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 211 - 220 of 270 events.
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Te Whānau o Waipareira report released
Report released by the Waitangi Tribunal. The Waipareira Trust claimed it had been discriminated against by the Community Funding Agency, a unit of the Department of Social Welfare, in funding and policy because it was not an iwi organisation. The Tribuna…
Date: 1998 Period: 1990-current -
Towards a Code of Social and Family Responsibility
The proposed code outlined National/New Zealand First conservative values perspectives. Intended to garner consensus on family responsibilities, although targeted at beneficiaries.[i] Ultimately abandoned.
Date: 1998 Period: 1990-current -
Work and Income NZ established
Income Support Service and Employment Services merged to become Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ).[i]
Date: 1998 Period: 1990-current -
Department of Child, Youth and Family Services established
Children, Young Persons and their Families Agency was established through the merger of the New Zealand Children and Young Persons Service and the New Zealand Community Funding Agency. Later in the year, it became the stand-alone Department of Child, Youth…
Date: 1999 Period: 1990-current -
Fifth Labour Government
The fifth Labour Government policy of Closing the Gaps/Reducing Inequalities.[i] had goals of decreasing poverty, improving social inclusion, planning and individual development rather than punitive approaches. Job Seeker agreements between case managers …
Date: 1999 Period: 1990-current -
Māori socio-economic update
MSD noted a progressively worse overrepresentation of Māori children and young people in the system. ‘In 2001, Māori made up 45 percent of the total client group. Fifty-five percent of children in care and 48 percent of those in youth justice were Māori.' …
Date: 2000 Period: 1990-current -
Lake Alice apology
Government apology and compensation to approximately 180 former patients of the Lake Alice Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (1972–1978) after a private inquiry into mistreatment in the Unit.[i]
Date: 2001 Period: 1990-current -
Ministry of Social Development established
Amalgamation of the Ministry of Social Policy and the Department of Work and Income.[i]
Date: 2001 Period: 1990-current -
Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga established
Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) is New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and hosted by The University of Auckland. The centre's research is driven by its vision of creating the foundations for f…
Date: 2002 Period: 1990-current -
Towards a Māori Statistics Framework released
Statistics NZ released the discussion document Towards a Māori Statistics Framework. Led by Māori Policy Manager and Statistician Whetumarama Wereta and informed by Statistics NZ’s Māori Reference Group, the paper called for Māori statistics in the offici…
Date: 2002 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.