Pacific Wardens Funding Will Improve Coordination
Community leaders say a funding injection for Pacific wardens could pave the way for a national structure similar to the Mori wardens model.
, RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist
Community leaders say a funding injection for Pacific wardens could pave the way for a national structure similar to the Māori wardens model.
Pacific wardens are volunteers who provide support at big community events and activities. They operate in different parts of the country, including Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Waikato.
Among this year's budget announcements was NZ$1 million in funding for the Auckland Pacific Wardens Trust. The funding has been allocated over four years, with the trust due to receive $250,000 per year to co-ordinate the service in Auckland and Waikato.
Long-serving Auckland councillor Alf Filipaina and Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti discussed the potential impacts of the funding at a community event on Wednesday in Māngere, Auckland.
Filipaina said the funding would enable training for volunteers and would improve co-ordination between different groups of wardens across the city.
'It will really get them radios, communication… jackets, so when they are deployed anywhere around Tāmaki Makaurau, they know where they come from.'
It would also help support wardens through petrol vouchers and phone cards, he said.
In 2010, Filipaina was one of four community leaders who brought together different Pacific warden groups across Auckland into one co-ordinated service.
Filipaina said this year's multi-year budget funding announcement was particularly significant for building capacity in the Pacific warden service.
He believed there were between 100 and 120 Pacific wardens in Auckland currently.
'You could utilise this money to build that capacity, even a national Pacific wardens organisation,' Filipaina said.
'We're starting [with] this region [and] Waikato. I think there's [Pacific wardens] in Christchurch. But…we need to bring all those together, that's the key thing…and on a very similar model [to] the Māori Wwardens.
'Because why should we start looking at another model when their model works?'
Māori wardens have been operating in communities across the country for more than 150 years. They have legal responsibilities under the Māori Community Development Act 1962, and work in a range of ways, including by providing emergency management, being present at big events, and supporting whānau in the justice system.
Reti said he wanted to see Pacific wardens providing support across different types of community activities and events.
'My expectations are to have increased visibility of Pacific wardens in the community – not just at events, but generally in the community,' Reti said.
'I would like to think that that could go beyond that, from the one-off big events to day-to-day, weekend-to-weekend presence and visibility of the Pacific wardens, where they could be most utilised and most valued.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Education reforms and how they affect those in Hufflepuff
"C'S get degrees" was a comment I heard from a student 20 years ago. My reply was "Only if you want to be in Hufflepuff". The Harry Potter reference was not taken well, and I was accused of being judgemental. One of the criticisms of the NCEA qualifications is that it allowed students to settle for mediocrity where some just did enough to pass rather than extend themselves and aspire for excellence. One of my daughters was in the first cohort to go through NCEA, and she would reassure me that she was doing enough to pass, but merely passing was not what I wanted for her. I thought she was smarter than me and so I wanted to see how she could be extended to achieve her potential. A little unfair, as how many of us do achieve our potential? Life is much too interesting to spend all our energy on schoolwork. In the AI environment it may be the right thing to bring back the focus on external exams. However, it is not always the best way to ensure students have understood important concepts or are able to construct a coherent argument. I started attending university in my mid-30s and my internal marks were always high. However, when it came time to sit the exam it would usually knock me back. It was a little disheartening knowing that even though I understood the material well, my discomfort with exams meant that my grades would always drop. I remember the last exam I ever sat, a masters paper on epidemiology and biostatistics where I sat paralysed for the first 20 minutes. Just as well it was a three-hour exam. I have been around long enough to have taught students who have been through both the old School Certificate and NCEA. I haven't noticed a major difference in the ability of students to think about, understand, write and engage with the material I teach. One big change I have noticed, particularly in recent years, is that students tend to be a lot more confident. They are better able to do group and solo presentations, with less hesitancy and embarrassment than students from 25 years ago. I think NCEA contributed to that. One of the problems with the new structure is that it reminds me of when I started high school back in 1975 when we were sorted into two streams. An academic stream for those doing French or Latin and a general stream for those doing more vocational subjects like woodwork, metalwork and agriculture. The problem with these vocational-type streams is that you are asking 12-year-olds to almost set in stone their future vocational path. I am worried that the new curriculum will not give people a wide enough education to be able to change careers. Many people change careers every few years — I changed careers five times in my first 20 years after leaving school. While we are on education, the removal of the book At The Marae from schools because it has too many Māori words is astounding. The Māori words in question are, marae, karanga, wharenui, koro, hongi, karakia and kai. Most children will go to a marae and I don't know how you can talk about going to a marae without using Māori words. Having looked at the book I noticed it also had words derived from French, Latin, Norse and Old English/German. We have so many words in the English language derived from other languages that the inconsistencies are a mine field of pronunciation — take the letters "ough" in tough, trough, though, thought, through. What a pleasure it must be for beginning readers to come across Māori words where all the vowels are consistently pronounced. My children went to te kōhanga reo and then a total immersion Māori language school, although English was the primary language at home. My 5-year-old was so used to picking up Māori books and reading and understanding them that she decided she wanted to teach herself how to read English. The Māori language is a far easier language to learn to read than English because the vowels are always pronounced the same way. My daughter had gained the skills and confidence to read in Māori. Because she could speak English she picked up the book Are You My Mother?, published in English and Māori and proceeded to teach herself to read English by going back and forward between the two versions. The confidence in reading Māori words dramatically increased her ability to read English. There seems to be a dismissal of many things Māori in this coalition government, relegating Māori language and aspirations to the second-class status it had when I was growing up. Disappointing when they can actually benefit all. — Dr Anaru Eketone is an associate professor in the University of Otago's social and community work programme.
Scoop
10 hours ago
- Scoop
Can My Father's Partner Take His House?
Got questions? RNZ is launching a new podcast, No Stupid Questions with Susan Edmunds, next month. We'd love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but - even better - you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@ What happens if my father owns a house, but now has a partner for several years who moved in to the house and has put the power in her name to prove she's lived there for a certain time. If my father dies before her with no will, will she get the house or us kids? Justine Wood is a specialist trustee at Public Trust and helped me answer your question. Basically, when someone dies without a will, it's referred to as "dying intestate". That means specific legislation comes into play that determines who will get which bits of the person's estate. That means the partner may well be entitled to a share of the house. "Based on the family circumstances you've outlined, the partner may be entitled to receive the personal chattels, such as vehicles, furniture and jewellery, the first $155,000 of the estate and a third share of the remainder of the estate," she said. "This will depend on the couple meeting the legal criteria of having a de facto relationship at the time. The remaining two thirds of anything left would be distributed equally between his children. "Administering an estate when there is no will can be costly and take longer to sort out. Having a will helps your family understand what you'd like done with your estate after your gone - and it makes the process of managing your passing less stressful on loved ones." The Administration Act defines de facto relationship in line with the Property (Relationships) Act. This said a de facto relationship is a couple who are at least 18, living together as a couple and not married or in a civil union. Things that might be taken into account are the duration of the relationship, the nature and extent of common residence, whether there is a sexual relationship, the degree of financial interdependence and dependence, ownership of property, the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life, the care and support of children, performance of household duties and the reputation and public aspects of the relationship. It would make sense for your father to draw up a will. Even with a will, his partner may have rights under the Property (Relationships) Act - they may need to sign a contracting out agreement if he wants to ensure that the property is left to you. Are there any disadvantages in keeping KiwiSaver funds there in KiwiSaver after retirement age? Is it best to fill the forms now and take some, if not all? There really is no disadvantage to leaving your money in KiwiSaver once you're retired, if that's what makes the most sense for you at the moment. It would be a good idea to get some advice on the funds your money is invested in, though. Depending on how much you've got in your KiwiSaver, it might make sense to divide it up and invest it in a few different funds. You might have some in a conservative or even cash fund that you can tap into if you need it in the near term, for unexpected bills or things like that, some in a balanced fund for the medium term and then some money in a growth fund for the longer term. The growth fund will probably bump around a bit but should deliver better returns overall, which might help make your money last longer through your retirement.
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Old fire sprinklers in Parliament pose risk, PSA demands urgent action
Parliamentary Service said it was managing a project to replace all fire protection sprinkler pipework throughout Parliament House. 'The pipework is old and has a risk of failure and leaks,' said chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero in his first statement to RNZ. 'It's a long-term project spanning several years but we are already seeing improvements in the system after completing some key areas.' The Public Service Association (PSA) union was surprised at this and called for an urgent meeting, saying it had been kept largely in the dark. Parliament is no stranger to fires, the Great Fire of 1907 being the largest. A night watchman 'thought he heard rain on the roof, but when he went to check, he found a substantial blaze had broken out', one history said, with other fires inside in 1992 and 2015 (and on the lawns during the occupation of 2022). PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons responded to Gonzalez-Montero that its delegates were only told of 'general problems' with the fire system and about general maintenance. 'The serious risk of failure uncovered in this report has not been adequately focused on,' she said in a statement. 'Safety-related asset management should be properly planned for – it is not acceptable to put workers, MPs and visitors at risk during a fire to skimp on the maintenance budget.' When Gonzalez-Montero was asked by RNZ about this, he responded that no person was at any risk. 'We are performing this work in stages and have been for almost two years now with many large portions of the building completed,' he said in a second, later statement. 'During this time, the building's fire protection system remains fully operational and compliant. Any drop in performance, or sensors going offline, would trigger warnings to our facilities team.' The building had a BWoF. The overhaul work was fully funded, he said. However, the Treasury report in early 2025 said, 'Budget funding sought'. Subsequently, Gonzalez-Montero said that Parliamentary Service had until recently been funding the sprinkler upgrade from baseline funding. 'This was recently transferred to a new appropriation to ringfence it.' This then meant the Treasury report captured it. The proposed fix also covered strengthened ground floor windows to improve intruder resistance. 'It is not acceptable for the solution to take years, this work is urgent,' said Fitzsimons. 'There is no room for any risk of failure when it comes to fire safety.' At a meeting with Parliamentary Service, it was agreed this would be discussed in the health and safety forum at Parliament, she said. – RNZ
