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31st
DEC

Public health champion optimistic about future

Posted by karere under Maori News

It’s hard work finishing a government taskforce report while the country basks in summer sun, Professor Mason Durie says. Regarded as one of the country’s public health champions and a leading Maori academic, Sir Mason - who is made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in today’s royal honours list - has a heap of projects on the go in the early new year.  “I hope it rains, I might stay inside then,” he says. There are other distractions, too, for the 70-year-old Feilding grandfather of 14.  A new moko has also just been born to his eldest grandchild and he will soon celebrate 45 years of marriage to his wife, Lady Arohia. Life is pretty…

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31st

Time for New Zealand to show all its colours

Posted by karere under Maori News

The Tino Rangatiratanga flag flying alongside the national ensign is a symbol of unity, says Rawiri Taonui.  Flying the Tino Rangatiratanga flag alongside the blue ensign is good for New Zealand. The blue ensign symbolises the historic link with Britain, the first Pakeha settlers, the positives and negatives of colonisation, and the modern nation we are immensely proud of. The New Zealand ensign represents these things mainly from a Pakeha viewpoint, which is OK. They are one of two original partners under the Treaty of Waitangi; today they are the majority. And, whether Maori like it or not, to a certain extent the blue ensign represents two peoples, in one nation with many cultures.

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29th
DEC

MPs lack breadth of vision shown in 1870 dealings with Maori

Posted by karere under Maori News

Rejecting an offer to participate in the Super City insults tangata whenua, says David Simmons.  We all know that New Zealand was the first country to give the vote to women in 1893, but do we know too that 25 years earlier Maori became members of Parliament? In 1865 Maori members were appointed as a temporary measure. In 1867 the Maori Representation Act laid out the provisions, that is the Maori Electoral Districts in which the Maori could be elected. In 1870 the Representation Act (1870) was passed. This provided for 74 European members and four Maori members. It was understood by the Maori elders of the time that the four Maori members represented the proportionate representation of Maori in the total population of the time. The extension of membership in the Parliament to the indigenous people has to be seen in the context of the times. New Zealand was at the end of a devastating series of local wars which had been labelled as “rebellions” in the North, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, the Urewera and Taranaki.

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28th
DEC

Marina waste to be dumped off Great Barrier

Posted by karere under Maori News

Marina waste will be dumped on the continental shelf near Great Barrier Island in a trial given the go-ahead by Maritime New Zealand. The decision has disappointed iwi, but they say at least it will give them more robust scientific information to understand what the impact could be. The trial will last a year and will allow Coastal Resources to dump up to 7000cu m of dredged sediment from Pine Harbour Marina on the Whitford Estuary, at a site 26km east of Great Barrier. However, the company wants a 35-year permit to dump up to 50,000cu m annually.

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27th
DEC

BSA clears TV3 in Maori TV complaint

Posted by karere under Maori News

TV3’s coverage of Maori TV’s Rugby World Cup bid was “legitimate satire”, the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) says. Four people complained about the item on TV3’s Nightline in October. However, the BSA ruled that the item, by Ali Ikram, was legitimate satire and that, although it was introduced as a serious news piece, it would have been obvious to viewers that it was not meant to be taken seriously. The BSA said the item did not mock Maori in general, “rather, it satirised Maori TV’s proposed coverage and its view that Maori language and culture could be promoted through its coverage of the Rugby World Cup.

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26th
DEC

Hautaki holding in 2degrees cut

Posted by karere under Maori News

Pan-Maori investor the Hautaki Trust is to reduce its shareholding in new mobile phone company 2degrees after failing to raise enough capital to sustain its 20 per cent stake. Trust director and 2degrees chairman Bill Osborne said that the trust had needed to raise about $20 million from its stakeholders as part of a capital raising by 2degrees shareholders, but could muster only $4m. As a result, its shareholding in the fledgling phone company would sink to about 13 per cent. The other shareholders are the United States-based Trilogy International, the majority owner, and London’s Communication Venture Partners. Mr Osborne said they would take up the shareholding Hautaki had to relinquish.

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26th

Stood-down Tainui board man vows fight

Posted by karere under Maori News

A member of Tainui’s executive board has been stood down in a bid to stop information being leaked to the media. Sonny Wilson was dismissed from his role as a Te Arataura board member on Wednesday after it was decided there was enough evidence to prove he may have been responsible for providing information which was used in a story published in the Waikato Times. Mr Wilson denied the allegations and said he was going to fight the decision. “It was always expected that this is what they would do. They wanted me out,” he said. “But I am going to fight it, I am going to employ lawyers.” The story was about Tipa Mahuta and Shane Solomon petitioning Te Arataura to pay Tuku Morgan and Lady Raiha Mahuta more than $500,000 each for their roles as co-negotiators of the Waikato River claim.

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23rd
DEC

Another Harawira outburst revealed

Posted by karere under Maori News

Another offensive email from Hone Harawira has been revealed and this one, littered with expletives, caused a commotion in Te Puni Kokiri. Upset about changes that had been made to a brochure he designed about Maori flags, the Maori Party MP let six TPK officials know of his displeasure in no uncertain terms. “I’m bloody disappointed that I put so much effort into it, only to find out that everything has been changed at the last minute and without my approval,” he said in the July 10 email. “I am particularly f. . ..n’ pissed off that some clown has decided to rebrand the `Maori’ flag as the `Tino Rangatiratanga’ flag.” Mr Harawira demanded that the brochure be stopped pending a conference call to sort…

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23rd

Person of the Year fills it with achievements

Posted by karere under Maori News

Ben Hekenui is glad his reign as the Taranaki Daily News Person of the Year is coming to an end. “Good. I can relax now,” he said with a beaming smile as a framed copy of the front page of the paper’s January 1, 2009, edition was presented to him. The double amputee won the inaugural award for the courage, tenacity and humour he showed after the horrific workplace accident that cost him both legs in April, 2008. He was chosen from five outstanding candidates. This year’s shortlist comprises six people who have captured the imagination of the public throughout 2009. Taranaki Daily News editor Jonathan MacKenzie says as well as a person’s achievements, the awards recognise fortitude, guts, individuality, and Taranaki’s unique spirit.

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23rd

Rudman: H decision is a National cop-out

Posted by karere under Maori News

Wat a great whimp-out the Government’s decision on wether Whanganui should be spelt with an H has been. These are the politicians who promised to usher in a new Golden Age in which right would be upheld, and wrong stamped out. In which kids will be tested on their reading, writing and arithmetic skills from the moment they are potty trained. But when it comes to this simple spelling test, it’s back to the play-way system they so despise. Spell it with an H if you want, or leave it out, says Maurice Williamson, the minister responsible for spelling Maori placenames correctly. Just do what makes you feel good.

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22nd
DEC

‘Body’ disputes require broader powers: coroner

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A coroner investigating a case where a man’s body was cremated before a whanau farewell is calling for the office’s powers to broaden to deal with similar disputes. However, the man’s widow Rebekka Ujdur, also known as Rebecca Marinkovich, has rejected the provisional findings, claiming her husband Ben Ujdur, 62, “wasn’t Maori”. On October 15, 2008, the couple were travelling from the Far North to Ashburton when their vehicle crashed on State Highway 1 near Putaruru. Mr Ujdur died at the scene. His wife was airlifted to Waikato Hospital and it was there over the next few days that tensions developed with Mr Ujdur’s whanau. Immediately after the death of Mr Ujdur, his brother Nicholas contacted the coroner’s office and in a letter asked permission for his brother’s body to be taken to his mother’s home outside Kaitaia over the weekend.

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22nd

Fraud office alerted on sale of farms to mystery Arabs

Posted by karere under Maori News

THE SERIOUS Fraud Office has been brought into the controversy over a Maori trust’s move to buy thousands of hectares of prime Southland farmland, after revelations that an alleged fraudster is involved. On Friday, Federated Farmers warned about the actions of a hapu that had been creating a stir in the deep south in recent months by offering “exceptional sums” to buy farms on behalf of Arab investors. The hapu, which claimed to have signed a deal with the foreign backers to guarantee their food security for 99 years, has entered into no-deposit contracts to buy at least 28 southern farms estimated to be worth more than $150 million, but had failed to make agreed payments so far.

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