Waatea News Update

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

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Whanganui claimants seek unique settlement

Whanganui River claimants say they don’t want the same co-management deal included in other settlements.

Negotiator Gerard Albert says the Whanganui River Maori Trust Board doesn’t want to share management with local authorities, asis the case with the Waikato river.

He says it wants a deal which reflects the iwi's principles, values and long-held tupuna rights.

Mr Albert says the government has not responded to the proposal.

TIMBER WORKERS NEEDING HELP

The Council of Trade Unions wants the Government to do more to help timber industry workers.

Maori vice-president Syd Kepa says almost all the 150 workers made redundant this month at mills at Tangiwai, Matawhero and Kawerau were Maori.

The lay-offs come on top of 330 jobs lost earlier this year at Putaruru and Fletcher Building’s three Auckland sites.


“The government should get involved in this, particularly that taskforce that was set up by the Minister of Maori Affairs to look at ways and means of retaining jobs. I’m not talking about creating jobs. I’m talking about retaining jobs in those industries.
Mr Kepa says.

He says the Government has come to the rescue of finance company investors and farmers, so it should do the same for timber workers.

WHANAU NEED TO SPEAK OUT ON ABUSE

The director of Maori child advocacy organisation Te Kahui Mana Ririki says whanau must speak out when they see children being abused.

Anton Blank says one of the most troubling aspects of a case where a West Auckland nine-year-old girl was subjected to sadistic abuse by a parent was the number of adults who were aware but said nothing.

He says that’s been the pattern in abuse cases for far too long.

“The patterns are always the same, that there has been multiple agency involvement, there has been large numbers of adults around this child, and family members around this child and still we see this repeated failure to act,” Mr Blank says.

He says whanau ora providers need to consider the sort of wrap around services for families which might detect and prevent such abuse.

TOM NEWNHAM FIGHTER AGAINST RACISM

A leading anti-apartheid campaigner says the late Tom Newnham inspired generations of New Zealanders to fight against racism wherever they saw it.

The long-serving secretary of the Citizens Association for Racial Equality died last week aged 84, and his life was celebrated at the Mount Eden War Memorial Hall this morning.

John Minto says Mr Newnham’s activism stemmed from what he saw as a teacher in Maori communities like Te Araroa on the East Coast, Pukekohe and Otara.

“And I think that gave him initially his empathy in working with Maori students, seeing the difficulties they faced within the system and that translated into his activist work which occurred outside of his teaching hours,” Mr Newnham says.

As well as his high profile campaigns against sporting tours to apartheid era South Africa, Tom Newnham fought issues such as Maori land rights and getting translators into hospitals.

MAORI ROLE NEEDS TO STAND APART

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson, Parekua Horomia, says the planned constitutional review must protect the status of Maori as tangata whenua.

The review, to be led by Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples and deputy Prime Minister Bill English, will look at issues such as the size of parliament, the future of the Maori seats and the place of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Mr Horomia says there is already a tendency in government agencies to minimise Maori influence, or to lump Maori in with Pacific Islanders on issues like health and education.

“Woe betide if it starts getting run together on every measure and you start diminishing that tangata whenua status and that there is a treaty in this country,” Mr Horomia says.

THORP TRIED OUT MENU ON CRUISE LINER

Chef Anne Thorp from Ngati Awa and Ngaiterangi is giving cruise ship passengers a taste of Aotearoa.

The host of Maori Television’s "Kaiora" cooking show is getting the feel of the galley on the Pacific Pearl, which is docked in its new home port of Auckland.

Ms Thorpe says she's thrilled at the opportunity, which includes preparing a degustation menu for a three day Hauraki Gulf mystery cruise.

Tonight passengers are in for fresh snapper and a beef ragout.

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