Families Commission

Appontments and Māori news from E17 week ending 24 May 2013

Appointments

• Sir Wira Gardiner has been appointed to the Families Commission Board.

• The Member of Parliament for Waikato-Hauraki, Nanaia Mahuta, and Sir Henry van der Hayden have both been named as the members of a group which will review governance arrangements for Tainui. The review is being held as the iwi continues to experience significant governance and management issues relating to both its tribal parliament and executive board. While some issues are perhaps personality based, structural tensions within the design of two entities are also presenting. Pānui 42/2012 provides further details on these matters. A former Labour Party colleague of Ms Mahuta, John Tamihere, has criticised her decision to accept the role, noting the difficulties of balancing parliamentary duties with this work. We agree with Mr Tamihere’s assessment – the role of representing constituents across all of the Hauraki-Waikato electorate does not readily reconcile with a direct governance role focused on one iwi within the region. Rather it presents the possibility for future conflicts of interest, and perceptions of conflicts of interest to arise – which ironically are examples of the types of governance issues that may need to be addressed. (Also note this weekend the iwi will determine whether to removed Hemi Rau as the Deputy Chair of its executive board, for allegedly ‘acting dishonourably’ towards staff at the Waikato Raupatu Lands Trust and Waikato Raupatu River Trust.)

Significant Māori news stories

• Last Wednesday protesters from Ngāti Haua barred access to trucks which planned to dump oil and gas drilling waste on land near Oeo Marae, in Taranaki. The South Taranaki District Council has issued abatement notices and has required BTW, the company responsible for transporting and disposing of the waste, to cease their operations due to resource consent breaches.

Correction • In Pānui edition 15/2013 we wrote that the Labour Party had held the seat of Eastern Māori from 1943. That was incorrect. In 1996 the seat was renamed ‘Te Tai Rawhiti’, and was won by Tuariki John Delamere for the New Zealand First Party. We apologise for this error.

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Families Commission report on formal school aged childcare trends

On Monday the Families Commission released a report on after-school care services. The report, Caring for kids- parents’ views on out-of-school services and care, was prepared to provide an evidence base to support the Minister of Social Development- Paula Bennett’s decisions regarding the Out-of-School Care and Recreation (OSCAR) review and wider considerations on improving childcare for low-income families and whānau. The report will also be used to identify childcare issues which may impede Domestic Purposes Benefit recipients entering paid employment or employment training when their youngest child turns six years of age as determined by the Future Focus welfare reform package.

The report showed that Māori, and respondents earning less than $20,000 were more likely to identify cost as a reason for not using formal OSS than New Zealand European respondents. For Māori, whānau play a significant role in caring for children before and after school, and in the school holidays. The report also found that Māori want more affordable, quality childcare to be made available in their living areas, with options of care which offered cultural content.

However, in terms of use of formal OSS, employment not ethnicity appears to have a greater influence ; children in families where a sole-parent is employed or both parents are employed were significantly more likely to attend before or afterschool formal OSS or school holiday programme compared to children in families where a parent did not work

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