Latest news with #teTiriti
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Bus hub: Focus on central city safety
Preventing crime at Dunedin's bus hub could hinge on ensuring threats are responded to rapidly, deploying prominent patrols and adjusting the area's design, a report suggests. Stronger accountability and ensuring collaboration across agencies delivers results also shape as priorities for improving safety in the central city. A review of safety plans from cities in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom is set to be discussed by the Otago Regional Council on Thursday. Options were not presented, but the material "will be used to assist with actions going forward", a report said. The bus hub in Great King St was the scene of a fatal stabbing last year of 16-year-old Enere McLaren-Taana. A survey of 1300 Dunedin secondary school students subsequently found 45% did not feel safe in the inner city and harassment of girls was rife. A multi-agency advisory group was established after the stabbing and, this year, the regional council - a leading partner in the group - commissioned the safety review by Collective Strategy. "Its purpose is to identify effective strategies and practical insights that can be applied to enhance safety in Dunedin's central city, particularly around the Dunedin bus hub, a known hotspot for youth-related safety concerns," its executive summary said. Victimisation data from last year obtained from police showed the area around the bus hub and parts of the Octagon had a higher concentration of reported crime. The highest number of offences occurred early on Sunday mornings and after-school hours on weekdays. Creation of flexible, rapid response safety teams was explored in the review. "A co-ordinated and well-defined safety response process that is supported by a reliable and monitored CCTV network is required to ensure these services are well utilised and have the maximum positive impact on safety," the report said. In Dunedin, security services were employed around the bus hub and police had established a beat team to increase foot patrols in the city centre. The review noted a shift towards a culture of prevention was evident in many community safety plans. "Cultural inclusion, social connections, and increasing the prominence and visibility of safety measures are effective measures that cities are implementing to prevent and reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. "By understanding and applying the principles of te Tiriti and building greater awareness of mana whenua connections to the land, we can increase positive interactions in communities and promote shared values of inclusion and respect." Partnership models were discussed in the review. "Regular engagement and communication between a wide range of other agencies was seen as critical to every safety team interviewed. "Having a more focused short-term set of actions is effective when working with a partnership model, as partners have greater clarity about what's required and what they're working towards." Leadership and strong governance were considered vital. "Some teams found that without a senior leader owning the work, there wasn't the necessary authority to make decisions and escalate issues if enough progress wasn't made. "It was common for plans to linger in the realm of 'lots of talking and not much doing' if this leadership wasn't present." In Dunedin, the central city advisory group meets monthly.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Focus on central city safety: Bus hub crime review ready
Preventing crime at Dunedin's bus hub could hinge on ensuring threats are responded to rapidly, deploying prominent patrols and adjusting the area's design, a report suggests. Stronger accountability and ensuring collaboration across agencies delivers results also shape as priorities for improving safety in the central city. A review of safety plans from cities in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom is set to be discussed by the Otago Regional Council on Thursday. Options were not presented, but the material "will be used to assist with actions going forward", a report said. The bus hub in Great King St was the scene of a fatal stabbing last year of 16-year-old Enere McLaren-Taana. A survey of 1300 Dunedin secondary school students subsequently found 45% did not feel safe in the inner city and harassment of girls was rife. A multi-agency advisory group was established after the stabbing and, this year, the regional council — a leading partner in the group — commissioned the safety review by Collective Strategy. "Its purpose is to identify effective strategies and practical insights that can be applied to enhance safety in Dunedin's central city, particularly around the Dunedin bus hub, a known hotspot for youth-related safety concerns," its executive summary said. Victimisation data from last year obtained from police showed the area around the bus hub and parts of the Octagon had a higher concentration of reported crime. The highest number of offences occurred early on Sunday mornings and after-school hours on weekdays. Creation of flexible, rapid response safety teams was explored in the review. "A co-ordinated and well-defined safety response process that is supported by a reliable and monitored CCTV network is required to ensure these services are well utilised and have the maximum positive impact on safety," the report said. In Dunedin, security services were employed around the bus hub and police had established a beat team to increase foot patrols in the city centre. The review noted a shift towards a culture of prevention was evident in many community safety plans. "Cultural inclusion, social connections, and increasing the prominence and visibility of safety measures are effective measures that cities are implementing to prevent and reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. "By understanding and applying the principles of te Tiriti and building greater awareness of mana whenua connections to the land, we can increase positive interactions in communities and promote shared values of inclusion and respect." Partnership models were discussed in the review. "Regular engagement and communication between a wide range of other agencies was seen as critical to every safety team interviewed. "Having a more focused short-term set of actions is effective when working with a partnership model, as partners have greater clarity about what's required and what they're working towards." Leadership and strong governance were considered vital. "Some teams found that without a senior leader owning the work, there wasn't the necessary authority to make decisions and escalate issues if enough progress wasn't made. "It was common for plans to linger in the realm of 'lots of talking and not much doing' if this leadership wasn't present." In Dunedin, the central city advisory group meets monthly.
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Penalty proof Maori MPs facing disproportionate scrutiny
When Judith Collins accused Te Pāti Māori MPs of a "lack of civility" for their haka in Parliament she drew 185 years of colonial racism down upon their heads. It was grotesque. And entirely expected. Collins, who chaired the privileges committee, argued that their decision to impose the harshest penalty in the Parliament's history against Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was based on "fairness". It was vengence, not fairness. Her public statements about Te Pāti Māori and the excessive sentence belong to a colonial bias that maliciously targets the Māori presence in the House. The government has well-signalled its intention to force a confrontation with Māori in the Parliament. At every opportunity, the government has chosen the worst behaviour and the most offensive route. When Maureen Pugh refused to allow a karakia from a rangatira after the passing of Whakatōhea Claims Settlement legislation, the Speaker was unapologetic and defensive, relying on their own rules to justify this insult to kaumatua. The Treaty Principles Bill was another way to do the same thing — threaten Māori people and their Māori MPs with a legal tool to eliminate te Tiriti rights, justified on the basis of "process". The Parliament, in the grip of the coalition government, has been anything but civil where Māori are concerned. It was right then for Te Pāti Māori to reject the privileges committee request to appear without collective representation or tikanga expertise. There was no civility to be found among the government members of that committee. The MPs would only have used the opportunity to harass and denigrate the MPs, their representatives, their communities and tikanga Māori. The problem that incites the government MPs to such tumult is that Te Pāti Māori are not sorry. They are not sorry for expressing tikanga in the Chamber. They are not sorry for being Māori. That act of defiance infuriates and embarrasses the government. The haka humiliated the coalition. It has now been watched over 700 million times across the globe. That single act of indigenous strength has led literally millions of people to support Māori cultural expression that challenges colonial violence. For government this is abhorrent. Māori must comply, must concede, must assimilate, and must make no fuss. If we are to perform our culture it can only be in accordance with the rules they set to tame and domesticate it. If we insist on being Māori, we are treated like criminals. The privileges committee has done exactly that in its ruling. It has declared that being and expressing Māori in the Parliament is a crime, weaponising the Parliament's rules against Māori MPs. Māori MPs now face disproportionate scrutiny and excessive punishment for an act of cultural resistance. The privileges committee does not operate in a vacuum. New Zealand's political landscape has seen a rise in anti-Māori rhetoric, particularly from right-wing factions. By leading the committee's biased enforcement of the privileges committee rules, the government drives a culture where Pākehā MPs are held to different, lower, standards and Māori MP's are disproportionately punished. What a familiar story. The lack of integrity in the committee's process means that Māori MPs are judged not the rules, but by a Pākehā-dominated interpretation that reinforces inequities. If Parliament refuses to address this, it further erodes respect for an institution already, and rightly, considered a relic of colonial power. Next week, when the House resumes, we will see whether the Parliament as a whole is prepared to pull back on its rules-based racism. That is one of the constitutional struggles here. The privileges committee's historical practice of reasonableness and collegiality was captured by the coalition government's political agenda, exposing a deeper hypocrisy in New Zealand's democracy. The committee became a tool for the government's political retribution. New Zealand's political institutions are rooted in colonialism. The privileges committee, in overseeing parliamentary conduct, still operates as if Māori should not exist. First the Parliament needs to reject the vicious recommendations of the privileges committee. The rules governing the privileges committee now also need an overhaul. The government should not be able to use it for vengeful purposes. A bare majority should never be enough for a censure recommendation. Tikanga Māori needs to be safeguarded against the racial bias we have witnessed. Without some change, the committee will continue as an arm of the state's assimilationist agenda, punishing those who dare to be Māori in that place. ■Metiria Stanton Turei is a senior law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.
The Spinoff
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
Review: NZSO's Echoes of Home uses the Christchurch Town Hall to its full potential
A review of the NZSO's latest concert series, performed in Wellington and Christchurch and featuring soloist Amalia Hall. Like many orchestras, the NZSO likes to pair big name composers, like Dvořák and Bartók, with shorter pieces. The concert began with New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn's Aotearoa overture. The orchestra's new chief executive, Marc Feldman, who started a few weeks ago, introduced the performance – presumably so the many people who give money to keep the NZSO going will have a face to attach to the names in their emails. He said that he hadn't heard any pieces by Lilburn until the first performance of the concert in Wellington two days earlier. But the audience had – surely many of them, like me, had been assigned a Lilburn piece when learning music at some point in New Zealand – and it was lovely to start the concert from a point of familiarity. The overture is very midcentury magnificence (it was written for the centenary celebrations of the signing of te Tiriti), with the theme developing as it passes between the different sections, with some particularly lively cymbals. As the programme noted, Bartók's concerto was written in the 1930s, as Bartók considered rising Nazism in Europe, eventually leaving his homeland of Hungary and moving to the US. Perhaps that tension can be felt in the music: there's a tug between the strings and the brass instruments. The concerto as a whole made me think of the process of building a cathedral: the years it takes, the vision it requires, the role of each individual instrument as a solid foundation that allows the flourishes of the violin to spin so enthusiastically up and down. Amalia Hall is mainly known for her work with chamber music group NZ Trio. As a soloist with a full orchestra, she was dazzling; her hand dancing up and down the fingerboard. It was amazing how her single small violin could fill the space of the Christchurch Town Hall (I am in no way qualified to compare the acoustics of different venues but wow – the acoustics of the Town Hall are spectacular!). Even though the concerto is quite technical and serious, the kind of music making a capital-letters Statement, I felt like she embraced the music with a kind of warmth and playfulness too. This was especially obvious when she was playing very high and fast, yet maintaining a mellow tone, and in the slower sections of the concerto. For her encore, Hall played a short piece with the first desk of each of the other string instruments, which was even more twisting and playful, like jumping between river rocks. This nod to smaller ensemble playing was particularly fun, and showed the range she can play. I haven't listened to much Bartók before, and especially liked how much pizzicato the orchestra used. It's very fun to see double basses and cellos, with their longer and deeper strings, really going hard on the plucking. As well as the shifting tempo, the pizzicato gave the performance a layers of texture. After the interval, the orchestra played Dvořák's Symphony number 7. Although written about 50 years earlier than the Bartók, it also responds to European political unrest and the thrum of the Czech nationalist movement. While there were way more string players on the stage, the highlights really go to the wind and brass instruments: I liked the way the melody moved between the violas and the flutes. The trombones, despite having very little to do in one movement, joined the horns and trumpets for the grand final movement. The horn section was doing a lot, actually, with some very bouncy solos. The entire performance was held together by guest conductor Gábor Káli. A Hungarian who is an expert in Bartók, Káli wins lots of conducting points for being fun to watch. As someone who feels like I know very little about classical music, this was helpful – I could see from where he was pointing how the double basses or bassoons were responding to the music, which made it easier to understand. But it's also very enjoyable to see a conductor who should honestly have been logging the performance on Strava based on how much he was moving. Seeing a live orchestra with a conductor like Káli is a reminder that of course classical music isn't just the sort of sentimental string music that gets used in ads; it has something urgent to say, both when it was originally written and now. I'm not sure that the theme of 'echoes of home' really made sense to apply to the concert, even if one of the pieces was named after Aotearoa. Perhaps (definitely) I'm not that good at recognising Czech folk tunes being repurposed for classical music. But the challenge of music is that words don't always map neatly onto the ideas it holds. Instead, the orchestra is made up of moving parts, and not just the moving parts of a harp. In the big, complex sound of so many instruments working together, there's an invitation to be absorbed, and a ticket to look towards home, then go somewhere new.
NZ Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
Regulatory Standards Bill faces backlash at urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing
The bill would establish a set of principles that would relate to areas such as rule of law, liberties, the taking of property, taxes, fees and levies. Agencies would be required to assess the consistency of bills with those principles and government departments would need to review their regulatory systems. Waikato said in that scenario, Treaty provisions would never comply with the new regulatory principles, accusing the Government of 'slanting the entire playing field against the retention of the existing Treaty principles'. She said more than 18,000 people had registered in support of the claim. 'In terms of picking the [regulatory] principles... that is where the system itself is creating a breach of te Tiriti because number one it is setting up te Tiriti for failure, it is setting up every single Treaty provision for failure. 'The system itself has entrenched a systematic framework that already requires adherence to these principles, which do not come from a treaty, they come from the Act Party, and [has] elevated them to a status by which every single law must be assessed.' Passing the RSB is the latest in a years-long attempt by the Act Party to introduce this type of legislation. Seymour has said the latest iteration would make it easier for New Zealanders to go about their business with less red tape 'so we can all live longer, happier and healthier lives'. As well as new regulatory principles, the bill would create a regulatory standards board to review whether legislation aligned with the principles. Waikato said the Crown had 'entirely failed' to engage with Māori during the development of the proposed bill. In response, the Crown acknowledged there had not been specific consultation with Māori but 'there was not an invariable or likely inconsistency with the Treaty' with the RSB. The Crown said there had been various processes around the bill or similar regulatory standards policies for the past 20 years. This dated back to 2006 with former Act leader Rodney Hide's Regulatory Responsibility Bill. The process the Crown did go through included public consultation, the information garnered through that, the Treaty Impact Analysis, and engagement with, for example, Te Puni Kōkiri and other departments. Last summer, a discussion document was put out for public consultation. It drew about 23,000 submissions. Most (about 88%) were in opposition with just 0.33% supporting or partially supporting it. The rest didn't have a clear position. The Crown told the panel the RSB would not 'necessarily or invariably undermine' the place of the Treaty in New Zealand's constitution or lead to a breach of the Treaty principles. 'There is nothing explicit in the RSB that would unpick existing ways in which the Treaty is taken into account through legislative and policy process. 'The RSB principles are just considerations and they can be departed from. The RSB does not create rights and the RSB will have to be interpreted in the light of Treaty and tikanga and it is open for that interpretation because the principles are rather open-ended.' Dr Andrew Geddis, constitutional law expert and professor at University of Otago, said the RSB would set up rules for how future laws could be made and what they could say. 'Unless the bill has that effect, there is no point to it,' he told the Herald. 'It is intended to try to limit and constrain laws in the future. The intention is to load the dice so laws that are consistent with the Act Party's views are easier to make, while those that aren't face extra hurdles and difficulties.' Geddis, who made a written submission to the tribunal, said the RSB did not contain any reference to te Tiriti / Treaty of Waitangi, which raised concerns it would be overridden by the RSB's 'regulatory principles'. 'The principles that have been identified in the RSB talk a lot about equality of treatment and that we are all one before the law without acknowledging why there are good reasons for disparate treatment of Māori given this country's history and the promises made to Māori.' Claimants have also drawn similarities between the RSB and the now-defeated Treaty Principles Bill (TPB). Dr Carwyn Jones, head lecturer for Māori laws and philosophy, Te Wānanga o Raukawa, said in his submission the bill would 'create one of the most fundamental constitutional shifts in our legal history' by elevating the RSB principles above the Treaty principles. 'The RSB and Treaty Principles Bill represent a combined legislative pincer movement where the RSB seeks to finish what the TPB started.' The Crown rejected this, saying the RSB was 'distinguishable in substance' from the TPB. 'It doesn't seek to specifically regulate the Crown-Māori relation, it doesn't seek to create duties in respect of interpreting legislation which is one of the things the Treaty Principles Bill would have done if it had passed.' Seymour said the RSB would make lawmaking more transparent by shining more 'sunlight' on what politicians do and increasing 'political penalties of being a bad lawmaker by making it easier for voters to understand making a law for them'. 'Under the Regulatory Standards Bill, if you don't ask and answer the right questions before you make a law reform affecting people's rights then someone can go to the regulatory standards board and make a declaration that actually you're not a very good lawmaker.'
