Testing relationships

Rawiri Taonui canvasses the year ahead for Maori and Pakeha, with particular emphasis on the political dimensions of the relationship.

Earlier this month, the descendants of the Maori prophet Wiremu Tahupotiki Ratana gave their blessing to the 1-year-old National-Maori Party partnership.

Prime Minister John Key's no-baggage, no-nonsense, straight talking, let's work together style is a race relations revelation.

He knows what matters, what doesn't (flying two flags is not a drama), and where the boundaries lie (let the Maori Party deal with Hone Harawira, he is their member).

The twin pillars of the Maori Party leadership, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, have also been important.

Dignified, thoughtful and strong, they are the best Maori political leaders since Princess Te Puea and Apirana Ngata.

This triumvirate knows that working together is about trust, keeping things simple and the freedom to disagree.

The win over Labour at Ratana belies deeper waters ahead.

Waitangi Day looms large with several in Ngapuhi set to fly the St George Cross of the Confederation ensign instead of the newly chosen Rangatiratanga flag.

There is room for embarrassment as the debate plays out on Hone Heke Harawira's home turf.

Budget 2010 signals the intorduction of the Whanau Ora, with some estimating up to $1 billion in resources devolved to Maori social service providers.

Modelled on successful initiatives in health where the increase of Maori providers from none to 275 in 25 years has had real impact: they understand issues better, know the communities, and don't suffer the ingrained prejudices built up over multiple generations in mainstream institutions.

This quiet revolution will be the most effective policy initiative for Maori since World War 2.

Changes to the foreshore and seabed legislation fall due mid-year.

Most Pakeha now accept that the 2005 Act was a paranoid pre-emptive strike against Maori human rights.

Important components will include guaranteed public access to the beaches, continuing and building on Labour's negotiations with iwi for settlements (which were good), but broadening provisions for joint ownership and management regimes between the Crown and Maori (with appropriate checks and balances) as successfully applies for the Rotorua lakes and Waikato River (both Labour initiatives).

There is also a need to allow for the investigation and/or negotiation and settlement of other residual claims (which Labour excluded), in line with the Sealords deal of 1994, including ditching of the proof of a continuous connection clause that denies the separation colonisation caused, and payment of a centralised settlement component, perhaps to a national authority.

In another real victory for the Maori Party, and following on 20 years after the Bill of Rights, a constitutional review, including consideration of the status of the Treaty of Waitangi is on the agenda, something Maori have advocated for four decades.

Fundamental questions are at stake.

Did the Treaty cede sovereignty in 1840 or was sovereignty acquired over time through the marginalisation of Maori society?

Do we enshrine the treaty in legislation, as the international community via the UN Periodic Review of Human Rights in New Zealand recommends, or continue to apply the Principles of the Treaty, and, if so, who says what they mean?

Sharples and company need to consolidate their recovery from the Hone Harawira Affair with the latest Te Karere poll showing Labour is now dead even with the Maori Party at 38% each, after the latter previously held a 46%-26% advantage.

Labour will have ample opportunities to strike at the National-Maori Party alliance.

However, it needs to change tack.

Suffering the self-inflicted anguish of rejected lovers, leader Phil Goff's cross-cultural skills aren't convincing, his state of the nation race relations speech and general deliberate negativity may drive more Maori towards the Maori Party than away from it.

The Te Karere poll shows 47% of Maori approve of John Key and 59% disapprove of Mr Goff.

More tellingly, Labour may need a new leader if it is to recoup ground on race relations - 48% of Maori members of the Labour Party do not support the incumbent.

The relationship that was no longer exists, neither is it lost; it has evolved, changed and matured.

Labour is no longer the only place for Maori to be.

Maori are no longer the 40,000 desperate destitute of the 1930s that had just escaped annihilation by colonisation and needed a hand up.

They are 800,000 dynamic descendants of a people who, through fight-back, have earned the right to be co-equals with all Pakeha, working as partners with this National Government and with the next Labour government.

Labour must focus on policy, not rhetoric.

There is traction in the arguments that the Maori Party is delivering small kumara, such as the twin flags, but not the big ones, such as seats on Auckland Super City and Polytech councils.

There are questions about the impact on Maori of the 90-day rule allowing workers to be sacked without appeal, cutbacks in ACC, pay rates not keeping up with the cost of living, a pathetic increase to the minimum wage, and tax cuts that favour the wealthy.

The Maori Party partnership must also defend against the National-Act partnership as it gathers momentum on right wing policies, such as the one-year review of beneficiaries and three-strikes policies - all of which impact differentially on Maori.

The full impact of the recession is not over.

The OECD suggests just 1.8% to 2.2% growth for New Zealand in 2010.

Just 23% of firms are optimistic.

The IMF says 2 million more people worldwide will become unemployed this year.

Maori unemployment, already at 10% last May, is now probably double the national rate of 6.5%.

Maori suffered worse than non-Maori under Rogernomics and Ruthanasia, their incomes not returning to early-1980s levels until 2005.

The real strength of the ground-breaking relationship between Maori and National will be how much they deliver to Maori.

The relationship, a stream of Treaty settlements, a larger, smarter and better educated Maori work force and leadership, and stronger relationships with all Pakeha are the main hopes.

- Dr Taonui is head of the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury.