Chronology for 1938-1971
Assimilating into universal welfare
Labour’s policies were underpinned by a principle of universality and a vision of the nation as a classless community. Rich, middle-class and poor were linked by the same national system of state support and social services; superannuation, however small, was to be available to every aged person who was not already on another benefit and was an important symbol of citizenship. The ‘system as a whole was removed from ‘the taint of charity’ and became a source of national pride’.[i] go to footnote
This was a period of great demographic change for iwi Māori with the mass migration of its rural population to the cities of New Zealand. The need for workers in essential industries and the post-war labour boom provided rangatahi and whānau Māori with ample employment, 'incomes that were almost equal to those of Pākehā, and access to family welfare benefits that boosted the incomes of large families by around 50 percent.'[ii] go to footnote However, the financial rewards were offset by one or both parents working long hours to cover the costs of city living and it exposed Māori to discrimination. The Department of Māori Affairs played a welfare role in the lives of whānau Māori during this period, with a policy of integrating Māori into the social fabric of ‘mainstream’ New Zealand society. Through housing allocation policies attempts were made to pepper pot Māori in Pākehā suburban streets.[iii] go to footnote Young Māori women who moved to the cities for essential industry work or single rangatahi simply moving to the city for work opportunities were directed into hostels.
Before the 1950s, child welfare agencies endeavoured to keep Māori children with their families or in their own tribal area.[iv] go to footnote In the 1950s, Māori became a disproportionate minority in all areas of child welfare work with a steady growth in Māori juvenile delinquency with recorded Māori offending at three or four times the rate of Pākehā, particularly in the 15–20 age.[v] go to footnote
Chronology events
Displaying 241 - 250 of 270 events.
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Te Kupenga released
Statistics NZ released Te Kupenga, the Māori Social Survey - the first ever nationally representative survey of Māori and whānau wellbeing. The last Te Kupenga survey took place in 2018.[i]
Date: 2013 Period: 1990-current -
Māori Housing Strategy launched
The Māori Housing Strategy – He Whare Āhuru He Oranga Tāngata reflected the government’s desire for a long-term strategy to improve Māori housing and respond to the housing aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi.[i]
Date: 2014 Period: 1990-current -
Expert Advisory Panel review
In April 2015, the Minister for Social Development, Anne Tolley, established an expert advisory panel to review the Child, Youth and Family Agency (CYF) and the care and protection system, and to determine how the lives of vulnerable children in New Zealan…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Māori Data Sovereignty Network established
An inaugural meeting on Māori Data Sovereignty was held at Hopuhopu on 19 October 2015 where the formation of Te Mana Raraunga as a Māori Data Sovereignty Network was accepted by the participants and the contents of the charter discussed. The purpose was t…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Social Investment Agency
In a series of speeches in 2015, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, and his Associate Minister, Paula Bennett, reiterated that the government was applying a ‘social investment’ approach to welfare. The Social Investment Unit of the State Services Commi…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
The Vulnerable Children’s Act
The Vulnerable Children’s Act and the Vulnerable Children (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children’s Workers) Regulations 2015 introduced new requirements for children’s worker safety checking. State services and organisations providing government-funde…
Date: 2015 Period: 1990-current -
Oranga Tamariki Act amendments
The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Vulnerable Children) Amendment Act introduced ‘Subsequent child’ provisions to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, as part of a ‘package of reforms to address child abuse and neglect’. The new provisions, under se…
Date: 2016 Period: 1990-current -
Mana Tamaiti principles
Introduction of Mana Tamaiti principles to Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children through the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act.[i] A Māori Design Group was established alongside Oranga Tamariki as an external …
Date: 2017 Period: 1990-current -
Reports of concern in relation to Māori children
Māori children made up the greatest proportion of Oranga Tamariki care and protection notifications requiring further action.[i] Māori made up 55% of care and protection notices (Reports of Concern) requiring further action, compared with ‘other ethnicity…
Date: 2017 Period: 1990-current -
Abuse in Care Royal Commission
The Government announced the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care (later extended to include Faith-based Institutions). The Royal Commission’s contextual hearing, its first substantive public hearing, was hel…
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content Tim Garlick, Social Developments: An organizational history of the Ministry of Social Development and its predecessors, 1860-2011, Steele Roberts Aotearoa, Wellington, 2012, p.70.
- [ii] go to main content Melissa Matutina Williams, Panguru and the City, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2010, p. 195.
- [iii] go to main content Urbanisation – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- [iv] go to main content Bronwyn Dalley, Family Matters, Wellington, 1998, p. 6.
- [v] go to main content Dalley, 1998, p. 192.