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 21 - 30 of 52 events.
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Bi-culturism
Hiwi Tauroa, freshly minted Race Relations Conciliator, releases a report called “Race Against Time” in which he argues that race relations in New Zealand needs urgent attention.
Date: 1982 Period: 1972-1989 -
Group Employment Liaison Service established
Group Employment Liaison Service (GELS) was established within the Department of Labour. GEL targeted unemployed with the aim of facilitating access to employment and training programmes via community fieldworkers, most of whom were Māori.[i] GELS was abs…
Date: 1982 Period: 1972-1989 -
Kohanga Reo
The first Kōhanga Reo was supported by the Department of Māori Affairs. A year later, there were 100 (currently over 460). As well as reviving Te Reo Māori, the aims included immersing children and whānau in Māori child rearing practices.[i]
Date: 1982 Period: 1972-1989 -
Remote Area Policy
Provision was made in policy guidelines to refuse to grant or cancel an Unemployment Benefit when a person has deliberately and without good reason moved to a locality where there is no work available either with the intention of living on the benefit in a…
Date: 1982 Period: 1972-1989 -
Maatua Whāngai programme
The programme was established to centralise whānau, hapū and iwi in all welfare work. It aimed to keep Māori young people and children among their whānau or hapū and out of government institutions.[i] The programme was founded on the Tu Tangata principle o…
Date: 1983 Period: 1972-1989 -
Race Relations Conciliator’s report on youth and law
Report argued the inadequacy of representation for Māori and general appropriateness of the court system for Māori.[i]
Date: 1983 Period: 1972-1989 -
DSW accused of racism
The Women’s Anti-Racism Action Group (WARAG) accused the Department of Social Welfare of practising institutional racism in that the framework of the Department (staffing, training, legislation and policies) reflected a relentlessly Pākehā view of society …
Date: 1984 Period: 1972-1989 -
Fourth Labour Government elected July 1984
The fourth Labour Government in power from 1984 to 1990. Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas, introduces neoliberal economic reforms between 1984 and 1988. Known as Rogernomics, ‘the government removed a swathe of regulations and subsidies, privatised state…
Date: 1984 Period: 1972-1989 -
Hui Taumata
Hui Taumata (Māori Economic Development Conference), convened by Koro Wētere, was held at Parliament and spanned three days. Leaders asked the government to grant more authority which led to greater awareness amongst government departments of Māori concern…
Date: 1984 Period: 1972-1989 -
Unemployment Benefit: Remote area policy clarified
It was accepted that a person had a good reason for relocating to a remote area (and could therefore continue to be eligible for the Unemployment Benefit) if they had previous connections with the area or previous lengthy residence. This included Māori ret…
Date: 1984 Period: 1972-1989
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.