16 March 2006
Dr Pita Sharples, Co-leader, Maori Party
Maori Party Supports TPK monitoring of other agencies - Dr Pita Sharples
A statement this morning, suggesting that TPK Chief Executive Leith Comer is shying away from his monitoring
responsibilities should be a serious 'wake-up' call for the Minister of Maori Affairs, says the Maori Party.
"Today's comments from Mr Comer implying that he only wants to focus on being the nice guy is a real concern for this
Parliament" said Dr Pita Sharples, co-leader of the Maori Party; and deputy Chair-person of the Maori Affairs Select
Committee.
The comments from Mr Comer reported that 'he wants to move away from being the policeman of the state sector' to work
more collaboratively with other state agencies.
The Ministry of Mäori Development Act 1991 legislated for TPK to undertake particular responsibilities to both
"monitoring and liaising with, each department and agency that provides or has a responsibility to provide services to
or for Mäori for the purpose of ensuring the adequacy of those services".
"You can't have it both ways. The legislation specifies two roles - good cop and bad cop - you can't pick and choose"
stated Dr Sharples.
"The need for good information is vital" stated Dr Sharples. "When the United Nations Special Rapporteur reported on New
Zealand's situation last year, a key concern for him was the lack of significant disaggregated statistical data
identifying ethnicity" .
"His remarks were 'If you do not have the right data, you can not really target your social policy'. It is very
disturbing that only three months later, it appears that Te Puni Kokiri is abdicating its statutory responsibilities to
identify and report that data" stated Dr Sharples.
"The Maori Party is absolutely committed towards ensuring Te Puni Kokiri is able to meet its legislated responsibilities
to promote improvement in education; training and employment; health and economic resource development" stated Dr
Sharples.
"Over the years the operational responsibilities for these areas were devolved to mainstream departments. That did not
mean TPK should just shut-up shop" said Dr Sharples. "The whole point of the legislation was to ensure TPK could
guarantee to tangata whenua and the Crown, that taxpayer money was being spent effectively, to improve the position of
Maori. If they can't do the mahi, they should be closed down" said Dr Sharples.
"To this end, we will be calling for an urgent inquiry into the capacity of TPK to undertake its monitoring functions.
We want to know where the problem lies - is it the Chief Executive, is it the Minister, is it the Ministry, is it the
Government?".
Background
According to the Ministry of Mäori Development Act 1991 -
5. Particular responsibilities of Ministry of Mäori Development
(1) The responsibilities of the Ministry of Mäori Development include- (a) Promoting increases in the levels of
achievement attained by Mäori with respect to- (i) Education: (ii) Training and
employment: (iii) Health: (iv) Economic resource development:
(b) Monitoring, and liaising with, each department and agency that provides or has a responsibility to provide
services to or for Mäori for the purpose of ensuring the adequacy of those services.
ENDS