Appt of Jane Huria as Deputy Chair of Electoral Commission
te-pati-maori
Thu Jun 23 2011 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Appt of Jane Huria as Deputy Chair of Electoral Commission
Thursday, 23 June 2011, 5:36 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Notice of Motion – Appointment of Jane Huria as Deputy Chair of the Electoral Commission
Te Ururoa Flavell, MP for Waiariki
Thursday 23 June 2011
Tena koe thank you for the opportunity to speak to this Notice of Motion.
The Maori Party stands to take a call on the notice of motion appointing Jane Huria to the position of Deputy Chair of the Electoral Commission.
We stand to support her in the position she has acquired.
In doing so we firstly mihi to Ngai Tahu and Ngai Tuahuriri on the honour of this appointment; an appointment which we believe is absolutely warranted.
It is a particularly interesting day for this appointment to come before the House.
Jane is a member of the Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal Commission, which has been set up to provide charitable relief to the Christchurch community from the effects of the recent earthquakes and aftershocks.
And so, as Christchurch is no doubt still reeling from the announcements made earlier this afternoon about properties and houses no longer being able to be lived in, we are pleased that there is something special for Ngai Tahu to consider, in terms of the appointment of this very strong nominee.
Mr Speaker, as I understand it, Jane has a wealth of governance and organisational experience. She has broad-based commercial experience including law, insurance, market research and the financial markets.
In addition to that she has directorships in the electricity, technology, business development, education, insurance, property development, agribusiness, seafood marketing, and sport and recreation sectors.
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As other members have said, Jane serves on a number of boards, is a lay member of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and a member of the Management Advisory Group for the Secretary of Treasury.
And if all of that isn’t enough, she is also a patron of the University of Canterbury Foundation, a supporter of the Christchurch Arts Festival and a Board member of the Court Theatre.
Not only does she sit on many of these boards, she also develops and teaches public and in house governance courses for the Institute of Directors in New Zealand, the Tertiary Education Commission (for University, Polytechnic and Wananga councils) and SPARC (for sport and recreation organisations
All of these qualifications make her an ideal applicant for the position.
But there is one more reason that we are particularly pleased that tangata whenua have been appointed to this role.
In the recent process around broadcasting allocations, we believe decisions were made which in effect devalue the role of the Treaty and of te reo Maori as the official language of Aotearoa.
The Maori Party allocation was dramatically reduced between 2008 and 2011 to the effect of a loss of some $90,000.
We could not help but wonder if confusion has arisen over the differing legislative responsibilities that govern the broadcasting allocation process, namely the Broadcasting Act 1989 and the Electoral Act 1993.
While the Broadcasting Act has clear requirements around promoting Maori language and Maori culture, the Electoral Act refers only to Maori representation.
We were astounded that the only party which exclusively represents the Maori electorates,was allocated less than 5% of the funding – for a population that represents 17% of the New Zealand population.
We would hope therefore, that this appointment will give special capacity to speak to tangata whenua as the Treaty partner; to focus on voting constituencies that have been historically under-represented with low turnout (in particular for the young, and Maori) and in our unique capacity to express our message through te reo rangatira, te reo Maori.
We strongly support the appointment of Jane Huria.
ENDS
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