Waatea News Update

News from Waatea 603 AM, Urban Maori radio, first with Maori news

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Monday, January 25, 2010

Common approach to geothermal development

Te Arawa landowners have formed a working party to coordinate development of their geothermal resources.

Working party secretary Willie Te Aho says there is potential for up to 400 megawatts of generation on Maori land from Rotoiti through to just north of Taupo.

A hui last week heard from Contact Energy, Mighty River Power and from Tuaropaki Trust, which has a geothermal plant on its land.

Mr Te Aho says a unified approach is needed to get the most out of the taonga, taking a lead role protecting and developing it.

He says geothermal development could be worth $2 billion to the region.

THREE STRIKES POLICY UNDERMINES WHANAU ORA DIRECTION

The Maori Party is shaping up for a fight with its coalition partners over penal policy.

Co-leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples have expressed alarm over the ACT-driven three strikes legislation the Government intends to introduce.

Mrs Turia says the thrust of the bill is the opposite of the whanau ora approach being pushed by the Maori Party, and National seems uninterested in tackling the causes of offending such as poverty and joblessness.

“If we genuinely want to change the way in which people behave and get them out of that whole thing of criminal offending, we need to look at the family and we need to look at how we can change things for that family so they can participate fully in society,” Mrs Turia says.

She says other countries like the United Kingdom are looking at ways to lower imprisonment rates and involve the community more in corrections.

AUSTRALIA NO ANSWER FOR MAORI TOURISM OPERATORS

Maori tourism operators aren't expecting benefits from a new initiative to attract Australian visitors.

The government is sharing $10 million across eight regional tourism organisations to promote themselves across the Tasman.

Kapiti Island lodge operator John Barrett, the chair of the Maori Tourism Council, says most Maori ventures cater to North American, European and Asian visitors.

“The Australian market in the past hasn’t been so interested in cultural product. The Rotorua, Taupo, central North Island region, and maybe Auckland and the Far North, may might do all right out of it, but overall I don’t think there will be a huge amount of benefit for a majority of Maori operators,” Mr Barrett says.

He would like tourism minister John Key to set aside funds to promote Maori tourism products.

PROTEST AGAINST WORK CENTRE IN FLAXMERE

The organiser of last year's anti-crime protest by Flaxmere residents is expecting a big turnout at this morning's protest against a proposed work centre in the Hawkes Bay town.

Hastings District councillor Henare O'Keefe says residents don't want the Corrections Department facility in the middle of their shopping centre.

He says residents feel the strongly-Maori community is being used as a dumping ground.

Henare Kingi says the Corrections Department has a community work centre only four kilometers away in Hastings.

SHARPLES CONCERNED ABOUT FUNDING FOR REHAB CENTRES

Meanwhile, associate corrections minister Pita Sharples fears the Government's planned three strikes law will draw resources away from his planned Maori-centered rehabilitation centres.

The Maori Party co-leader says even though National has watered down some of ACT's original proposals, the bill is a major victory for Rodney Hide's party.

He says the result will be a silly and unfair law that does nothing to address the causes of offending and will lead to increased strain on the prison system.

“I'm disappointed if the money used on that, if there’s no money available for my rehab centres. Whare Oranga Ake, which is really going to treat recidivism big time, so if you have 32 inmates or prisoners in my centre, next year those 32 will not come back,” Dr Sharples says.

He says it's constitutionally unsound to take such a large amount of sentencing discretion away from the courts.

CANADIAN STORYTELLERS JOIN BUS THROUGH NORTH

Toi Maori Aotearoa's annual On the Bus: Maori Storytellers Tour has picked up some hitchhikers.

Apirana Taylor from Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-Apanui and Karl Teariki, who has Ngati Kahungunu, Rarotongan and Tahitian heritage, will be joined on their hikoi through Tai Tokerau next month by Sharon Shorty and Duane Ghastant' Aucoin from the Tlingit nation of Canada's northwest.

Tour organiser Charlie Holland says Ms Shorty was on the tour five years ago and her stories go down well, especially with younger audiences, and the stories bring across common values between Maori and other first nations.

The On the Bus tour starts in Kerikeri the day after Waitangi Day with a one-off showing of a film by Mr Aucoin.

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