Reducing Inequalities
One of the Government's key goals to guide public sector policy and performance is to reduce inequalities in health, education, employment and housing. The Government's aim is to reduce the inequalities that currently divide our society and offer a good future for all by better co-ordination of strategies across sectors and by supporting and strengthening the capacity of Māori and Pacific island communities.
Improved economic participation of these communities is important for New Zealand's overall economic performance. The Government seeks a whole of government approach to the creation of greater opportunities for Māori and Pacific communities, and the Ministry has worked with other departments and agencies to provide advice and assistance to these groups.
The Ministry made a commitment in its Departmental Forecast Report to be responsive to the values, needs and aspirations of Māori when developing and implementing strategies - by listening to iwi and other Māori groups and working in partnership. This commitment has been followed through by developing and consolidating the Ministry's consultation processes with Māori.
Broad Activities/Strategies
Economic development for Māori and Pacific peoples is a key component of an inclusive economy. In 2001/2002 the Ministry worked to:
- improve utilisation of Māori Land. For example, the Ministry is working actively in the East Coast with Te Puni Kōkiri, Industry NZ and the Tairawhiti Development Taskforce to share organics best practice, increase organic production, and identify specific under-utilised land blocks that could achieve higher returns through changed management practices;
- improve partnerships between iwi, Pacific peoples, local government and businesses through the Regional Partnerships Programme by encouraging participation of those groups in regional development work;
- address the specific needs of Māori and Pacific businesses; and
- recognise the policy linkages relating to business support and regional development work between the Ministry and Te Puni Kōkiri.
Other key activities included the introduction, in June 2001, of the Trade Marks Bill, which contains provisions to address the registration of Māori words and symbols as trade marks.
The Ministry and Industry NZ contributed to the Pacific capacity building work led by the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs by setting and reporting against milestones set by Pacific communities in the series of community fono held in 2000. Current milestones for the Ministry relate to research into economic development for Pacific peoples; staff scholarships; and funding support for the Manukau Pacific cultural centre through the Regional Initiatives Fund. Industry NZ has milestones related to participation in their business support programmes. Both the Ministry and Industry NZ are continuing to develop their links with Pacific organisations such as the Pacific Business Development Trust and Pacific Business networks. The Ministry assisted the Pacific Business Development Trust in a recent review of its business operations.
A key initiative for the Ministry over 2001/2002 has been the policy development and implementation of Project PROBE. The Project will use funding from Vote Education to underwrite provision of access to broadband in areas where telecommunications suppliers currently find it uneconomic or too much of a commercial risk. Broadband capability may be defined as being high speed, "always on", two-way data transmission capacity. This allows for enhanced internet connection but may also be used for other communications applications such as video-on-demand and Voice over Internet Protocol.
The initial objective is to ensure that all schools can access broadband technologies but the benefits will extend to many remote and rural communities. While broadband is not a panacea, it is widely perceived as a critical factor in allowing regions to develop economically. It is also expected to provide particular benefits in remote regions with a high Māori population such as East Cape, contributing to enhanced delivery of education services, particularly Te Reo, via the internet.
The Ministry's regional development programmes included a focussed programme on regions with acute development needs. This programme involved intensive central government engagement in selected regions (Northland, Eastern Bay of Plenty, South Waikato and Tairawhiti) with socio-economic statistics that indicated a high level of deprivation and where there was evidence of significant under-utilisation of both natural resources and people. The Ministry worked closely with these regions to develop regional development strategies and reported regularly to Cabinet on the progress of this work.
The investment in regions with acute needs recognises that a base level of capability and capacity is necessary to support economic development. Iwi and in some regions, Pacific peoples, along with other stakeholders, will benefit from long-term improvements in capability and capacity, especially if improvements in hard and soft infrastructure lead to the exploitation of more profitable commercial projects.
Specific Programmes Undertaken by Vote during 2001/2002
Vote Industry and Regional Development
The Ministry's policy advice takes into account the economic development needs of Māori and Pacific peoples in New Zealand; particularly in relation to skill development, training and education. The Ministry also advises on infrastructure development for regions. Policy staff have worked with the Pacific Business Development Trust to review iwi business support and other activities. Regional staff work closely with iwi and Māori development groups in regions.
Industry NZ, a Crown entity funded through this Vote, undertakes activities such as the Business Growth Service and Fund, BIZ training, BIZ Enterprise Awards, Clusters, and the Regional Partnerships Programme in accordance with targets set by Industry NZ. These activities included purchasing services aimed specifically at assisting Māori, Pacific peoples and women.
BIZ is a general business development programme set up in 1998 to help small and medium-sized businesses to achieve growth. It includes a national business information service delivered through information centres, a free phone service and a website, as well as management capability upskilling services based around assessment of needs and training. These services are free to users.
Statistics for usage of the BIZinfo programme for the year ending June 2002 show that women constituted 47% of requesters of information and males, 53% (on average from each quarter of the year). For the quarter ending June 2002, there was a target of 15% for use by Māori but only 8% of requests for information were identified as coming from Māori. The target of 4% for Pacific people was met.
The BIZ capability upskilling programme is delivered through contracted lead providers in each region. All providers are required to develop strategies to remove barriers to participation by Pacific peoples, Māori and women. Specific participation targets have been set for these services. These vary from region to region but national participation targets for Pacific peoples average around 2% of the funding allocated ($18 million for 2002/2003). Industry NZ also funded through the BIZ programme a Pacific Skill Development Course in Manukau City for Pacific people.
BIZ Seminars and Workshops for the year ended 30 June 2002 had 5,577 Māori attendees and 891 Pacific attendees. Again, the target number of attendees for Māori and Pacific peoples varies according to the regional provider but the overall target was for 4000 attendees (Māori and Pacific combined).
A comprehensive evaluation of the BIZ programmes carried out for the Ministry in late 2000 established that there were no barriers to women accessing BIZ services. However, BIZ has a target of 50% participation by women in its services and some focused activities, including seminars and business networking opportunities, are funded. In the year to June 2002, an average of 53% of users of BIZ services were women.
Industry NZ notes that performance by the individual providers in meeting targets varies with some exceeding and others not meeting targets. Industry NZ is working with providers to share best practice techniques, including improving their reach within Māori and Pacific communities.
Other Industry NZ Programmes
70 workshops were delivered under the Investment Ready programme. A total of 1080 people took part in this programme. 8.1% of participants were Māori, with a target of 10%, and 31.8% were women, with a target of 20%.
Funding is available for specialised training for Māori Trustees who manage large resources. A total of $530,370 was spent on Māori trustee training in the year to June 2002.
Other Industry NZ schemes focus on high growth companies and on assisting innovative business proposals (BIZ Enterprise Awards). The focus is on commercial viability and there are no targets for particular groups. Not all Māori business people assisted by Industry NZ chose to identify themselves as Māori. However, information collected to March 2002 recorded that the approval rate for Māori applications under the Enterprise Awards scheme was 49%, which was the same as the approval rate for non-Māori.
Additional specific projects were directed at target groups. The Enterprise Culture and Skills Activities Fund for 20001/2002 of $55,005 was given to Women in Business New Zealand Ltd to operate the "Teengirls in Technology Programme" and funding of $156,500 and $290,000 was also awarded to youth based enterprise training projects on the East Coast and in Northland.
Funding support was also provided for 20 Māori businesses to attend the Māori Economic conference in Napier in February 2002. Other Māori groups have also been funded through the clusters programme and through the Business Growth Fund.
Vote Tourism
The Ministry of Tourism's policy advice addresses opportunities and barriers in the tourism industry for Māori. The Ministry develops policy to remove or reduce those barriers and enable Māori tourism providers to take advantage of those identified opportunities.
The Ministry works with individual Māori Regional Tourism Groups to develop their understanding of the assistance that central government agencies can offer.
The Ministry has undertaken in depth consideration of the report He Matai Tapoi Māori: A Study of Barriers, Impediments and Opportunities for Māori in Tourism, a joint report commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism and Te Puni Kōkiri and completed in 2001. The Study contained 10 key recommendations, considered by Cabinet, which directed agencies to report back to Ministers.
Of the two directives involving the Ministry of Tourism, one, investigating the creation of an strategic inter-agency group on Māori tourism issues, was with Ministers awaiting a decision at 30 June 2002. The other, a briefing to Ministers on further work to assess and monitor current initiatives aimed at facilitating Māori tourism products to meet market needs, has been completed.
Vote Commerce
The outputs in Vote Commerce do not include specific initiatives to reduce inequalities. However, much of the work within the Commerce portfolio makes a general and indirect contribution to diminishing economic and social disparities for Māori and Pacific people by supporting economic growth through:
- improved business law and capital investment frameworks;
- improved general and indirect contribution to diminishing economic and social conditions for competition;
- protection and use of intellectual property rights;
- lowering business transaction and compliance costs;
- facilitating businesses' access to overseas markets; and
- improving access by all New Zealanders to high speed internet services.
Broad consultations are held with all stakeholders, including Māori and Pacific peoples, as part of the policy reform process.
Vote Communications
The Telecommunications Service Obligation (TSO) framework of the Telecommunications Act 2001 provides a mechanism for addressing any telecommunications services inequalities. During 2001/2002, arrangements commenced using this mechanism to introduce a telephone relay service. The service will facilitate, through third party technology, conversations between the deaf and hearing impaired, using text, and people using voice only telecommunications. This will enable the deaf and hearing impaired to communicate more readily with others.
The cost of providing a telecommunications relay service is estimated at approximately $2 million in the first full year of operation. This is likely to increase over time as use of the service grows, possibly to $5 million per annum. These costs exclude the cost of terminal equipment required by deaf and voice impaired users to access the service. Under the TSO framework, the service cost will be funded by telecommunications service providers.
Over the next year, the Ministry will be involved in setting up the relay service and will advise on technical issues and tender evaluation. The Ministry has also set up a reference group of representatives of the deaf community for consultation.
Part of the overall policy budget was also dedicated to developing policy for the extension of the FM broadcasting band from 88 - 100 MHz to 88 - 108 MHz. Provision for four priority non-commercial networks was made within the upper FM band. One of these networks was reserved for the creation of a national Māori radio network. Another of the networks was reserved for a national Pacific Peoples' radio network to enable Pacific peoples' cultures and languages to be more widely heard.
Sufficient spectrum was reserved to enable the Pacific Peoples radio network to cover up to 85% of the population of New Zealand. The Pacific Island population is forecast to be the fastest growing population group in New Zealand, and FM radio is an important method of communication for Pacific peoples. Prior to the reservation of the FM frequencies, there was one Pacific Island radio station operating on a Crown reserve AM frequency in Auckland and one operating on a shared AM access frequency in Wellington.
The objectives of the Pacific radio network are to contribute to the Government's goals for reducing inequalities and building the capacity of Pacific communities by:
- communicating timely and accurate information on policies, programmes and services and how to access these;
- providing a communication mechanism linking Pacific communities regionally and nationally to debate topical issues, and to co-ordinate and organise themselves around activities that build Pacific community capacity;
- building a pool of quality Pacific broadcasters;
- providing opportunities for the maintenance of Pacific languages through programming in Pacific languages; and
- supporting and enhancing exposure of Pacific music and artists.
In December 2001, the Pacific radio network was allocated $7.655 million over four years from the Reducing Inequalities Contingency Fund.
The Ministry worked on a project to improve the way in which it considers whether spectrum is suitable for the promotion of Māori language and culture, prior to the point at which it becomes available for allocation. The Ministry produced a paper seeking feedback on the proposed approach and convened a hui to discuss the issues with key Māori stakeholders. Feedback received through this process was being analysed when this report was compiled.
Vote Consumer Affairs
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MCA) operates a Māori Responsiveness Manual and manages its significant issues through a consultative process with a Māori Responsiveness Group (Te Rōpu Tohutoru Māori).
Consumer Law
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs is working to strengthen credit law, in order to eliminate trade practices in credit markets that impact detrimentally on low-income groups, particularly Pacific Island communities. The Ministry's proposed amendments to the Fair Trading Act 1986 are intended to deter pyramid selling schemes. These schemes impact disproportionately on low-income people, notably Māori and Pacific peoples.
Information Programmes
Specific programmes were targeted at Māori, Pacific Island and low-income consumers, which often include consumers with disabilities. The effectiveness of these projects in achieving their objectives is assessed through needs analyses and post-project assessments. Feedback is also sought from targeted stakeholders and/or communities on a regular basis.
The Consumer Issues Awareness Project involves providing information to Māori consumers on their rights and obligations under consumer law, and promoting their rights to safe products and their safe use. This is part of a programme jointly undertaken with the Māori Women's Welfare League to provide information to Māori consumers concerning gas and electricity safety under Vote Energy. The project involved:
- providing training and support to the Māori Women's Welfare League, including consumer manuals and a hotline to the Consumer Information Service;
- providing important consumer messages to Māori using media, e.g. Mana magazine, and mounting displays at events attracting Māori, such as the Aotearoa Traditional Māori Performing Arts Festival and the annual Auckland secondary schools Māori careers promotion day;
- promoting the Consumerkids Te Reo website to Māori children via Pukana television programme;
- developing strategic relationships with other agencies in order to deliver consumer safety and information messages to Māori;
- input into promotion plans for Powerswitch to ensure that Māori electricity consumers receive information in a relevant manner; and
- including Māori in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' consultation on consumer representation.
The Māori Women's Welfare League reported a total of 138 presentations and 16 workshops by League members delivering key consumer messages. Additional activities to raise consumer awareness, which were not part of the agreed contract, were undertaken for a total of 48 family groupings as part of the Whanau Toko I Te Ora programme. Sixty-four presentations on consumer safety issues were also undertaken as part of the child immunisation presentation programme.
Issues of major concern identified through these various activities were:
- safe use of children's furniture and heating appliances;
- problems in buying cars, particularly when being a guarantor;
- consumer rights when goods are faulty;
- where to get help with consumer contracts;
- understanding "rip-offs", scams and pyramid schemes; and
- preference for speaking to another Māori rather than ringing an 0800 number.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs operates a Protocol Agreement with the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs. This promotes co-operation between the two ministries to ensure that the wellbeing and development of Pacific Island individuals, families and communities, and their ability to participate in the marketplace, is enhanced through the provision of effective and appropriate consumer information.
In 2001/2002 the Ministry of Consumer Affairs continued its provision of information to Pacific Island consumers on their rights and obligations under consumer law. This involved:
- broadcasting key consumer messages on Pacific Island radio stations nationally;
- publishing a monthly consumer column in selected Pacific Island newspapers;
- disseminating information and presenting consumer seminars;
- evaluation of the consumer education package provided to Otara Pacific Island Presbyterian Church; and
- the establishment of the Pacific Island Reference Group to add value to the work of the Pacific Island programme and to provide access to Pacific Island communities and their representatives to assist MCA's work on consumer representation.
The evaluation report on the Otara Pacific Island Presbyterian Church consumer education package showed that, following training, participants in the programme had high recall of key messages some months afterward. Recommendations were made regarding the provision of simple printed information and the need to promote the availability of those trained to help with consumer problems.
Vote Energy
The Ministry has been involved in implementing the Government's policy of ensuring that low fixed charge electricity tariffs are available throughout the country. A key aim of this policy is to provide small consumers, who are often on low incomes, with lower overall electricity bills. In addition, because low fixed charge tariffs have higher unit charges, such tariffs provide smaller consumers with greater ability to control their power bills.
The Energy Safety Service (ESS) of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs operates to achieve "safe energy - safe people". It works to the Consumer Affairs Māori Responsiveness Manual (described under Vote Consumer Affairs).
The Tairawhiti Project involved the ESS in providing advice and low cost solutions to common electrical and gas problems in the Tairawhiti region. It was completed and reported on in the 2000/2001 year. Follow-up visits took place during 2001/2002 to ensure safety information and checks were continuing. Positive feedback was received from all groups consulted.
The ESS also participated in other Consumer Affairs programmes for Māori disseminating safety information and improving awareness (described under Vote Consumer Affairs).
The Crown Minerals Group of the Ministry consults with iwi at three levels in relation to managing the Crown mineral estate:
- preparation of the minerals programmes,
- planning for petroleum blocks offers and
- decisions in respect of applications for permits.
The Group seeks the views of iwi on the impact of any application or block offers and articulates those views to the Minister when he makes a decision.
Evaluative Activities
The Ministry undertakes broadly based evaluations of all industry and regional development assistance. There is an annual stocktake report and review of all industry and regional development assistance, including the Regional Partnership Programme (RPP) and a specific forthcoming review of the RPP is scheduled.
Improving the Ministry's Capability
The Ministry's internal capability for understanding and responding to Māori and Pacific Island communities is being developed through working with Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs and other agencies on policy issues affecting Māori and Pacific peoples' economic futures.
The Ministry uses a policy framework that ensures regulatory and economic policy advice includes assessment of impacts on key stakeholders, particularly groups that may be disadvantaged.
The Ministry's Treaty Issues Analysis Guide, developed in consultation with Te Puni Kōkiri, the State Services Commission, the Ministry of Justice and the Crown Law Office, provides a comprehensive approach to identifying and appropriately analysing Treaty issues. The Guide provides guidance for policy and operations staff on where to seek relevant information and a measured approach for considering Treaty issues, and alerts them to the relevance of key processes such as consultation. A review to update the Guide was started in 2002, with the aim of ensuring it references the most up-to-date legal decisions.
The Ministry's Human Resources strategy has identified goals of reducing barriers to employing a wide range of staff with relevant skills and expertise and creating a supportive work environment, particularly for Māori. The Ministry continues to provide Treaty and Tikanga awareness training to all staff and has initiated a Māori language training programme across the Ministry, to be provided over 2002/2003 initially. The aim of the programme is to provide Ministry employees with a basic understanding of the language.
Six scholarships were awarded under the Ministry's Equal Employment Opportunities initiatives. Five of the scholarships were awarded to Māori students and one to a student with a disability. The scholarships are part of the Ministry's long-term strategic response to building public service capability and performance. Primarily, the scholarships are designed to attract students in their second or subsequent year of study towards a degree in subjects relevant to the Ministry. The scholarship programme encourages students in their final year of study to participate in the Ministry's graduate recruitment programme and offers vacation work to successful applicants.
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