Maori Affairs Dept ‘will be stronger’

Press, 23 February 1987, Page 8

Maori Affairs Dept ‘will be stronger’

PA Wellington The co-author of a 1985 report on the Maori Affairs Department, Ms Denese Henare, is confident the department wil be stronger as a result of restructuring plans being examined. Ms Henare, an Auckland lawyer, said yesterday she supported proposals to separate the department’s commercial and economic activities from its social functions.

A team of Cabinet Ministers is looking at the future of the department as a social agency. The Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, has also said a Maori resource development corporation will be established as a separate entity.

Ms Henare said one of the department’s biggest problems was that it could not fulfil many of the functions and activities it was supposed to handle. “The only way it is going to fulfil the aspirations of Maori people is if it turns its roles round entirely, instead of trying to attend to absolutely everything,” she said.

Lines of responsibility in the department were not clear.

“The structure itself doesn’t assist people to be more effective in the department,” she said. Establishing a corporation would “go a long way to help sort those clear lines of commercial and business activities from social, cultural and community development activities.” In 1985 Ms Henare headed a Ministerial review committee which canvassed Maori people on the department The committee reported to Mr Wetere.

The report said the de-

partment had “slowly but surely been wound down until it has reached the stage where ... it is under-staffed, underfinanced and cannot keep pace with the speed of change in New Zealand in the 1980 s.” Ms Henare said the Hawaiian loan negotiations were caused in part by the department’s weaknesses. Community development people were involved in advancing commercial activities.

“Again, that is really not the fault of the people. It’s the fault of the structure that does not set the parameters of the activity,” she said.