Latest news with #TreatySettlement
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
King's Birthday Honours Recognise Significant Contributions Of Māori
Minister for Māori Development Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka today recognises the significant achievements of the Māori recipients in the King's Birthday 2025 Honours List, for their dedicated mahi and outstanding contributions across various important areas. 'The impressive mahi of Māori recipients this year are too numerous to mention. They have been honoured for achievements across many fields, coming from Iwi right across New Zealand – it is my privilege to recognise all of them today and to highlight just some examples,' Mr Potaka says. 'The King's Birthday Honours recognise the commitment and the passion that the recipients have shown, along with what has come from their dedication to their work and their causes. 'Among those recognised are, Mrs Deborah (Debbie) Davis, who has done extensive work to bring so much good, including through He Iwi Kotahi Tātou Trust, the grassroots organisation transforming the community of Moerewa in Northland, along with her husband, Mr Ngahau Davis (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manu, Kohatutaka) 'Mrs Davis (Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāti Kahungunu) has worked, through the Trust since 1987, to address challenges including housing, food security within the community, and youth engagement. Her and her husband's work helped to provide insulation and heating solutions to more than 12,000 Northland homes since 2008. 'They have developed food rescue programmes and have introduced cultural and sports programmes that blend physical activity with the preservation of Māori traditions. They have expanded whānau support services to offer counselling, school programmes, and drug and alcohol programmes. Over the past 15 years, they have been involved in the establishment of a rehabilitative-focused sentencing in Kaikohe, Matariki Court. 'Hon Dover Samuels is recognised for services as a Member of Parliament and his achievements and what he progressed in that time, including as Minister of Māori Affairs. 'Mr Samuels (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kura, Ngāti Rēhia) was a Labour MP and MP for Te Tai Tokerau, working across various portfolios, including not least Māori Affairs, where his care and ability made considerable gains that continue to benefit Māori today. He also helped establish Rawini Health Hub for a rural Māori community and led the Rainbow Warrior project to sink the wreckage of the vessel and erect a memorial on Matauri Hill. He is kaumatua of several organisations. 'Mrs Elizabeth (Liz) Graham, who has dedicated more than 40 years to her community and to Māori education. 'Mrs Graham (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Toroiwahi), has contributed to her community in many ways – that includes through the education of our tamariki and to the education sector through many roles across her career, work she continues today as a teacher at Te Aute College. She helped guide her community through the Treaty Settlement process, and her knowledge of traditions, values, and customs, has helped the marae in hosting funerals, weddings, gatherings, and other events for over 20 years. 'The Honourable Sir Mark Cooper KC, High Court Judge, Court of Appeal Judge and President of the Court of Appeal, who was Chairperson of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Building Failure caused by the Canterbury Earthquakes. Sir Mark (Ngāti Mahanga, Waikato-Tainui) chaired 33 public hearings to deliver four reports, all of these under intense time pressure and public scrutiny. The detailed findings and recommendations of those reports helped avoid delay to the Canterbury rebuild and helped provide a resolution to the community. Amongst some of his other work has been his leadership in resource management and local government law, and his work that helped integrate various councils into one North Shore-based Council. I want to thank all of today's recipients, those mentioned here and all others who I trust will be celebrated by their people and their communities, and all the people who have worked with them along the way. 'Ko te amorangi ki mua, ko te hāpai ō ki muri.'
Scoop
16-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
The House: Wake-Up Call To MPs Over Building Relationships After Treaty Settlements
The Auditor-General issued a wake-up call to MPs this week during his briefing to Parliament's Māori Affairs Committee on how poorly public organisations are fulfilling Treaty settlements. Public organisations are treating Treaty commitments like transactions, not relationships, John Ryan told Parliament's Māori Affairs Committee. "Fundamentally, this is the law, and we should be complying with it." The briefing follows an investigation from the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General (an independent Parliamentary watchdog), who wanted to see "how effective the public sector arrangements for Treaty settlement commitments are". Appearing before the Committee on Wednesday, Controller and Auditor-General John Ryan told MPs that the report, which he viewed as one of the most important in his seven year term, found that the Crown was failing to honour its legal and contractual settlement commitments, of which there are 12,000 across approximately 80 settlements. "This is a legal compliance issue. If you just take everything else away from it, fundamentally, this is the law, and we should be complying with it as public agencies. The Auditor-General is normally a cold hearted accountant, but when I read this, I felt like we needed to act on this," Ryan told Māori Affairs Committee MPs. The report found that most of the 150 responsible public organisations treated settlements as one-off transactions, and failed to recognise that, at their core, settlements are about resetting relationships. Relationships which should be durable and ongoing. "The Crown, I think, has seen it like this after the treaty settlement process - as a series of transactions that needed to be managed rather than a relationship that needed to be reset." Ryan and his team suggested that public organisations are often inclined to, at worst, just ignore commitments, and at best, treat them with a bureaucratic tick-box KPI mentality. The Treaty Settlement process has been a defining facet of Māori-Crown relations for decades. Since the first settlements in the 1990s, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial redress has been given by the Crown to Post-Settlement Governance Entities (PSGEs), the term for claimant groups, usually represented by a particular iwi. In a moment of reflection following Ryan's presentation, committee chair National MP David MacLeod suggested that a lack of personal connection could potentially be part of the problem. "We have people that represent the Crown in negotiations, on a daily basis for a long time, they almost become emotionally tied to what the settlement is all about," MacLeod said. "Then post settlement, that group of people move on to the next one, and then there's a whole fresh one that actually doesn't have any of that history [and] the relationship that's being formed in that." The Auditor-General said MacLeod's observation was probably a fair one. "I think that's an interesting observation because I think what the public sector does once the settlement been reached, is it looks like a series of tasks to deliver rather than the bigger intent that's behind it, because as you say, there's people that go through the settlement process, I hate using the phrase, but on a journey to get to the point of settlement, legislation, deed of settlement. Then the public sector picks that up in various agencies rather than takes that intent that was formed here, and puts it in place over here." Armed with insight from the Auditor-General's report and briefing, Māori Affairs Committee MPs may perhaps think differently (and encourage their colleagues to do the same) the next time a settlement comes through Parliament. They didn't need to wait long. The first reading of the Ngāti Hāua Claims Settlement Bill, and all stages of the Ngā Hapū o Ranginui Claims Settlement Bill were also occurring at Parliament this week. What are briefings? This meeting of the Māori Affairs Committee and Auditor-General was a briefing. Briefings are a less formal version of the inquiry function that committees can initiate. In some cases, once members have learned more about an issue through briefings they may launch an inquiry to dig deeper. There's no requirement though. Briefings give committees the chance to get the low-down of an issue from subject matter experts. This can be members of the public, a visiting overseas delegation, or as in this case, an Officer of Parliament - the Controller and Auditor-General. * RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.
RNZ News
30-04-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Iwi-Crown relations on the line after scathing audit
Tūhoe arriving for the final reading of the iwi's Treaty Settlement in Parliament, in 2014. Tūhoe's Treaty settlement was one of the focuses of the recent audit. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski The auditor general has put public agencies on notice to do a better job of ensuring iwi and hapū get what they are legally entitled to in their Treaty settlements, after a scathing report on their performance. The agencies, from local councils to government departments and state owned enterprises, have been given a year by auditor general John Ryan after his audit showed that many public organisations are failing to fulfill their commitments on Treaty settlements. Ryan says that is unacceptable and he warns that the public sector and the government face a greater risk of legal action because they have failed to fulfill the settlements. He tells The Detail why this audit is one of the most significant projects in his time as auditor general. "It's significant financially, it's significant constitutionally, and it's a big accountability question for the public sector to deliver against its commitments. And it's about resetting its relationship with iwi and hapū," he says. Many people think that when a Treaty claim is settled with an iwi or hapū and the government has made its apology, it's done and dusted, but the settlements are actually "massively complicated and span a number of years". The report makes it clear that since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, the Crown has not met its obligations. It says that about 150 public organisations have about 12,000 individual contractual and legal commitments under about 80 settlements, with about 70 groups. To date, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial redress has been transferred through settlements. The public organisations that it audited are responsible for 70 percent of individual commitments - more than 8000. The audit found that every one of the public organisations had difficulties meeting some of their commitments as the settlements intended. "The types of things we've seen and pointed out in our report is that the government may have committed to relationship agreements and those are not being put in place [and] to letters of introduction which have not been put in place. "But probably the more significant ones we talk to are things like rights of first refusal on particular properties where either they were not put in place and they should have been. Some properties we saw had been sold even though they should have had a right of first refusal given to iwi. "We also saw Crown forest licensed land not being transferred within the timeframe that was given, which is five years." Ryan says the public sector started late on the transfer and did not meet the five-year windows. Once the deed is signed, a new phase begins, says RNZ Māori news editor Taiha Molyneux. "It shifts iwi from one phase of navigating a system that wasn't created or designed by them to another phase of navigating a whole other series of processes, policies, acts to start progressing forward." Many of the problems highlighted in the report stem from the leadership of the government agencies, most of whom are non-Māori and do not have key performance indicators (KPIs) or responsibilities that align with meeting the requirements of the Treaty settlements. Molyneux says iwi and hapū leaders are pessimistic about the system changing, but the younger Māori are giving them hope. "There is a much more powerful voice coming up because there's these young ones that are coming up through the kōhanga that are confident in te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā that are using tools to reach more people. That's definitely something I haven't seen of this magnitude before." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
Scoop
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Te Kawerau a Maki - Latest News [Page 1]
Collaborative Approach To Protect Waitakere Ranges Nothing To Fear Mr Ashby says Te Kawerau ā Maki Deed of Settlement promised a new relationship with the Crown based on mutual respect and cooperation but a generation of Te Kawerau ā Maki people are growing up on the broken promise of the Waitākere Ranges Heritage ... More >> Auckland Iwi Becomes Proud Owner Of School Properties Friday, 6 November 2020, 12:19 pm | Te Kawerau a Maki Te Kawerau ā Maki and the Accident Compensation Corporation have become proud owners of four schools in Auckland as part of the tribe's Treaty Settlement. The deal involves the purchase and lease back of Campbells Bay Primary, Waterview Primary, ... More >> Mana whenua sets the record straight Thursday, 25 July 2019, 4:45 pm | Te Kawerau a Maki The people of Te Kawerau ā Maki have worked hard to secure substantial redress for past wrongs and will not tolerate a campaign of misinformation about their whenua, says the tribe's chairman Te Warena Taua. More >> List of Waitakere Ranges tracks considered safe Thursday, 21 June 2018, 5:10 pm | Te Kawerau a Maki Te Kawerau a Maki would like to clarify and confirm the list of tracks within and surrounding the Waitakere Ranges forested area (the Waitakere Rahui) that are currently* considered safe to use and for which controlled public access has been authorised ... More >> Waitākere Ranges Closure Tuesday, 1 May 2018, 5:38 pm | Te Kawerau a Maki Auckland Council voted on 10 April to close the forested area of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, with some exceptions, by 1 May 2018. The Council's stated criteria for exceptions (tracks that can be opened) include 'whether they are outside the ... More >> Auckland Council Consultation on Waitākere Ranges Closure Tuesday, 13 March 2018, 10:42 am | Te Kawerau a Maki Auckland Council are currently seeking community feedback on their proposal to close the forested area of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park, with some exceptions, by 1 May 2018. The criteria for exceptions (tracks that can be opened) include whether ... More >>
