGA MOURNS LOSS OF KAUMATUA TUI ADAMS

Tainui continues to mourn the loss of one of their leaders.

Tuhuatahi Tui Adams was a reservoir of knowledge and an expert in the knowledge systems of Waikato, Maniapoto, Hauraki and Raukawa and was a kaumatua of Te Wananga o Aotearoa and senior tutor of Te Arataki Manu Korero programme to assist Tainui elders better understand Tainui tikanga and history.

Wananga ceo Bentham Ohia says Tui was a bedrock of support for Te Wananga o Aotearoa co-founder and Tumuaki Rongo Wetere and his loyalty and generosity would never be forgotten.

Tui Adams was a recipient of the Queen Services Medal in 2000 for services to the Maori community and in 2003 received an honorary doctorate from The University of Waikato.

He is lying at Tokanganui-a-Noho marae in Te Kuiti until his tangi on Wednesday,

GOVERNMENT REFUSES LOOK INTO LOW MAORI HEALTH PAY

The New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation is flabbergasted by the government's decision to ignore a unanimous recommendation by the Health Select Committee to establish a working party to address pay disparites for Maori.

Chief executive Geoff Annals says the refusal to explore why Maori health workers pay rates lag behind those at district health boards and in GP practices has exacerbated the original injustice committed by Labour.

“The Labour government put a lot of money into primary healthcare but the majority went into mainstream general practice and for whatever reason the money that went into Maori and iwi providers who are doing the same sort of work and arguably more difficult work, they get less funding,” Mr Annals says.

The submission made nearly two years ago was unique as it involved a united approach by union members and their employers, and was a first in industrial relations.

The select committee, including National Party members, agreed there was an equity issue and recommended a working group consisting of representatives from Maori and iwi service providers, the ministry of health, district health boards, and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

LANGUAGE COMMISSION PROMOTES INTER-GENERATIONAL REO

The Maori Language Commission says encouraging generations of whanau to speak Maori to each other in the home is the biggest step to ensuring the revival of te Reo Maori.

The commission hosted a forum in Wellington presenting feedback from its hui to iwi around the country to develop a new Maori Language strategy.

Chief Executive Huhana Rokx says intergenerational transmission was a key priority, getting families to use it as the language of the home.

The commission was focused on providing good access and ease of use of resources, as well as broadcaSting to help get Te Reo Maori into the home.

SUPER CITY SEAT DECISION BRINGS CALL FOR SHARPLES’ SCALP

Labour's Maori Affairs spokesman Parekura Horomia is calling on Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples to resign in light of the government's decision to exclude Maori from seats on Auckland Super City.

He says the government's decision t is the darkest day for race relations in New Zealand he can remember in more than 30 years in politics.

“It’s as bad as the bad times New Zealand had. It’s raupatu in the modern sense,” he says.

Mr Horomia says Prime Minister John Key’s statement that Pita Sharples and ACT leader Rodney Hide would be working together to work out the best way Maori can be represented is outright rubbish.

WHANGANUI MUSEUM WINS TOHU FOR IWI ENGAGEMENT

Whanganui Regional Museum has won a national award for its outstanding contribution to race relations.

The museum has been named as one of 12 recipients of the Human Rights Commission’s annual New Zealand Diversity Action Awards which were presented by the Governor-General at the New Zealand Diversity Forum in Wellington tonight.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres says what makes the Whanganui Regional Museum special is its unique partnership between tangata whenua and the wider community.

The museum's Te Pihi Mata, The Sacred Eye, exhibition opened in 2007 and displays photographs of Whanganui iwi taken by WHT Partington from 1892-1908.

When these ancestral photos were offered for sale by auction, their descendants negotiated to pay a six-figure sum to retrieve them.

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