White cliffs barrier to Dover

In case you missed it when it flashed by on National Radio’s Waatea News this morning (declaration: I am currently working in a production capacity for said news feed, which is why my energy hasn’t been directed to this blog in recent weeks), a dis to the Maori caucus from Chris Carter.

Two weeks ago in Caucus Dover Samuels, the former MP for Te Tai Tokerau and now a list MP, savaged Carter for vetoing a marina project at Whangamata on the Coromandel, as he has the power to do as Minister of Conservation. While Maori are somehow expected to be pro-conservation, they also have important but at the moment mostly theoretical economic interests in the coastal zone. If something isn’t done to create streamlined and transparent regulatory processes, the 20 percent of aquaculture space Maori are to receive under the aquaculture settlement (the concession prize for losing the foreshore and seabed stoush) becomes just another liability. Labour Maori MPs have been giving a lot of thought to this.

News of Dover’s tongue lashing leaked out (alluded to first on Waatea News, then in the Independent), and Dover was forced to say he and Carter were great mates etc.

This week Carter is in Brazil representing the country at a United Nations conference on biological diversity. He delegated all his ministerial portfolios to Rick Barker, the Minister for Internal Affairs, Justice etc.

Left twiddling their thumbs were not only Samuels, who is associate minister of housing, but Te Tai Tonga MP Mahara Okeroa, the associate minister for conservation.

If Labour wants to win back the Maori electorates it lost last time, it better show it can have a good relationship with the Maori in its own caucus, let alone those voters out there.

Price put on wananga plunder

The Maori Party is finally asking some of the right questions on Te Wananga o Aotearoa, zeroing in on how much Trevor Mallard’s takeover of a Maori-developed institution is costing.

Party co-leader Pita Sharples asked Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen how much Brian Roche, a senior partner with accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, is being paid as Crown Manager of Te Wananga o Aotearoa.

Cullen said it is not just Roche but six others from PWC feeding at the trough, which for the 04/05 financial year cost $545,223 (excluding GST). For the period 1 July 2005 to 31 January 2006 a total of $810,789 (excluding GST) was paid to PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the work. Brian Roche's direct involvement varies over time but represented approximately 23% of the total bill, or just over $300,000, at $2400 a day plus gst and disbursements.

Cullen say Roche will stay in place as Crown Observer "until the Government is satisfied that the level of risk pertaining to
Te Wananga o Aotearoa is at acceptable levels."

He will remain as Crown manager for as long the term of the Crown loan currently propping up the wananga's activities, which is likely to be for at least the remainder of this year. "I envisage the Crown Manager will remain in place until the financial issues at Te Wananga o Aotearoa have been satisfactorily addressed and his services are no longer required."

Bear in mind, Roche is in place because Cullen’s predecessor, Trevor Mallard, engineered a financial crisis by refusing to pay over the suspensory loan agreed as part of a treaty settlement, on the pretext the wananga had too many non-Maori students – a pretext the Waitangi Tribunal has said is not justifiable in terms of the wananga’s mission.

Former wananga chief executive Rongo Wetere was ousted because of allegation of financial impropriety which an Audit Office investigation was unable to back up. Now it turns out the Crown’s agents are a far more expensive option, and there is so far no evidence they have the institution’s best interests at heart.

Sharples told the Dominon Post it was ironic a Government minder brought in to cut costs was being paid an exorbitant handout when the wananga's former management had been criticised for its financial largesse.

Cullen's spokesman, Mike Jaspers, told the DomPost Roche had achieved a lot, including improved financial management and organisational practices, replacing the council and was in the process of finding a new chief executive.

Back up. The council has been illegal since Mallard's bullyboy, Wira Gardiner, pressured most of the iwi reps to leave. The council is now being reconstituted to give it some shred of legality and as a result of the out of court settlement with Wetere.

The wananga’s chairman, Craig Coxhead, another Crown appointee, said Roche and his team had cut the organisation's losses significantly and reduced its need for financial assistance from the Crown. Coxhead couldn’t provide any figures backing up that assertion until accounts were done up at the end of the financial year.

Coxhead said PWC had "dramatically improved our ability to track, predict and manage costs and assist in the proper management of our assets". If that is the case, the figures should be available now.

Demonising Wetere has involved lots of accusations, but these highly-paid accountants haven't even been able to release the accounts for the previous financial year. Or perhaps they don’t back up their case for Wetere’s mismanagement without a lot of cooking, such as revaluation practices which might not pass audit.

As for reducing the need for financial assistance from the Crown, that’s not the idea. The wananaga is a publicly funded body. The issue was that Wetere was given three years to grown without a funding cap, a freedom he took advantage of for almost 30 months before Mallard stepped in. He revealed deficiencies in the tertiary education sector which need to be addressed, but instead look like they will again be pushed under the carpet.

As head of PWC's "government relations" team, Roche has done well for himself. Mallard tipped him in to the Correspondence School, Northland Polytechnic and the Open Polytechnic.

The government also appointed him to chair the Auckland Regional Transport Authority. His is a former chief executive of Treasury's Crown Company Monitoring and Advisory Unit and was a chief Crown negotiator for the Ngai Tahu Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

Iwi leaders in secret Love fest

As the coffers of iwi organisations fill with millions of dollars in fisheries and land settlement assets, they should be thinking of how to be accountable to and communicate with beneficiaries.

Instead, these wannabe rangatira choose secrecy and exclusion. Alarm bells should be ringing.

Invited runanga leaders are meeting at Wellington’s Pipitea Marae for a three day hui to, in the words of organiser Peter Love from Te Atiawa, "discuss the future of Maoridom".

The media was excluded from proceedings, which included a presentation from Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia.

Considering that Horomia is a public servant, public scrutiny of his statements would seem to be a given. The minister should have insisted his speech was open to the media, though he did express his concerns after. "Maori leadership need to ensure it maintains transparency," he said. Kia ora.

Also excluded were urban Maori organisations.

Willie Jackson, chairman of the National Urban Maori Authority, said that was ignorant and insulting.

Also very very stupid.

If these people start holding secret meetings, people will start questioning their mandates. And Love should know how messy that can be.

Love’s constant assertions of his personal rangatiratanga have convinced few over the years, not even his own family,

So what is this hui? Is it an attempt to revive the National Maori Congress, which faded because it could not define a legitimate role for itself? Is it an attempt to create a rival to the Federation of Maori Authorities? Is it a bunch of people trying to make themselves out to be important?

Love said urban Maori authorities were not invited because they were not a traditional Maori group. Maybe not, but neither are the trusts and runanga – they are artificial creations. Or to put it another way, what concerns may these “traditional” groups have to raise which would not also be of concern to urban Maori authorities? While urban Maori authorities may not have an immediate interest in changes to the Resource Management Act (although their members may be as individuals), urban authorities are likely to be in the thick of any Maori response to a bird flu pandemic, as is also on the hui agenda.

These tribal leaders are going to regret this when they go back home. Their members are suspicious enough that deals are cut in secret without fuelling their fears.