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 41 - 50 of 52 events.
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Māori Language Act
Te reo Māori becomes an official language.[i]
Date: 1987 Period: 1972-1989 -
Māori Women's Development Fund
Established by the Māori Women’s Welfare League with a grant from the Mana Enterprise Development Committee.[i]
Date: 1987 Period: 1972-1989 -
NZMC v AG court case
Colloquially known as the 'Lands Case', NZ Māori Council v The Attorney-General is the first time that the Treaty principles are articulated in the Courts, specifically the five principles articulated by the Appeal Court judges.
Date: 1987 Period: 1972-1989 -
Social Security Amendment Act
Changes recommended in the Puao-Te-Ata-Tu report are embodied in this Act. Puao-Te-Ata-Tu recommended the government adopt a bicultural approach to policy formulation and incorporate the “values, cultures and beliefs” of Māori in the formulation of legisla…
Date: 1987 Period: 1972-1989 -
He Tirohanga Rangapu
In April 1988 Labour released the He Tirohanga Rangapu: Partnership Perspectives report focusing on the Department of Māori Affairs and recommending a suite of changes to improve the Crown-Māori institutional relationship that was failing Māori, one of whi…
Date: 1988 Period: 1972-1989 -
State Sector Act
The State Sector Act 1988 was part of a suite of reforms intended to shift the focus of NZ’s social welfare policy from inputs to outputs and outcomes (social investment).[i] The Act made chief executives of government agencies responsible for delivering s…
Date: 1988 Period: 1972-1989 -
The Mason Report
The Committee of Inquiry into Procedures used in Certain Psychiatric Hospitals in Relation to Admission, Discharge or Release on Leave of Certain Classes of Patients, investigated the treatment of patients who had a crossover with the justice system (parti…
Date: 1988 Period: 1972-1989 -
Treaty of Waitangi Act (State Enterprises)
This Act enabled the Waitangi Tribunal to direct the government to transfer certain state-owned-enterprise assets to iwi as part of claim settlements.[i]
Date: 1988 Period: 1972-1989 -
Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 (Oranga Tamariki Act)
Formally recognised the ‘mixed economy’ of child welfare that had operated informally since the 19th century (government agencies, families, and communities).[i] The Act incorporated the Treaty and came out of recommendations from Rangihau’s 1986 report to…
Date: 1989 Period: 1972-1989 -
Department of Māori Affairs abolished
The Department of Maori Affairs was replaced by the Iwi Transition Agency (Te Tira Ahu Iwi), headed by Wira Gardiner. Also established a new policy-focused ministry: Manatū Māori or Ministry of Māori Affairs, which began operations in July 1989.[i] Tasked…
Date: 1989 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.