- Kei nga manukura o te motu, rarau mai ki Te Hui. Ko Mihingarangi tenei e mihi atu nei ki a koutou katoa. Welcome to The Hui ` Maori current affairs for all New Zealanders. E taro ake nei... Another damning review, another set of recommendations ` Minister for Children Kelvin Davis discusses the overhaul of Oranga Tamariki. - The uplifts should only be used as the very last resort. It should not be the go-to solution. - Wasn't that exactly what it was meant to be anyway, that it was the last resort? - You won't see uplifts done in the way they have been done in the past. - And as Maori home ownership plummets, we look at the struggle whanau face trying to get a foot on the property ladder. - For whanau Maori who don't own a home, they are disadvantaged in the system. - Teen mum, mother of five and now Junior Doctor of the Year ` we meet the remarkable Dr Tawa Hunter. - Has this award put the icing on the cake for all the hard yards that you've done so far? - To be honest, I'm completely overwhelmed by it. I never ever, in a million, billion years, ever thought that I would be standing here in this position. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2021 - Tahuti mai. The Minister for Children has announced that Oranga Tamariki is to be completely overhauled, with uplifts as we've known them put to an end and a new independent governance board installed. It comes after another damning review of the organisation. I korero au ki te Minita mo Oranga Tamariki, ki a Kelvin Davis. I'm just gonna lift a quote out of the report. 'Oranga Tamariki lacks strategic direction and vision. 'It is self-centred and constantly looks at itself for answers.' So, He Pa Harakeke and other reports have called for an independent authority. Have they got that? Have you delivered that? - Yes. And the advisory board that was appointed, consisting of Matt Tukaki, Dame Naida Glavish, Sir Mark Solomon and Shannon Pakura, were that independent Maori voice that have gone in. They'll oversee, uh, the changes from here. - Is it an authority, though? Is it a standalone, independent authority like we talked about last time, like the Maori Health Authority? - Well, no, it isn't, because there will always be a place for Oranga Tamariki, and this is about a true, equitable Treaty partnership where Oranga Tamariki are the enablers, and communities are the decision-makers, and what we have to do is resource the decisions that communities make. - But Minister, you know, the last time we talked, we talked about how it needed to be an authority that wasn't part of government or had any strings attached to the agency of Oranga Tamariki, because, as you know ` and experts have told you ` that Oranga Tamariki has failed our tamariki and our whanau and our communities for decades. - Yeah, but what we're proposing is that communities make the decisions, and once communities get this ability, they are not gonna relinquish it. So this is a change for Oranga Tamariki. This is a change in the system where communities get to make the decisions based on what they know is right for their taitamariki. And communities know what is best for our people, and they've been calling for this for a long time. But it does have to be an equitable partnership. Oranga Tamariki will have its role, but communities are gonna have a greater role, and it's about working together for the best interests of children and whanau. - OK, let's just walk through this, how this might work. So, for example, at the moment, what percentage of work has been handed over to the community, to iwi, to whanau, to whatever ` not private companies, just the community? What percentage of Oranga Tamariki's work? - Well, at this stage, very little. - Like what? Less than 20%? - Oh, you can't put percentage figures on it, because each community's different, and the needs of their` - No, they do, but you must know how much of Oranga Tamariki's work is... has been able to be devolved into the community. Is it less than 5%? - I think that's a silly question, Mihi, because different communities have different needs, and what we're saying is that each community working alongside Oranga Tamariki will triage out. It is about working together, but there's gonna be greater decision-making and more resources put into the hands of communities, so that's what's important. - You know, it's great to have community working for Oranga Tamariki and taking care of tamariki, but where's the power in that? Where's the authority? And how do you transfer the money, and how does it work? - Well, we just announced the report yesterday, Mihi, and that's what I'm saying is I agree entirely. It hasn't happened, and this is drawing a line in the sand, and it's the turning of the tide, and this is what we're going to be working towards over the next five years. This is a five-year` There is a five-year action plan associated with this report that is going to move the decision-making and the resources towards communities. - So, this new board, which is not an independent authority, will be responsible to who? - So you're telling me that Dame Naida Glavish is not independent? I think that's an insult to her and to the people on the board. There is no way that she listens to anybody, and if you're telling me that she's not independent and the others aren't independent, that's an insult to them. - It's about the framework, and it's about whether the framework is independent of government and its agencies, and you know that. So, we can have great individuals, but we need to change the frameworks of things. So who does this board report to? - They'll be accountable to, basically, communities, and they are going to be cracking the whip and making sure that the changes that have emerged, the action plan that has emerged from the report that they've... produced are going to be implemented. This is` This is big change, Mihi. This is systemic change. - So, I'm just trying to establish ` the board does not report to the CE of Oranga Tamariki or you as the minister; it reports to the community. Is that, like, a community board? - The board is going to be holding Oranga Tamariki to account. The board will be holding me to account. This is a board with four Maori members so far and two more on the way that will be holding Oranga Tamariki to account to make sure that the action plan that emerged from yesterday's report is going to be implemented over the next five years. - So once again, you've said that, again, Oranga Tamariki is going to manage these community organisations, and that's exactly what we've had. We've had Oranga Tamariki failing to engage and work with these Maori and community organisations. - No, no, you're totally misinterpreting it. This is about communities making the decisions alongside Oranga Tamariki. This is a partnership. This is an equitable partnership, and it is about focusing on the needs of children and their whanau. But we've got to do it together. - What changes have you brought to Section 78? - Well, we've said that Section 78, the uplifts, should only be used as the very last resort. It should not be the go-to solution. If a whanau has issues, after the community and the whanau and the hapu, the iwi, the NGOs, Oranga Tamariki have tried everything, if they determine together that the tamaiti is still... in danger, that's when a Section 78 should be... should be applied. - So what exactly has changed in Section 78? Wasn't that exactly what it was meant to be anyway, that it was the last resort? - It's the very, very last resort, and... you won't see uplifts done in the way they have been done in the past. We really want to reduce... to nil the numbers of uplifts. - Earlier this year, you said that you wanted to phase out strip-searching by the end of the year. Have you moved to do that? - Yeah, moving to do that. We're also moving to close the care and protection residences. - So are children still being strip-searched? - Not to my knowledge. - So have you banned it? - Look, we don't want strip searches. - Yeah, well, have you made it illegal? - Well, there hasn't been a legislative change. - Well, that's` I thought that's what you were moving to the last time that we spoke, so could you give us a final time frame that you will phase that out? - We've just gotta be really careful around this. But, you know, we don't want strip searches. We've seen in Corrections that they're implementing new technology to use instead of strip-searching that's been very effective, and Oranga Tamariki will look at all the options too. - Tena koe. Nga mihi nui ki a koe koutou katoa. - Kia ora. - Ko Kelvin Davis tera. Next, we look at the struggle whanau face trying to get a foot on the property ladder. Another damning review, another set of recommendations ` - Buying your first home is a monumental achievement, but the reality is owning a home is something now beyond the reach of many whanau. This week, the government announced its Maihi Ka Ora housing strategy, and with house prices continuously on the rise and Maori home ownership plummeting, help can't come soon enough. Kei a D'Angelo Martin tenei purongo. (SUBDUED MUSIC) - In an overpriced real estate market, Maori are struggling to get a foot on the property ladder. Never has housing in Aotearoa cost so much. The national average is now $826,000, a whopping 25.2% increase on last year. - Three bedrooms. - Even outside of Auckland, it's almost impossible for first-home buyers like Rangipare Ngaropo and Uenukuterangihoka Jefferies to get in the door. - It was quite disheartening, the first couple of offers that we put forward, because we'd get really excited, and then finding out that we were unsuccessful every time, we started to think, 'Far, are we ever going to crack it?' - They've spent months searching in the Bay of Plenty, trying and missing out multiple times. - It's been a stressful time. We learnt to not get too emotionally attached to some of the past houses. - Haere mai! - Rangipare and Uenuku both have full-time jobs and a deposit. But where they're house-hunting in Rotorua, prices have gone up by 30% in just 12 months. They say the whole process has been a struggle. - Getting preapproval, applying for grants ` all of that stuff is challenging for whanau. I would be embarrassed to ask for things, and my mum said, 'Nah, this is a different space. 'This isn't te ao Maori.' You actually say, 'Can I see this? I would like you to submit this.' And that was a huge learning for us. - I think we do need to be a bit more confident in ourselves Putea and prices and figures have always been a struggle for us as a people who put manaakitanga above everything. - Maori home ownership has declined dramatically since 1999, with just 26% of Modi now owning a home, compared with 41% for non-Maori. - We know that the home ownership levels are at the lowest they've ever been and at this rate look like they might be heading to even lower depths, which is a particular challenge for us. - Last week, the government announced its new National Maori Housing Strategy, Maihi Ka Ora. - We know they have a lot of our whanau are renters, and a lot of our whanau find themselves in social housing. So we've got to make sure that not only do we allow whanau access and support into those particular areas, but also be able to work with them to transition them out of renting and ultimately into the goal of home ownership and everything in between, including housing, homelessness challenges. - And Henare says working alongside iwi is the key to increasing housing stock for Maori home ownership. - In order for us to build homes, we need to be able to support iwi with capital and capital investment in infrastructure. That means that whanau, Maori and iwi have land, but the investment isn't there to be able to help them stand up houses. So earlier this year, we announced in the budget significant money to support infrastructure and then, of course, building the house upwards. Architect Jade Kake says that the support is desperately needed. - For whanau Maori who don't own a home, they are disadvantaged in the system, which, you know, our retirement system assumes that you'll own a home freehold in retirement. If you don't, it's quite difficult to get by. There's not a lot of options. We've also got this large lounge room that you can close off, so it's suitable for marae-style sleeping. - Kake designs papa kainga housing. She says while the process can be complex, it's a solution that can benefit generations of whanau. - I'd love to see the papa kainga as the source of collective wealth, rather than to replicate that system out there, which perhaps isn't serving us too well anyway at this point in time ` to then find ways to have that security of tenure, have that base and also that economic well-being without having to be the individual owner of an individual home. - But what about those for who papa kainga isn't an option? - We'll get one of you boys up on the top layer of the scaffolding. - Ezra Hayes owns his own roofing business in Wellington. He and his partner Dalziel couldn't afford to buy in Wellington, so moved further afield to Levin but still struggled through the buying process. - Being young, being Maori, we were sort of looked at like window shoppers, you know, and you're going into negotiations with someone that doesn't even think you have what you have, so you're already on the back foot. - But the couple were determined not to be put off and got help from a financial adviser. - I made sure that I had a notebook, writing down the words that I didn't understand or in the concept of the whole paragraph of what it may be. - The side of things that really is hard to understand is the whole jargon of the financial world. You know, there's a lot of words and phrases that they use. So to have someone in that world that really could translate that to us was massively beneficial. - The couple now own a home and are preparing to build their next whare. - We'll end up having our house in this area. - There's no doubt that Dalziel and Ezra are the exception. Henare acknowledges the government has to do more to deliver on its promise of getting more whanau into home ownership. - Housing can't be looked at as one part. The government's already made it clear that, you know, we want wages to rise. We want the ability for our whanau to be able to earn an income to at least save money and then even further go on to buy a home. So we've got lots of work to do. And like I keep saying, this strategy is only one part in it. - Back in Whakatane, Rangipare and Uenuku get a call from their real estate agent. - I'm ringing with good news. - Oh my God! - I know! - Did we get it? - You have got it. - They're now the proud owners of the property they visited in Glenholme, Rotorua. The test for Maihi Ka Ora will be to ensure Rangipare and Uenuku become the rule and not the exception. - And that story was filmed before lockdown. Next, we meet the Junior Doctor of the Year, Dr Tawa Hunter. Another damning review, another set of recommendations ` - Auraki mai ano. It might have taken Te Whanau a Apanui descendant Tawa Hunter a few years to find her true calling, but the Rotorua mother of five not only fulfilled her dream; she's just been named the top in her field. Aotearoa's Junior Doctor of the Year talked to reporter Ruwani Perera about overcoming stereotypes to achieve her remarkable goal. - RUWANI PERERA: 45-year-old Tawa Hunter was a single mum, a beneficiary and has now been named Aotearoa's Junior Doctor of the Year. You left school at 16 and then decide to study medicine more than 20 years later. What was the motivation behind your decision? - It was quite a long process, really, before I came to that decision, and when I say a long process, it's probably a matter of a couple of months. But I had been doing jewellery design and had been a mum up until that point, and I was just at, probably, a crossroads in my life where I thought... you know, I wanted to reconsider my career and maybe go back to the drawing board and think about doing something else. When I was going through that process, I wasn't really thinking about any career in particular. I was more so thinking about something that aligns with my values, something that would be meaningful for me in something that would give me satisfaction. And I was initially thinking around psychology because I'd always had quite an interest in mental health and still do. I was having a conversation with my mum about it, and I said to her, 'Oh, you know, I think I'm going to go back and go to university and do psychology.' And she said to me, 'Darling, if you're going to spend that long at school` at university studying, you might as well do medicine. And that was the first... That was the first time in my life` Well, actually, I didn't consider it at that point. I just thought she was crazy, cos, you know, it had never occurred to me, ever. But... I think that was the seed that planted it. - You must have had your doubts ` like, I'm too old, or I'm not brainy enough. You know, how did you overcome those negative thoughts? - Well, to be honest, I was quite naive when I made the decision. I didn't really know what was lying ahead of me and how fiercely competitive it is to get into medicine. - You were a young mum. You had your first child at 19 years of age. Can you tell me about the struggles that you went through and lived? - I was a solo mum at various times in my life and had times on the benefit, and, financially, that's a struggle, and, again, all those other negative connotations that you get coming at you. So, you know, those were some hard times. And did Nan pick up Binko from school did she? - Tawa has five boys. Her eldest is now 27. She had her third son in the middle of her studies. Only two now live at home ` 17-year-old Te Rangi Aniwaniwa and her youngest, who's 6. It took you eight years to get your medical degree Did your whanau have to make some huge sacrifices? - Yeah, they have. It hasn't been easy. So the most brutal years of medicine are, obviously, the first year, where you are competing to get into medicine. You have to get A-grade average. You can't get anything under that or you won't be considered. During that year, I just had to shut my door and study until midnight most nights, and my little one, my 6-year-old at that time, you know, he really took that on, and he really understood that Mama wanted to be a doctor. - Only 4% of Maori eventually become doctors. How was that working within the academic environment? Did you see that inequity within med school? - Mm, definitely. It's very difficult going through as a Maori student, unless you live in Auckland with your family already as a Maori and you've got financial backing. If you haven't got any of that, well, then, you know, you can almost forget it. That first year is very competitive. So people are very individual wanting to get in there. And, you know, it just doesn't really fit with who we are. We're kind of communal people. We like to work in groups. We like to awhi each other. So that takes some getting used to as well. There is a Maori and Pacific admissions scheme, which means that, OK, out of all of our seats, they're going to put these seats aside for Maori and Pacific students. What people don't realise is that you have to meet an academic requirement to get one of those seats as a Maori or Pasifika student. And if there's a year where you don't have any Maori that reach that academic criteria, those seats go back out to the general population. So they're not kept there just for... just because you're Maori. - Do you think there are still people out there who think Maori and Pacific Island medical students get preferential treatment? - Absolutely. There's a lot of negative reaction to us as MAPAS students, and you often hear about it in the hallways, and, you know, you just feel like you're not there on your own merit, even though you know you are, cos you've done all the work, and you've passed all the exams, but that makes it a bit more difficult to get through, yeah. What makes me angry about that attitude is the effect that it has on our young people and most of our other Maori people as a whole. You just get left feeling, 'Oh, maybe I am dumb,' or, 'maybe I'm not as smart as the rest of the population.' - Have those struggles that you went through and the life experience you had given you something extra as a doctor? - So, I think, for me, I have been through my own struggles, financially, and, you know, being a young mum and all of those things. I think it just gives me a bit of a better understanding of what it might be like for other people and to be able to step or be in their shoes. - Last week, the Medical Council of New Zealand revealed that Tawa was the top junior doctor in the country, acknowledging her work with Maori whanau in the area of organ donation. - (PERFORMS HAKA) - What was it like to get that haka and presentation when you were awarded Junior Doctor of the Year? - That was beautiful. That was beautiful. Staff at the hospital did that for me, and the girls that did the haka were one of my other young Maori colleagues who's a year below me ` she's a doctor now ` and then three other young Maori women who are about to graduate, and they'll all be doctors coming to Rotorua hospital next year. So they did the haka for me. That was beautiful. - Has this award just put the icing on the cake for all the hard yards that you've done so far? - To be honest, I'm completely overwhelmed by it, and I just never, ever in a million billion years ever thought that I would be standing here in this position. If this inspires other people to maybe do the same thing or find something else that they are passionate about and gives them the courage to do it, then, oh, that would be awesome. I'm not in this job for me. It's not about me. It's about being in a privileged position where I can serve those people. - Kua hikina te hui e hoa ma. We leave you with the new waiata Tuakiritanga by Origin Roots Aotearoa. Noho ora mai ra. (ORIGIN ROOTS AOTEAROA'S 'TUAKIRITANGA') (GUITAR BREAK) # Kimihia tau... # e manako ai # E wawatia nei... # e te ngakau # Hei oranga... # tinana # Hei oranga... # ngakau # Tuakirikiritanga # No roto # i ahau # No roto # i ahau # Puritia... # kia mau. (GUITAR BREAK) # I takea mai... # to mana # To mana... # no tuauki # Hei oranga # tinana # Hei oranga # ngakau # Tuakirikiritanga # No roto # i ahau # No roto # i ahau # Puritia... # kia mau. # - ALL: He mea tautoko na Te Mangai Paho. - The Hui is made with support from NZ On Air.