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 251 - 260 of 270 events.
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Families Commission disestablished
The Families and Whānau Wellbeing Research Programme, and Growing Up in New Zealand, were transferred to the Research and Evaluation Unit of MSD.[i]
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current -
Section 70a benefit reductions removed
Under section 70a of the Social Security Act 1964, the benefit received by a sole parent is reduced for each dependent child for whom they do not seek child support [subject to some exemptions]. The reductions apply if a sole parent receiving benefit does …
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current -
Te Arawhiti established
In 2018 Cabinet agreed to establish Te Arawhiti – an agency to oversee the Government’s work with Māori in a post-Treaty settlement era. Te Arawhiti’s scope includes: Te Kāhui Whakatau (Treaty Settlements), Te Kāhui Whakamana (Settlement Commitments), and …
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current -
Welfare Expert Advisory Group established
The government established the Welfare Expert Advisory Group to provide advice on the future of New Zealand’s social security system. The report, Whakamana Tangata, Restoring Dignity to Social Security in New Zealand was released in May 2019, and made over…
Date: 2018 Period: 1990-current -
Child and youth wellbeing strategy
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) introduced the strategy, framework and programme of action.[i]
Date: 2019 Period: 1990-current -
Inquiries into uplift of a week-old baby
The two inquiries focused on what became known as the ‘Hastings Uplift’ by Oranga Tamariki. This involved an attempted uplifting of a baby without notice under a section 78 custody order in May 2019. The mother’s first child had been taken into care and de…
Date: 2019 Period: 1990-current -
Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities
Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities was established.[i]
Date: 2019 Period: 1990-current -
s7AA Oranga Tamariki Act 1989
Section 7AA came into force on 1 July 2019. It sets out specific duties of the chief executive in order to ‘recognise and provide a practical commitment to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi (te Tiriti o Waitangi)’ as stipulated by section 4 of the A…
Date: 2019 Period: 1990-current -
Te Pae Tawhiti and Te Pae Tata launched
Te Pae Tawhiti was introduced by MSD as a strategic direction. The three strategic shifts included: Mana Manaaki (creating a positive experience); Kotahitanga (partnering for greater impact) and Kia Takatū tatou (supporting long-term social and economic de…
Date: 2019 Period: 1990-current -
Treasury introduces first Wellbeing Budget
This Budget encouraged agencies to develop wellbeing measures for reporting, and looked beyond Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to ‘improving the wellbeing of our people, protecting the environment and strengthening of our communities.’[i]
Date: 2019 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.