Tariana Turia: Address to Business Roundtable
te-pati-maori
Fri Mar 05 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Tariana Turia: Address to Business Roundtable
Friday, 5 March 2010, 9:18 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Address to Business Roundtable : Formosa, Beachlands
Hon Tariana Turia, Co-leader of the Maori Party
Paradox in Paradise
Thursday 4 March 2010; 4pm
In the promotional material describing this fabulous resort, Formosa is described as “one of Auckland’s hidden pieces of paradise” on the beautiful Pohutukawa Coast.
And indeed, as our eyes gaze over the exquisite beauty of the Hauraki Golf, Waiheke Island, Rangitoto and the Coromandel Peninsula, there can be little dispute that this is indeed a heavenly location to be debating the issues of the day.
I have called my address Paradox in Paradise – and it reflects the dilemma I find myself in.
It would be all too tempting in this luxurious environment to think that all is well in this land of milk and money.
And yet there is ample evidence to remind us that all is not what it might seem.
Formosa is listed in ‘The Finest Golf Clubs of the World’ – a description which might seem to define the nature of this place.
Yet if we were to ask the people of Ngai Tai we might hear another story.
We would be told of the vibrant commercial marketplace that was located at the wharf on Turanga Creek. We would learn of the traditional kainga located at Motukaraka or another significant pa, Wharekaiwhara on the eastern headland at Umupuia.
We might travel along the myriad of waterways, that have been travelled by generations of descendants over the centuries.
We could walk the land which was once home to a lush crop of vegetation including kumara, rauaruhe (bracken fern); ti hore (cabbage trees); poroporo, renga renga, taro gourd, yam and we would eat well with plentiful supplies of kaimoana.
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A different time; a different place.
And yet those responsibilities that Ngai Tai have to act as guardians of this part of the world, are maintained even today.
The Ngai Tai Te Waka Totara Trust have been involved in the development of the Beachlands to Maraetai Cycle Walkway connection.
They’ve also maintained their role as kaitiaki of the foreshore and seabed, calling for a rahui, a ban on taking shellfish as they watched the supply of cockles diminish.
The paradox to consider is, whose story is told, whose view of history prevails?
I was asked to speak to you today about under-achievement – and in terms of my Ministerial responsibilities I am assuming that calls for a particular focus on Maori.
It lead me to think about those who shape the news, and how that news is defined.
In yesterday’s Herald, there was a statement that overseas investors might be forgiven for thinking that this country is slipping towards third world status.
The focus of Fran O’Sullivan’s article was the repeated failures of Telecom’s XT mobile network and the Transpower outage that resulted in electricity being cut throughout Auckland.
But there is another, even greater infrastructure failure that would appear to fit the bill, and that is the social infrastructure of this nation in which too many Maori children are under-achieving at school, experiencing compromised health and wellbeing; their life-stories being pre-determined by the failure of the system to deliver to their needs.
There has been a call from the community and voluntary sector for a broader definition of infrastructure to represent the type of social fabric we are creating for our future.
When I think of the areas of under-performance that I alluded to before, it is an infrastructural breakdown of such magnitude that the differences are marked in 20 percentage points and more.
In the numbers of students leaving secondary school for instance, only 19% of Maori students leave with NCEA level 3 or higher; whereas 45% of Pakeha and 57% of Asian students have the same status. That’s a whopping 26% and 38% point difference.
In the health arena, the disparities are just as grim.
The prevalence of diabetes for Maori is almost twice that of non-Maori; lung cancer registration for Maori was 2.8 times that of non-Maori and the amenable mortality rate for Maori was almost three times higher than for non-Maori.
What is the frame of analysis by which we understand this failure?
Your chair, Rob McLeod, summed it up in one pithy sentence last July, in commenting on a report about the social problems amongst Maori, when he said:
“The report takes full account of the fact that Maori have at times been treated unfairly, patronised, exploited and marginalised”.
The longstanding disadvantages experienced by Maori, like most indigenous peoples, emerge of course from a context in which the economic effects of land alienation and dispossession have had a direct impact on health and wellbeing of the people.
An avalanche of evidence tells us that Maori carry a greater burden of social inequalities and die approximately eight years earlier than their Pakeha mates.
Is this fair? Is this just? Or is it just a 21st century form of the survival of the fittest?
It is not as if these inequalities are inventions of a new millennium – many of them have been entrenched over the decades.
And so as we face our fortunes here at the Formosa, we must recognise that in our nation, today, there are whanau who face a disproportionate level of risk demonstrated in poorer educational outcomes, intergenerational unemployment, severe levels of hardship and financial insecurity, health in jeopardy, inadequate housing and increased rates of offending.
How then, do we plan for a future that includes all New Zealanders?
Professor Mason Durie, in his booki, Nga Kahui Pou: Launching Maori Futures, had this to say:
My instinctive feeling is that Maori survival will, in the end, depend on whanau. And my hope is that whanau will be ready for that responsibility. Survival is too important to leave to chance: nor can we afford to rely entirely on the legacy for survival passed down through the past millennium”.
And so it is, that all roads lead to whanau ora.
Whanau ora is about survival, resilience and optimism. It is about waking up to the opportunities that exist in all whanau, to nurture potential, to play to the strengths of those involved, to have an eye on outcomes.
Whanau ora is generated by the desire of whanau to be self-managing and to take responsibility for their own social, economic and cultural development.
It is about being more accountable than we have ever known before. Being accountable to one’s family; being accountable for the wise use of Government investment; agencies of the state being accountable for their performance.
It is an approach which our people have been asking for, for ever.
We have all heard stories of families answering the door to a crowd of social service agencies, armed with their toolbox of remedies. And then there’s the providers who are juggling multiple contracts, creativity and innovation stymied by the compliance costs of different and demanding reporting schedules. Transaction costs are high, competition between providers destroys any possibilities for collaboration and tangible, meaningful outcomes are hidden under all of the activity.
With whanau ora we will see a transformation from the busy-ness of a tick-box mentality to outcome based relational contracts. We will expect to see greater flexibility, smarter services, integrated contracts, service priorities which are better aligned with the needs of the family.
I want to share just one example of how this works in practice. Last week I had the privilege of spending time with a family whose lives had been revolutionised by the Healthy Homes project.
In this family the father and three of the children had suffered with chronic asthma; each of them trapped in a revolving door leading to hospital. Mum was unable to work with sick children to tend to; and the educational outcomes were poor with frequent periods of non-attendance.
Two years ago, through the impact of the home insulation scheme, their lives took a turn for the better. There have been no more hospital stays, Mum is now able to work part-time, the children are fit and active; they are enjoying school and outcomes are improving on all fronts.
We need to hear more stories of success like this.
And with whanau ora, I know we will. We have to. Our survival is at stake.
I fully believe, that if we restore to ourselves the essence of who we are, if we can work collaboratively with providers to improve our situations; and if Government supports such a direction with a focus on outcomes, then we can expect a future in which all New Zealanders will enjoy a piece of paradise; that paradise they call home.
Finally, I return to this place – and the inspiration of a centre not far from here - the Maraetai Beachlands Kindergarten.
That centre is motivated by a vision which resonates with me.
Their vision is, ‘atawhaitia nga kohungahunga ko ratou te iwi mo apopo’. Nurture the young for they are our future.
Within the Maori population now, more than half of our people are under 23 years of age. Will we do right by them?
Will we restore the infrastructure of our social networks; the strength of our families; to enable them to have a bright future where achievement is expected and success becomes the norm?
I say we are all ready to live up to that responsibility. We owe it to ourselves, to those who have gone before us, and those yet to come.
Tena tatou katoa.
ends
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