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 31 - 40 of 52 events.
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A Māori Perspective for DSW
A Ministerial Advisory Committee, chaired by John Te Rangi-Aniwaniwa Rangihau, was established to: ‘advise the Minister of Social Welfare on the most appropriate means to achieve the goal of an approach which would meet the needs of Māori in policy, planni…
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
Maatua Whāngai review
The review revealed problems arising from hasty implementation and the lack of a whakapapa-based concept of community.[i]
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
Mana Enterprises Scheme initiated
Funds allocated by the Department of Māori to facilitate the entry of Māori into business through Māori authorities, usually tribal but also urban.
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
Report on institutional racism released
The Ministerial Advisory Committee report revealed that 62% of children in residential homes in the Auckland area were Māori.[i] The Māori Advisory Unit concluded that the Department was racist in the institutional sense; it was a typical, hierarchical bu…
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
The Adult Adoption Information Act
Enabled adopted children and birth parents to access information about each other, but allowed birth parents to request a veto on their information so that the child would not have access to the information.[i]
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
Waitangi Tribunal powers extended
The Waitangi Tribunal empowered to investigate Treaty claims dating back to 1840.[i]
Date: 1985 Period: 1972-1989 -
Puao-Te-Ata-Tu released
The Minister of Social Welfare Ann Hercus released Puao-te-ata-tu (Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on a Māori Perspective for Social Welfare) after the end of a special ministerial inquiry led by John Rangihau involving over 60 hui across the …
Date: 1986 Period: 1972-1989 -
Royal Commission on Social Policy established
In 1986 the government established the Royal Commission on Social Policy, which published its report in 1988. This was occurring at the same time as Puao-te-ata- tu. Commissioners appointed were Sir Ivor Richardson [Chair], Ann Ballin, Marion Bruce, Len Co…
Date: 1986 Period: 1972-1989 -
Te Whainga i Te Tika – In Search of Justice
The report of the Advisory Committee on Legal Services raised concerns about: children lacking effective legal protections; young people not understanding what was happening in courtrooms; institutional racism; and identified children and young people unde…
Date: 1986 Period: 1972-1989 -
Mana Enterprises Development Programme
Mana Enterprises Development Programme and MACCESS – Māori Access Schemes – provided small business loans to Māori business initiatives, and subsidised employment schemes tailored to Māori.[i] Te Whānau o Waipareira was designated by the Department of Mao…
Date: 1987 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.