Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Comments sought on Mana Party name

Mana Party president Matt McCarten says Hone Harawira will be standing under the party's banner in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, even if the party is not formally registered in time.

The Electoral Commission today opened a two-week period for comment on the name, after which the application will be considered by the commission.

Mr McCarten says he's hopes the process can be completed by the June 25 polling date.

“Even if the party is not registered, Hone can stand as a Mana candidate on the basis of the application has been received,” he says.

Mr McCarten says as the leader of a registered party, if he is reelected Hone Harawira would get a front bench seat in parliament and the right to speak on all topics.

Meanwhile, the Maori Party interviewed its three prospective Te Tai tokerau candidates last night, and will announce its choice today.

TRADE TRAINING A PRIORITY FOR LABOUR

Hauraki - Waikato MP Nanaia Mahuta says trade training will be a top priority for the next Labour government.

Ms Mahuta says young Maori make up a disproportionate number of the jobless.

She says many need training to get on the employment ladder, but they don't have the means.

“Labour will lead opportunities that ensure businesses provide openings for our kids to earn while they learn and that goes beyond Auckland, it goes into communities like Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Thames, those smaller towns that if that if we actively partner with those businesses, our kids don’t need to leave home while they earn while they learn,” Ms Mahuta says.

She says if rangatahi get job training where they live, they are more likely to stay in the area and eventually become the owners of the businesses.

PLACES OPEN IN BROWN INK WORKSHOPS

Playmarket is calling for scripts for its Brown Ink clinic, which give Maori and Pasifika playwrights the chance to get their stories onto the stage.

Advisor Jenni Heka says the selected writers will get advice on their script from established playwrights, and then have a full day clinic with a script advisor, director and actors.

She says it's about building relationships and the playwright's confidence.

Applications for the Brown Ink clinic close in July.

NGA PU WAEA ON LOOKOUT FOR DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES

A member of the new National Maori Broadband Working Group says one of its main tasks will be ensuring Maori don't fall through the cracks of the digital divide.

Nga Pu Waea was set up to provide Maori input into the rural broadband initiative, and its mandate was extended yesterday to cover the delivery of ultra fast broadband to urban areas.

Antony Royal of Ngati Raukawa says as expected Telecom got the lion's share of the UFB contract, so it's important Nga Pu Waea develops a good relationship with the company in the months and years ahead so Maori can benefit from the technology.

“Step one is we need to be able to make sure the access is affordable. Step two is then to start to look at ideas and ways in which people use this and help people create jobs, create opportunities, create all the kinds of things that connectivity will allow us to do,” Mr Royal says.

He's pleased Enable Networks got the contract to deliver ultra-fast broadband to Christchruch, because that will allow a comparison on whether community-based providers can perform better than the commercial supplier.

KNIGHTHOOD BESTOWED ON EDUCATIONALIST TAMATI REEDY

Under the shadow of Hikurangi, more than 500 people from iwi around the motu are gathering at Hiruharama Pa south of Ruatoria this morning to witness the investiture of Sir Tamati Muturangi Reedy.

The Ngati Porou leader and educationalist was made a knight companion of the New Zealand Order of merit in the New Year's Honours list.

After an extensive career in secondary schooling, Sir Tamati served as head of the Department of Maori Affairs from 1983 to 1989, before moving into tertiary education as Waikato University's foundation professor of Maori and Pacific development.

The ceremony will be performed by Governor general Sir Anand Satyanand at noon.

WELLS WINS KING FELLOWSHIP FOR LAND WARS TALE

Fresh from finishing a book called The Hungy Heart about missionary William Colenso, writer Peter Wells is taking on the story of a man who ate eyeballs.

The Hawkes Bay resident has been awarded the $100,000 Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers’ Fellowship to research and write a book about the 1871 trial in Napier of Kereopa Te Rau, who was hanged for the murder of missionary Carl Volkner in Opotiki in 1865.

He says the only Pakeha to speak up for Te Rau during the trial were Colenso and Sister Mary Aubert.

“It was a very inflammatory situation where Kereopa Te Rau had swallowed the eyes of Volkner and he became a kind of Osama Bin Laden figure for Pakeha people,” Mr Wells says.

The book, to be called Sparrow on a Rooftop, will be written as a mix of non-fiction, fiction and memoir as a portrait of a formative period of New Zealand history.

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