Waatea News Update

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

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Gold card great for Maori says Peters

Winston Peters says the Maori Party should be speaking up for his Gold Card for superannuitants ... before it comes under threat from any future government.

The New Zealand First leader says Maori are among those who have benefited most from the scheme, introduced when he was in coalition with Labour.

He believes it's not getting Maori Party support because it wasn't their idea.

“And I think the Maori Party and others should be far more generous about that. Rather than saying Winston Peters, we won’t say a thing about it. The thing is, for tens and tens of thousands of elderly people, it has opened up their lives,” Mr Peters says.

INTERMEDIATE KIDS URGED TO FORSAKE TOBACCO

A Taranaki health educator says it's never too early to encourage Maori to be smokefree.

Jason Mathews of Te Atiawa says an Action on Smoking and Health survey showing a 29 percent drop in the number of Taranaki 14 and 15 year olds lighting up on a daily basis is a tribute to the work of the district health board and hauora groups.

As well as promoting cessation services, they targeted places with high numbers of Maori, such as sporting events, and also created a leadership programme for intermediate schools.

“That's like building the culture of resisting the uptake of smoking and building the smokefree culture with that year six and seven age group so that’s a time they start to experiment,” Mr Matthews says.

He says the DHB's anti-smoking programmes focus on schools with high Maori rolls, especially in South Taranaki.

OPERATION 8 AUCTION GOES ONLINE

Organisers of an art auction to raise money for the defence of people charged in connection with the July 2008 anti-terrorism raids plan to do it all over again ... on a global scale.

More than $6000 was raised at the auction in Wellington on the weekend, which included a screening of the Operation 8 documentary.

Ben Knight says software developed on the eve of the auction allowed people to bid over the Internet against those on the floor.

The idea will be extended for another auction within the next couple of months, with artists around the world contributing works to be auctioned online for the October 15 solidarity fund.

Mr Knight says while many of the works sold for bargain prices at the weekend, the auction had allowed people to raise more questions about the trials of the 18 defendants, which have been put off until next year.

RANGATAHI LIST PLACE WERO TO NEW MANA PARTY

A rangatahi organiser for the Mana Party says young Maori want Hone Harawira's new movement to reflect their voice.

Wiremu Flavell of Nga Puhi and Ngati Maniapoto says the Maori Party stopped listening to rangatahi years ago, and its selection of Solomon Tipene to contest the Te Tai Tokerau by-election shows how out of touch it is with a predominantly youthful electorate.

He says while Maori tend to rely on kaumatua because of their knowledge and experience, that doesn't mean the young can be ignored.

“We want to see a rangatahi Maori candidate placed in the top five for the Mana Party at the end of the year elections. The solutions to the issues that we have can only come from rangatahi themselves. In the past, we see rangatahi issues, we have older people making decisions for us,” Mr Flavell says,

If Mana doesn't listen to its growing numbers of rangatahi supporters, they might consider creating their own youth party.

KATIE WOLFE WINS FILMMAKING MANA WAHINE PRIZE

The winner of the first Wairoa Maori Film Festival mana wahine award says it was nerve-wracking to take her latest production back to the marae.

Katie Wolfe won the award for both her acting and for her filmmaking, which includes an adaptation of Witi Ihimaera's coming out novel, Nights in the Garden of Spain.

She says it was good to show Kawa in a marae setting.

“The subject of homosexuality in te ao Maori is sensitive so I get quite nervous actually but it was great. In the Wairoa Maori festival all the films just sit there, they’re all played in wharenui and the work is all in context. It’s quite relaxing in that sense,” Ms Wolfe says.

She will be taking Kawa to the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco later this month and the Outfest in Los Angeles in july.

O’KEEFE HONOURED FOR URGE TO HELP

Hawkes Bay Maori leader Henare O'Keefe ... QSM ... says he is simply intoxicated with helping people.

The Flaxmere identity was given the Queen's Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

He says over the years he has nominated many people for honours, but never expected to be recognised himself.

“I'm quite addicted to helping people. It’s just a great buzz. I’m pohara in the material sense but I can go anywhere in the country and have a pillow to caress my head. That is so precious to me and I want to look after that,” Mr O'Keefe says.

One of the places he is showered with offers of hospitality is Christchurch where he took his tunu tunu BBQ after the February earthquake.

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