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NETWORK NEWS
Issue Number 02/88 16 February 1988
EDITORIAL
E nga mana
E nga reo
E nga hau e wha
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
As Editor of this newsletter I declare a vested interest. I stand for the recognition of the tribe in law. I stand for the recognition of the tribe as a legitimate organisational structure of Maoridom, the structure with which Government must deal. I also acknowledge the need for regional bodies in Auckland and Wellington, but the tangata whenua must be recognised, for the mana is theirs.
I therefore stand beside the Te Arawa Maori Trust Board in it's struggle for survival.
I do not stand against the Government and the Department of Maori Affairs. I stand beside Te Arawa. For I believe that there is a concerted attack against the whole of the Tribal & Regional Authority Network, and that Te Arawa has been selected as a critical node in the network, which if it falls will cause the whole network to fall.
I believe the Department has been duped into supporting this attack on Maoridom. If the Department would disentangle itself from interfering in the internal affairs of Te Arawa, and disassociate itself from the attack on the Te Arawa Maori Trust Board I would strongly support the Department.
I believe there are agents provocateurs now resident within the Department as a result of the spate of strange appointments to senior positions over the last few months. These people are orchestrating the demise of the Maori Renaissance and the return to neocolonialism.
I would stand beside a Department of Maori Affairs which stood beside the Maori people. I am forced to stand alone beside Te Arawa.
I weep for Maoridom.
Heoi ano,
Ross Himona
P.O.Box 408
Wellington
HUI TAUMATA 1988
I hear on the kumara vine that some of the northern Authorities are planning to call a Hui Taumata very soon. Apparently it will be privately funded by Tribal & Regional Authorities, and other Maori Authorities. All Tribal & Regional Authorities will be asked to participate. A flaxroots hui rather than a government PR exercise. A likely venue is Turangawaewae but this has not been confirmed. The agenda will possibly include a call to the Department of Maori Affairs to explain what it is doing these days, a call to Government to come clean on what it is up to with Devolution, a call to the Minister to give a full account of his Government's progress in implementing He Kawenata 1984, and a session on the need for unity in the struggle to retain the initiative of the Maori Renaissance and the Development Decade.
During my last trip to Tamaki Makaurau I detected a great deal of dissatisfaction and a determination to take control of their own affairs. Hence the call for Hui Taumata 1988.
MONITORING, EVALUATING, REPORTING STRICT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, PROTECTING THE PROGRAMMES
I know that you are under-staffed, under-funded, over-worked, and over-audited. I know that you are surviving on aroha and commitment. I know that you are all facing physical and emotional burnout.
I know that you have done a super-human job getting the programmes going, and that the results that have been produced are outstanding, despite the bad press and our favourite MPs bad mouth.
I know that unless we sort out the management of MANA and ACCESS by our Tribal & Regional Authorities we will lose these programmes.
How many times have the MANA and ACCESS Teams pleaded with you, threatened you, gone on their knees and begged you, to get your monthly reports in on time, to get them accurate, to please help them to do their job of advocacy for you?
Untold times. I know because I was one of them.
How many of you are so arrogant and so blind to the need to protect the programmes that you have decided not to report at all, and that once you get the money everyone else can get stuffed? Very few, but there are enough of you to bring the programmes down. Not many, but enough. You may have done it already.
I do not accuse anyone of misappropriation, or theft, or misuse of public funds. I accuse some of you of letting the whole network down through your inability or unwillingness to monitor, evaluate, report accurately, and clearly demonstrate accountability for both results and financial management.
We have been saying it for over a year now and some of you still refuse to listen. Now the Audit Office says it. The Audit Office report on MANA Enterprises highlighted four shortcomings of the programme.
1. The Board of Maori Affairs needs to set proper criteria against which the programme can be evaluated.
2. The Board and the Department need to sort their acts out and provide proper management and guidance, and properly resource the Head Office team.
3. The information provided to Parliament is inadequate and inaccurate. You are not protecting the programme by reporting regularly and accurately.
4. Financial control and accountability is generally weak at Tribal & Regional Authorities. Until that situation improves there is a need for a strong centrally based team to provide direction and to improve the monitoring of the scheme.
I agree.
On the other hand I loudly and strongly call for more administrative, management, and training resources for the Tribal & Regional Authorities in order to build strong management systems. I call for an equitable percentage of administrative funding to go with the programme funding. I call for an end to the deliberate under-resourcing of Maori programmes.
But I fear that a very small percentage of you would still blow the opportunity.
Each of the Tribal & Regional Authorities is an integral part of the Network. The strength of the combined Authorities is far in excess of the sum of all the individual Authorities. The weakness of one, whatever it's cause, reflects on all Authorities, and weakens them all. There is enough weakness in the network to bring it all down right now.
Let's get our act together. Protect MANA and ACCESS. Forget the rhetoric. Produce the goods.
BREAK-IN
Three Authorities report break-ins in the last few months. All report their files being done over. None believes these intrusions to be simple burglaries as each has been involved in offshore activities.
MANA ENTERPRISES
Wira Gardiner, Ripeka Evans, Tata Parata, Ross Himona, Eru Manuera, Brian Dickson, Gerry Fouhy. Next?
MAORI ACCESS
Ria Earp.
DEVOLUTION
In my last newsletter the comments on devolution contained fact, and my own personal assessment of trends.
That assessment has since been confirmed by people in the know.
Apparently Don Hunn, the Chairman of State Services Commission, has presented a package to the Cabinet Social Equity Committee already. It advocates a regional organisation similar to the one I predicted.
The Chairman of the SSC, helped by Secretary to the Treasury, the Director of the Prime Ministers Department, and the Secretary for Maori Affairs, is now in charge of devolution. Incidentally that helps to explain the amazing number of SSC people brought into Maori Affairs recently - sounds like a hi-jack to me.
Apparently Cabinet has directed that until a policy has been decided no further devolution of functions of the Department of Maori Affairs is to take place.
I did pick up from the grapevine (the pakeha equivalent of the kumara vine) that Geoffrey Palmer is preparing a case to prove that in most urban areas the tangata whenua are outnumbered by the mahuhiri, and that the tribal structure is not representative of the Maori people. I suspect the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board will be the test case for this theory even though it has done marvellous work as a regional body as well as a tribal board.
Does anyone really believe that they will preserve the tribal initiative? Or allow us true Maori representation?
TE ARAWA MAORI TRUST BOARD
Still no sign of the Audit Department report on the Te Arawa affair. I believe they now want to interview Rocky Cribb. They're going to drag this on as long as they can.
I have heard that because of a minor irregularity in the elections the Ngati Whakaue results could well be declared invalid by the Governor General. Apparently there have also been allegations of other more serious irregularities which may need to be investigated, if only to prove them mischievous.
One thing is for sure. Alec Wilson will still be the highest poller at the end of it all. The Waikite Rugby Club vote alone will be enough to see to that!
OVERSEAS INITIATIVES
The Governor of Hawaii has decided that because of the inordinate amount of hassle created in New Zealand, the Te Arawa group shall in future conduct all business and cultural contact directly with his office and not through intermediaries.
Whakaari Developments Ltd has sold it's first franchise for Portal-lock Kitset Homes to the Hawaiians. Firm orders for six show homes have been received, and when these are erected in Hawaii other orders will be forthcoming. At least 150 homes are required immediately.
A delegation of members and advisors of Te Arawa Maori Trust Board and the Federation of Maori Authorities met the King of Tonga in Auckland recently. It was an informal approach to learn what he was doing to promote a Polynesian Community. The delegation was well received and was invited to maintain contact with the King.
Another delegation went to Hawaii late last month to represent Aotearoa at the final celebrations of the Year of the Hawaiian.
Other negotiations in the Pacific Basin are being pursued by the Te Arawa group. I am told that the potential economic benefit for Maoridom is enormous.
Heard a whisper from an impeccable source that one of the Authorities has successfully negotiated an offshore loan somewhere between five and ten million dollars. Not quite $500 million is it?
FEDERATION OF MAORI AUTHORITIES
Executive members of the Federation are planning to call a meeting on 20 February if possible. Apparently they will receive a presentation on the onshore and offshore initiatives developed through Whakaari Developments and will be asked to support them as National Projects. Some members of the executive have indicated that they will request a recruiting drive with the Tribal & Regional Authorities.
BOARD OF MAORI AFFAIRS
The Board met behind closed doors as usual on 10 February. So far nothing has been learnt about their decisions. Members were unusually vague about it this month.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
There seems to be some official concern about the sources of my information. In order to protect my many friends and contacts in the Department I have a policy of not using any information which comes directly from the Department of Maori Affairs.
NEWSLETTER CIRCULATION
At the moment the newsletter is a one-man band from typing to mailing, and I'm paying for it myself. Thanks to all of you who have been in touch with support and offers of help. I can't yet provide every individual with a copy so please get the photocopiers working and help out that way.
Circulation not yet certified and totally unknown!