Iwi partnership strong in Rotorua

Crowds at the Lakefront for Waitangi Day.

A 2050 vision presented by the increasingly influential Te Arawa policy advisory board committee of the Rotorua Lakes Council, is receiving unexpected praise.

Reynold Macpherson, the treasurer of the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers group which vigorously opposed such a group sitting around the table, says it's clear from the body of a report 'things are proceeding extremely well”.

He's referring to an annual report presented by Te Arawa chairman Te Taru White.

Yet, Reynold did reach into the past when he said he recalled Te Arawa, during the 'raruraru” controversy over board establishment, promised it would make space given for 'non” Te Arawa affiliated representation on the board.

'That promise has never come true,” Reynold told the meeting recently.

While recognising Reynold for praising Te Arawa's acumen, Te Taru says the matter has been discussed and will be talked about in the next triennium.

Meeting chair Merepeka Raukawa Tait says the advisory committee did not answer to the council and how it operated is entirely its own affair.

'You don't have to justify yourself to us. Not at all. We are in a partnership relationship – it's not one partner telling you how to do your job. From what I have seen, you have always been professional in the way you have conducted yourselves.”

Te Taru says Te Arawa sees itself in a partnership role with the council which brings another way of 'thinking about it”. Te Arawa brings a considerable slice of the community to the table 'to participate and add value where we can,” Te Taru says.

The right sought by Te Arawa to sit at the council table is not with community anxiety and some 2000 submissions were received before the council voted by a slender majority to allow the federation of tribes to sit at the table.

Te Arawa's representatives were accorded speaking but not voting rights.

Several years on, Reynold adopted a more conciliatory tone. He congratulated the advisory board known as Te Tatau Te Arawa. 'It is performing extremely well (and) it is quite clear from the quality things are developing very well indeed.”

He has watched the council operating over the last six/seven years. He praised individuals who had represented Te Arawa over that time.

At the council's first strategy, policy and finance committee meeting, Te Arawa's chairman Te Taru White announced Te Arawa had gone through a long list of leadership values to make major progress in its vision.

He also praised Te Arawa members elected to the council, saying they did their homework well and that they focused on the issues. They were also working on many projects, including bi-lingual aspects.

Chair Te Taru White started with a tribute to the late Malana Grant, who died recently.

'She was not only my right-hand deputy person, she was the right person,” Te Taru said, before outlining briefly Te Arawa's activities in the past year.

Te Taru reiterated why the Te Arawa committee exists, for the benefit of new councillors, attending their first committee meeting.

He says more than 40 per cent of the Rotorua population were Maori which, Te Taru told the councillors, induced a fist pump from long serving councillor Trevor Maxwell.

Via message board, Te Taru showed recent history which led to Te Arawa's admission around the council table, in which it was led to two members with speaking but not voting rights.

Te Arawa does not ‘have to be around the table', Te Taru says, but ‘we want to be here'.

The committee was first established in 1993, but did not materialise until 2012 when the Environment Court ruled the council 'needed to improve iwi engagement”. The decision cost ratepayers $2 million.

Since 2015, with the model that exists today, Te Arawa has expanded considerably.

Among their number are Maori with masters degrees, doctorate, RMA degree, judges, a lawyer, an IT specialist and highly qualified personnel to guide Te Arawa's fortunes. 'But what we bring to the table is a heart,” Te Taru says. 'And that says there is a place for all of us.”

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