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 231 - 240 of 270 events.
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Māori-led approaches to family violence
In April 2008, at a national summit hosted by Tainui and opened by King Tuheitia and held at Hopuhopu marae, Māori leaders in attendance proposed new strengths-based and Māori-led approaches to Māori family violence, resulting in the E Tu Whānau initiative…
Date: 2008 Period: 1990-current -
‘Future Focus’ welfare reforms
The fifth National Government-led coalition embarked on an ambitious programme of welfare reform – the largest such programme since major cuts to welfare benefit rates in the early 1990s. The first phase was the Future Focus initiative. From late September…
Date: 2010 Period: 1990-current -
Tamariki in state care
The number of Māori children in care rose from 54.7% in June 2013 to 61.2% of children in care in 2017. The Pākehā proportion of children in care over the same period reduced from 33.2% to 26%.[i] Between 2015 and 2018, the total number of newborn babies (…
Date: 2010 Period: 1990-current -
Taskforce on Whānau-centred Initiatives
MSD provided administrative support to the Whānau Ora taskforce set up in 2009 to address concerns about health and social service providers being too slow and focused on individuals rather than whānau wellbeing and capabilities. The Taskforce reported to …
Date: 2010 Period: 1990-current -
Welfare Working Group (WWG) established
Introduced by the National Government, the WWG, in its final report, summarised its recommendations as: ‘a plan for a large scale and comprehensive reform of the welfare system to reduce long-term welfare dependency.’ Two key elements were the introduction…
Date: 2010 Period: 1990-current -
Whānau Ora policy
Whānau Ora – an interagency approach to providing services and opportunities to all New Zealand families in need –was also about the transformation of whānau (with whānau setting their own direction). It was driven by a focus on outcomes that whānau would …
Date: 2010 Period: 1990-current -
Christchurch earthquake
A major earthquake strikes Christchurch and surrounding areas. Ngāi Tahu becomes a statutory partner with Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA). Ngai Tahu and Ngā Mātā Waka from across the country established the Māori Recovery Network reaching o…
Date: 2011 Period: 1990-current -
Investment approach announced
In November 2011 the government announced that a long-term fiscal liability focus, or ‘investment approach’, would underpin its future welfare reform programme.[i]
Date: 2011 Period: 1990-current -
Ko Aotearoa Tēnei released
The Waitangi Tribunal released the Wai 262 report: Ko Aotearoa Tēnei. It recommended ‘wide-ranging reforms to laws and policies affecting Māori culture and identity and [called] for the Crown-Māori relationship to move beyond grievance to a new era based o…
Date: 2011 Period: 1990-current -
Te Hiku o Te Ika Iwi signed
The Crown Social Development and Wellbeing Accord entailed Te Hiku Iwi and the Crown working in partnership towards the cultural, social and economic prosperity of the communities, whānau, hapū and iwi of Te Hiku. The Ministry of Social Development was one…
Date: 2013 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.