Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Clamants want answer on spectrum progress

Maori spectrum claimants will ask the Government why it is holding up efforts to work out how Maori should share in the latest reallocation of frequencies.

Piripi Walker from the Wellington Maori language board, Nga Kaiwhakapumau i te reo, says a national hui has been briefed on what has happened in the year since claimants agreed to defer their Waitangi Tribunal hearing on fourth generation spectrum and form a joint working party with Crown officials.

The latest claim was in response to the freeing up of frequencies caused by the shift from analogue to digital television.

Mr Walker says a paper was prepared to go to Cabinet in September, but the responsible ministers haven't put it forward.

“We're going to seek out a full answer from the Crown on where it’s going and our job then is to listen/ We’re in negotiations and they require good faith and then we’ll see where we go from there,” he says.

Mr Walker says the history of spectrum claims over the past 20 years is that the politicians are unwilling to accept strong findings by the Waitangi Tribunal and the courts that Maori have rights to spectrum.

TURIA WANTS COMPANIES TOP PAY FOR TOBACCO CURES

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia says tobacco companies should be made to pay to help people stop smoking.

Mrs Turia says she endorses the editorial in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal calling for prompt action to implement the recommendations of Maori affairs select committee inquiry into the tobacco industry.

She says the costs of making New Zealand smoke free should not all fall on the taxpayer.

“Those international companies who make a lot of money out of it, they do nothing to lower the nicotine levels, they do nothing to assist. Personally I think they should be the ones who are paying for the Nicotinel, the patches, the Champix, all of the substances that can be given to people who smoke,” Mrs Turia says.

DISTINGUISHED TRADITIONAL SCHOLAR MOURNED

Ngai Tahu leader Sir Tipene O'Regan says Te Aue Davis will be long remembered not only as a great weaver but as a distinguished traditional scholar.

The Ngati Maniapoto kuia died on Sunday at the age of 85.

Speaking from her tangi at Tokikapu Marae in Waitomo, Sir Tipene says he worked closely with Mrs Davis on preparations for the Ngai Tahu claims, on building marae, and on various heritage boards.

He says she had an encyclopaedic knowledge of traditional Maori history.

“She compiled, edited and published bilingually the 1990 atlas of Maori oral histories and that is one of the great contemporary documents of traditional content of best quality,” Sir Tipene says.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS ON AGENDA FOR WORKSHOP

Indigenous and human rights workers from around the Asia - Pacific region are in Auckland for a four-day workshop on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of indigenous Peoples.

Organiser Bill Hamilton from the Human Rights Commission says people are looking for practical ways to implement the declaration, which New Zealand adopted with conditions in may.

He says the results could help Maori frame the debate on issues like constitutional change and participation and representation in government.

The workshop started with a powhiri at Orakei Marae this afternoon.

WELFARE REVIEW IGNORING NEED FOR CONSULTATION

A member of the Alternative Welfare Working Group says the Government's official group is ignoring a fundamental principle of successful reform ... that the people affected need to be involved.

Both groups released interim reports last week, offering radically different prescriptions.

Mamari Stevens says the official report's glib treatment of Maori issues reflects a failure to properly engage with Maori.

She says based on past reviews like Puao Te Ata Tu in the 1980s, Maori expected a much higher standard of consultation than they got.

“Where is the consultation, the genuine consultation of the Maori voice in this decade for this issue. There’s no mention in these reports so far of the history of Maori dealing with and having these experiences with social welfare. You can’t clean the slate and go ahead as if nothing has happened. You must take the history into account when you are designing a way forward,” she says.

TRIP SOUTH AIDS STUDY

One of this year's top Maori scholars says he's glad his father convinced him to head south to study.

Hori Barsdell from Ngati Awa, Whakatohea, Ngai Te Rangi and Te Arawa is studying physical education, Maori and music technology at Otago University ... where his father Peter went before returning to Mataatua to teach physed at Whakatane High School.

The 22 year old says winning a $10,000 John McLeod scholarship for outstanding academic success in Maori health is inspiring and he’s keen to work with rangatahi encouraging healthy lifestyles.

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