Chronology for 1972-1989
(Re)Claiming Māori welfare
From the 1970s, iwi Māori faced an unemployment crisis. ‘Between 1976 and 1981, rates of Māori unemployment increased dramatically. In 1981, Māori comprised almost a quarter (24.2 percent) of the total unemployed, a figure that represented 14.1 percent of the Māori workforce, compared to 3.7 percent of the non-Māori workforce. The unemployment crisis worsened for Māori throughout the 1980s as Māori suffered a job-loss rate of 15.1 percent between 1988 and 1991, compared to the Pākehā rate of 3.1 percent for the same period. This became one contributing factor for the return of many iwi Māori to their rural homelands. In 1988, however, researchers described a ‘Māori rural housing crisis due to decades of neglect by housing authorities’.[i] go to footnote
In 1984, 46.5 percent of all offenders under 15 were Māori boys.[ii] go to footnote Of complaints coming to the attention of the children's courts, 44.1 percent were for ‘children beyond control’, nearly half of whom were Māori (45.5 percent), and 73 percent of the total were dealt with by committing the child to the care of the Department of Social Welfare.[iii] go to footnote
Government policy
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, the growing cost of providing welfare services and a new philosophy of ‘user-pays’ called into question the continued viability of extensive welfare support and started the castigation of ‘welfare dependency’.[iv] go to footnote The context for the 1980s through to the 1990s was also the privatisation of state assets such as lands and forestry. Consequently, the NZMC challenged the sale of state assets, giving rise to the legal definitions of Treaty of Waitangi principles that underpinned challenges to government policy.
From the 1980s, government departments faced more direct and assertive Māori challenges and struggled to appear responsive to Māori concerns. Social Welfare had to address the question of how to achieve departmental reform within a clear Treaty context and while meeting treaty obligations.
By the mid-1980s it was estimated that $75.4 million was being transferred annually from government departments to the voluntary social sector. Sixty-eight percent of this was pre-allocated to large organisations such as Plunket and IHC.[v] go to footnote
Māori claimed control over their future and wellbeing and there was much organising in local Māori communities, rural and urban. Hoani Waititi marae opened in west Auckland and Pipitea Marae opened in Wellington. Te Whare Wānanga o Raukawa opened at Ōtaki, the first kōhanga reo opened at Wainuiomata, following Hui Whakatauira. Tatai Hono marae became a base for the Waitangi Action Committee (WAC) and Bastion Point activists, and a rallying stage for anti-Springbok tour protests.
Māori activism across the spectrum of te ao Māori continued with both conservative and high-profile protests fuelled by continuing discontent about racism, the loss of land, language, cultural identity, rangatiratanga and Treaty of Waitangi status. A Māori Language petition, 30,000 signatures strong, was delivered to Parliament in 1972. The 1975 Māori Land March led by Te Roopu Matakite o Aotearoa ‘demanded that the statute books be cleared of any legislation that could encroach on Māori land, and that patronising government interference in Māori land cease’.
In 1977 and 1978 there were land occupations at Takaparawhāu (Bastion Point) and Raglan Golf Course. By the late 1970s, WAC denounced Waitangi Day commemorations as tokenistic and the day became the focus of annual hikoi protests to Waitangi. In 1979, He Taua confronted University of Auckland engineering students practising a mock haka ‘culminating in eleven arrests, charges of rioting – and the end of the engineering students’ mock haka’.[vi] go to footnote
The Māori Women’s Movement was led by a new generation of women activists agitating around issues of race and gender. Many women campaigned about the Treaty, te reo and a range of social issues such as health and education – on both national and regional stages. All ‘gave expression to notions of mana wāhine’.[vii] go to footnote
Chronology events
Displaying 191 - 200 of 270 events.
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Placement targets for the long-term unemployed
The New Zealand Employment Service was required to place 40,000 job seekers registered for 26 weeks or more, within its overall target of 90,000 placements. The Service was also required to improve its placement results for women, Māori, Pacific Islanders …
Date: 1990 Period: 1990-current -
Fourth National Government welfare reforms
The National Government cut welfare benefits and removed the universal family benefit entirely with Ruth Richardson’s ‘mother of all budgets’.[i] Jenny Shipley criticised welfare system dependency and benefits as a poverty trap and pushed a modest ‘safety …
Date: 1991 Period: 1990-current -
Ka Awatea report
Winston Peters, National MP, releases Ka Awatea which recommended the abolition of the Iwi Transition Agency and Manatū Māori, replacing them with a new Ministry of Māori Development, Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK).[i] This new agency was to have a strong regional p…
Date: 1991 Period: 1990-current -
NZ Census of Population and Dwellings includes ‘Iwi’
The first national census since 1901 to include iwi.[i]
Date: 1991 Period: 1990-current -
Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust
The Trust moved from providing services based on ‘goodwill and voluntary labour of [the] Māori community’ to funded services under the name Te Whānau o Waipareira Social Services. This development arose from a two-year contract with DSW to provide a homebu…
Date: 1991 Period: 1990-current -
DSW split into three business units
Government welfare reforms separated the Department of Social Welfare into three standalone units. The New Zealand Community Funding Agency was established as one of the key ‘operating businesses’ of the Department of Social Welfare and helped ensure that…
Date: 1992 Period: 1990-current -
Establishment of Te Puni Kōkiri
Te Puni Kōkiri, Ministry of Māori Development, replaced Manatū Māori as well as the Iwi Transition Agency. Both agencies had replaced the Department of Māori Affairs. Part of the role of the new Ministry was to monitor other government departments for deli…
Date: 1992 Period: 1990-current -
Additional social welfare reforms
Release of DSW’s Briefing to the Incoming Minister, published in 1993, raised concerns about increasing number of sole parents, and long-term unemployment following the passage of Employment Contracts Act. The fourth National Government's Prime Ministerial…
Date: 1993 Period: 1990-current -
From Welfare to Well-Being
Department of Social Welfare, From Welfare to Well-Being (Wellington: Department of Social Welfare, 1994) introduced the idea of reciprocal obligations.[i] Introduction of case managers to address barriers individuals face returning to work. Sole Parent …
Date: 1994 Period: 1990-current -
Māori Development Conference - Hui Whakapumau
A two-day meeting of Māori who gathered to review the Decade of Māori Development 1984–94, and to focus on issues which needed to be addressed if ‘self-determination and social justice were to prevail’. Hui called for a shift in focus from iwi development …
Date: 1994 Period: 1990-current
Footnotes
- [i] go to main content Panguru and the City, p. 234.
- [ii] go to main content The April report: report of the Royal Commission on Social Policy, Volume 1: New Zealand Today, New Zealand Royal Commission on Social Policy, Wellington, 1988, p. 161.
- [iii] go to main content April report, vol. 1, p. 162.
- [iv] go to main content Bronwyn Dalley, Family Matters, Wellington, 1998, p. 261.
- [v] go to main content Margaret Tennant, Past Judgement: Social Policy in New Zealand History, co-edited with Bronwyn Dalley, 2004, p. 53.
- [vi] go to main content Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris, Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, 2014, p. 423.
- [vii] go to main content Tangata Whenua, pp. 416–423.