Flaxroots Labour

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Comment by Abe Ropitini on September 16, 2009 at 10:55pm

Kia ora Ginny, its awesome hearing about your pro-active response to the annual conference. I reckon its important for Labour Maori supporters to understand that a long term commitment to promoting Labour and criticising the Maori Party is essential for winning all seven seats. The brilliant thing about being Maori is that we inherently have widespread friend, whanau, hapu, and iwi networks within which its quite easy to spread a message.

In many cases, Maori are also becoming increasingly well educated, meaning that more are willing to listen and make judgements for themselves rather than jumping on board the Maori Party bandwagon. That's something we should also look at tapping into.. Keep up the good work :)

Comment by Ginny O'Connor on September 16, 2009 at 8:21pm

Kia ora koutou katoa, I usually do not like discussing the Maori Party, however, I find it quite interesting that they have gone into partnership with the Nats, without consultating with Maori. I mean they held consultation hui around Aotearoa over which Maori flag should Maori select to fly over the Auckland Harbour bridge. Its things like this that the 'Koretake Party' as I call them selects and chooses what issues need consultation.

On behalf of my son and I, I would like to say we thoroughly enjoyed our 1st Te Kaunihera Maori o Te Roopu Reipa hui and the AGM Conference. I have shared my experience with friends and whanau and managed to get them to sign up and encouraged them to participate and contribute to the kaupapa. This is proof that our voice does matter and we do count. Kia ora from Ngati Porou.

Comment by Kelvin Davis on September 10, 2009 at 8:38am

Tena koe Tamati. Spread the word amongst the whanau. Labour is the political party for Maori.

Comment by Tracy Dalton on June 29, 2009 at 7:01am

Kia ora Kruzmode
No flaxroots is a roopu across the country - the Far North has a group under Te Tai Tokerau/Northland which is representative geographically - where are you?
Keep eyes and ears out for Labour's member Shane Jones comments as the sub select committee he is sitting on considers the submissions pertaining to Maori regarding Auckland supa city this week!

Comment by kruzmode on June 21, 2009 at 11:45am

Kiaora again Tracy. Is flaxroots a group created for the far north?

Sham

Comment by Nigel Chetty on May 9, 2009 at 11:17pm

Kia Ora tatou

Woudl you agree?

Unarguably Maori and Pacifica have always represented the majority group in New Zealand’s underachievement statistics. It’s been an issue of grave concern and debate for many decades. I personally find it a rather disturbing reality that a solution to the problem is made to seem almost non existence.

I have witnessed and experienced personally the actual lack of unity amongst people when it comes to finding an effective solution to the problem. Government agencies, community organizations and Iwi’s in most instances continue to remain at odds with each other. There is no centralized or community approach.

Hui’s after hui’s after hui’s is all that ever seems to happen with no practical outcomes. Agencies and organizations alike become too focused on protecting their own interests. In instances where community organizations and Iwi’s do come up with dynamic and practical solutions beaurocracy is quick to ensure that they get bogged down with ridiculous loads of paper work, policy alignments and unnecessary requirements which not only is disheartening, discouraging and extremely frustrating but also a common factor as to a way of delaying and canceling projects.

The Maori Party is not to blame...we all are…we are all equally responsible for allowing our politicians over generations to create the beaurocratic mess and red tape structure that now dictates the future of our community and people. First and foremost the issue of beaurocracy needs to be resolved and a “commonsense” approach needs to be implemented.

In its entirety EDUCATION is the answer to our problems. We must educate both our young and old to break the generational cycle that holds our people back. We must educate our communities to not tolerate cultural suppression of our younger generation. We must educate our people to effectively function as a community. We must reinstate in our people via education the morals, values and kaupapa our ancestors once embraced.

We must also bear in mind that the current economic climate is a huge factor in causing the unemployment rates to be at its highest. Employees in “bottom-end” jobs have been the hardest hit, as it is at this level of employment that job cuts typically occur. Our people (Maori and Pacifica) are those that are typically the ones employed at this level. Why you may ask? The answer is quite simple; it’s because of a general lack of education and skills.

Therefore it would be quite silly for us as the opposition to attack the Maori Party on this issue, as the current economic climate and the underlying “reality” of the issue would play greatly to their advantage. It would be more beneficial and productive for us to come up with practical solutions to the problem which would also in return help to restore voter confidence.

Regards

Nigel Chetty

Comment by Tracy Dalton on April 22, 2009 at 7:18pm

http://www.dailypost.co.nz/local/news/call-to-abolish-council-wards/3800258/

Rotorua City Council considers first past post in representation review

Comment by Kelvin Davis on March 21, 2009 at 10:06am

My Weekly Column to the Northern Age.

Iwi has no place in owning prisons. I've heard the arguments ; we can look after our own better; Maori can rehabilitate Maori better ; if someone is going to make money by locking up Maori then it may as well be Maori.

I find it repugnant that each and every one of us now has a price on our heads. I find it disgraceful that we will be worth more financially and contribute more to our Iwi's bank balance by being locked up, than we will being out free in our communities.

I find it hypocritical that Maori protested the building of a prison at Ngawha, but now that there may be a bit of money to be made our resistance to prisons falters. Does this mean our values are up for sale? The only price being our peoples' liberty?

I've heard it said that it costs about $80,000 a year to look after one prisoner. By my calculations It only takes thirteen Maori to get locked up and someone makes $1,000,000.

Of course prisoners have to be fed, guards employed, programmes developed and implemented and those costs come out of that sum. So if profits drop, all that needs to happen is to hold a massive party with a heap of alcohol, young people and cars and we have a simple formula for making money. The more our people are encouraged to drink and drive, beat each other up or pinch something the wealthier our Iwi organisations become.

Iwi would never to hold another hangi fundraiser again.

Locking up our people is a lot more lucrative than encouraging them to get a job and make something of themselves . Of course the more serious the crime, the longer someone is locked up therefore the more value for money Iwi would get.

What's the alternative? Education. Iwi should be putting every ounce of energy into preventing our people from entering prison in the first place. Education is top of the cliff intervention, prison is worse than bottom of the cliff. The effort put into Maori prison rehabilitation programmes should instead go into educational intervention programmes and working together with schools to identify and help Maori kids that are underachieving. Schools
and Iwi should be sharing achievement data to see what programmes are successful and which need strengthening.

Iwi should take the lead in anti-violence programmes, sensible drinking programmes, how to be a caring Maori male programmes, how to be a loving father programmes, Kaupapa Maori programmes, tikanga programmes, leadership programmes - and they should all be preventative programmes that minimise the need for prisons to exist.

It's obviously easier to lock someone up and fill their heads with positive messages than to do it when they're free. I take it that's what is meant by a captive audience.

Maori deserve leadership that enables us all to achieve beyond our potential - not leadership that actively seeks to incarcerate our people. Alternatives to Maori being locked up is the only solution.

The Government isn't looking at privatisation of prisons because its proven to be successful. They're doing it because they know they can cut funding over time and if prisoners escape, if recidivism rates increase, if more Maori die behind bars- then they can claim its all the fault of those Maoris running the prison.

There are some business ventures that
Maori should regard as untenable - making money by locking up our people who have failed, stuffed up and sinned, further erodes the dignity and mana of us all.

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:26pm

Kia ora koutou,

In line with the media release that went the Far North District Council wants to ensure that you are made aware of what Council is doing with Maori Representation:

Maori in the Far North district are asked to share their views about how they can become involved in local government decision-making. The hui are being spread throughout the district over the next three months and the table below indicates some of the dates we are proposing:

MARAE
DATE
Whitiora Marae, Te Tii
Tuesday, 24 March at
Mahi Maru Marae, Awanui
Thursday, 9 April
Waipuna Marae, Panguru
Wednesday, 22 April
Rawhiti Marae, Rawhiti
Wednesday, 20 May
Waiora Marae, Ngataki
Wednesday, 3 June
*Please note: these dates are subject to change at short notice.

The initiative comes from an earlier council meeting about non-electoral options for the involvement of Maori in local authority politics. At that meeting, the council reiterated its intention to call for improved interaction with Maori and asked staff to investigate non-electoral options for more involvement and engagement of Maori in council’s decision making processes.

Phill Grimshaw has stated that these Maori representation workshops were a first step in the process of getting feedback from Maori about how they saw their place in terms of their involvement in council business. “Maori have a valid contribution to make and the council has made it clear it wants their voices to be heard,” he said. “The hui will give us an opportunity to determine to what extent they wish to be part of the council’s decision making processes and how this can be achieved.”

The Itinerary table above will allow you to select a Hui that is convenient for you and Council encourages your participation. All Hui will commence at 9.30am. A dedicated page for Maori Representation will be posted on the Maori Development section of our website: www.fndc.govt.nz within the next week or so to keep you informed on any progress or in case of any last minute changes to Hui, therefore, please keep an eye on this page.

Additionally, feel free to pass this panui on to your networks as we would value your whakaaro at the Hui.

Mauri Ora,

Jacynthia Murphy
Strategic Plan Coordinator
District Plan & Maori Development
Ph: 0800 920 029
Ph: 09 405 2750 (local or mobile)
Extn: 6571

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 7, 2009 at 1:57pm

kia ora koutou

Three Maori members of the Western (Hokianga/Kaikohe) Community Board are on the Far North District Council's Maori Representation Task Group, alongside three other elected members and staff - have a read of what we have been up to.


maori-representation-workshops?

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