Maori Party must accept compromise – Sharples

Posted by karere under Maori News

Division remains over whether the Maori Party should support new foreshore and seabed legislation, but there is a growing awareness among party constituents of the need to accept compromise, says co-leader Pita Sharples. The issue was a topic of discussion at the party’s hui in Hastings at the weekend, and Dr Sharples said opinions were expressed openly and MPs got a chance to explain the party’s position. “We got to the stage where we can discuss the issues rationally, with some leaning one way and some the other way, and I think we really got to the point where everyone had a better understanding of what government is, and what our role is in there - which is the most…

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Electric start to Maori Party conference

Posted by karere under Maori News

Tariana Turia made a plea to Maori Party conference delegates in Hastings late last night to start trusting each other and to focus on what they could do, not to focus on what they couldn’t do and what caused them disunity. The exasperated co-leader was making an intervention during a protracted debate - lasting at least an hour - about how and when they should elect the party’s male vice-president. She was imploring them to make a decision last night after some suggested they needed more time to take nominations back to their electorates and to have more hui. It cost a lot of money to have hui, and then people changed their mind at the next hui. “I think…

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Harawira steps up fight against seabed bill as Maori Party members gather

Posted by karere under Maori News

Maori Party co-leaders Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples are expected to face internal opposition at the party conference in Hastings today to the bill replacing the Foreshore and Seabed Act, amid growing activism against it by MP Hone Harawira. Mr Harawira’s opposition took a new twist this week when he issued a statement criticising his caucus colleagues for supposedly dumping him from the Maori Affairs select committee to hear the bill. He said people were urging him not to “sell out”, implying that his colleagues had. He issued it late on Thursday, then again yesterday morning on the day that Mrs Turia was being feted in Porirua at a milestone in the introduction of the Whanau Ora social service policy…

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Inter-house haka a success

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Students from Francis Douglas Memorial College took to the stage today for the first ever inter-house haka competition. The four houses performed the school’s haka which was written two years ago by Hemi Sundgrem and is all about the founders of the school, Fancis Douglas and the De La Salle brothers. ”It’s about the pole in a meeting house that forms the foundation from which the house is built and the haka is challenging those watching, asking them who can shake the pole? Who can shake the pole and make the house fall down,” Maori teacher Taare Ruakere said.

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Bittersweet day for iwi battler

Posted by karere under Maori News

Today will be a bittersweet day for the “champion” of Ngati Apa, as the iwi celebrates a landmark in its contemporary history. The iwi will receive $28.37 million of land and money as part of a wider $300m compensation package to eight top-of-the-south iwi for historical grievances dating back nearly 200 years. But Kath Hemi, 85, Ngati Apa’s oldest claimant, is in very poor health at Wairau Hospital and is unable to attend today’s ceremony at Omaka Marae. She is the only remaining member of the group that launched the claim about 17 years ago. Ngati Apa’s Te Whakatau – Deed of Settlement of Historical Claims will be signed at Blenheim’s Omaka Marae today.

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Historic signing

Posted by karere under Maori News

Ngati Apa has become the second top of the south iwi to receive their share of redress money and land from the Crown. The iwi signed their Te Whakatau-Deed of Settlement of Historical Claims at Omaka Marae, in Blenheim today. They receive $28.37 million of land and money, part of a wider $300m compensation package to eight top of the south iwi (Te Tau Ihu) for historical grievances dating back nearly 200 years. Ngati Kuia signed their Deed of Settlement at Canvastown last Saturday. The remaining iwi - Rangitane, Ngati Koata, Ngati Rarua, Ngati Tama, Te Atiawa and Ngati Toa - hope to sign their settlements within months. The settlement represents decades of hard work for many Ngati Apa members,…

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Tuhoe asks PM why tribal ownership is evil

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John Key should explain why tribal ownership of Te Urewera National Park is “evil” as a starting point for Treaty negotiations, a Tuhoe leader says. Talks broke down in May after the Prime Minister ruled out the handover, saying it was “unacceptable” despite months of Crown work on the issue. Two weeks ago both parties agreed to re-enter negotiations and Tuhoe’s chief negotiator, Tamati Kruger, said the tribe felt an explanation was a rational place to start. “Everything is back on the table so if that is so, then we deserve an explanation about what evil does the PM see in sole vesting? “We want to investigate it. We may get to the point of full understanding about his point…

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Black day for kura

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KORORIA Matahiki couldn’t face going to watch her school burn on Sunday night. The deputy principal at Te Kura Kaupapa O Hoani Waititi Marae waited until 12.30am to head to Glen Eden and see the damage for herself. “It was still smouldering,” she says. “The fire was out but only just.” Emergency services were called to the Maori immersion primary school at about 10.40pm on Sunday night. Two classrooms were gutted by fire and will have to be knocked down. Henderson senior station officer Mike King says the blaze was well under way when firefighters arrived. He says the incident is being treated as suspicious.

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McCarten throws hat in ring for Mana

Posted by karere under Maori News

Union chief Matt McCarten has made a surprise entry into the Mana byelection, saying he intends to put the blowtorch on Labour. The seat is a Labour stronghold but Mr McCarten believes he can win, saying voters are more likely to take a risk on an outside chance in byelections than general elections. He said he was not concerned about the chance he could split the left-wing vote in Mana, giving National candidate Hekia Parata the chance to rise through the middle. Mr McCarten said Labour needed to be pressured over its policies.

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Harawira off foreshore bill select committee

Posted by karere under Maori News

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says maverick MP Hone Harawira was removed from the select committee considering the new foreshore and seabed law because he had made up his mind to oppose it. The Party’s whip, Te Ururoa Flavell, has taken Mr Harawira’s place on the Maori Affairs committee hearing submissions on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill, which replaces Labour’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The bill allows Maori to seek customary title to coastal areas, but has been heavily criticised by Mr Harawira as imposing too many restrictions. He has said the bill as drafted grants more rights to Pakeha who have gained private ownership of coastal areas than it would to Maori given customary title. Mr…

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Te Karere Ipurangi’s Facebook page maxed out

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Our Facebook page has its maximum 5000 friends, and about 1000 on the waiting list. Those on the waiting list can go to our second page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001603640962 to subscribe to the Maori news service.

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Maori Party must explain deference to Iwi Leaders Group, says lawyer

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The Maori Party needs to explain why it is “kowtowing” to the Iwi Leaders Group which has become a de facto power force in national politics, activist Maori lawyer Annette Sykes says. She is the keynote speaker for the Bruce Jesson Foundation’s annual lecture tonight and is using her address to ask the party some hard questions.

An early supporter of the party, Ms Sykes says she’s become critical of the influence the Iwi Leaders Group - chosen by the Iwi Leadership Forum and drawn from heads of runanga around the country - has had on policy development around issues such as the foreshore and seabed and emission’s trading scheme. Both laws provide outcomes that don’t benefit Maori in any way, shape or form, but which the Iwi Leaders Group had a hand in shaping, Ms Sykes said.

“Why is it that the Maori Party changes its policy on every issue to meet the edicts of the Iwi Leaders Group, why are those MPs except one, Hone Harawira, constantly kowtowing to those policy preferences?”

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