Latest news with #Chhour
Scoop
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Open Letter: Standing In Solidarity With Te Pūkotahitanga
From Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki, Te Whakaruruhau Waikato Women's Refuge, and The Basket Hauraki (Tangata Tiriti Rōpū) Te Whāriki Manawāhine o Hauraki, Te Whakaruruhau Waikato Women's Refuge and The Basket Hauraki (Tangata Tiriti Rōpū), stand in solidarity with Te Pūkotahitanga following the Crown's unilateral disbanding of this critical tangata whenua collective. As collectives serving whānau across Hauraki and Waikato, we speak alongside our wider hapori and social service partners, in our concern about the Crown's ongoing failure to honour Te Tiriti based partnership and Te Aorerekura commitments. What Happened On 26 June 2025, Te Pūkotahitanga formally advised Minister Chhour of their decision to reclaim the gifted names Te Pūkotahitanga and Te Puna Aonui from all Crown use. These names were not branding assets but taonga, gifted with purpose, tikanga, and expectation. When the Crown failed to uphold those responsibilities, Te Pūkotahitanga exercised their customary right to reclaim them. The following day, Minister Chhour announced she was disbanding Te Pūkotahitanga and dropping the names from government use, without acknowledging that tangata whenua had already reclaimed these taonga or the tikanga based reasoning behind this decision. Upholding Te Tiriti Obligations Te Pūkotahitanga was established under Te Aorerekura as a critical mechanism to ensure Māori led solutions, shared leadership, and cultural integrity in our national strategy to eliminate family and sexual violence. This is a serious breach of Te Tiriti obligations and Te Aorerekura commitments. The reclaiming of the gifted names by tangata whenua leaders is not a political gesture. It is a tikanga based response to the Crown's failure to honour its responsibilities. Decisions of this significance must be made in partnership, not imposed unilaterally. Supporting Māori Led Solutions Our experience a cross our communities demonstrates that effective responses to violence require cultural frameworks that acknowledge whakapapa, whanaungatanga, and tikanga. We reject any suggestion that Māori names or tikanga based leadership exclude others. Many of our hapori partners carry their own intergenerational experiences of violence, healing, and whakapapa responsibilities. We uphold tikanga not to exclude, but to ensure that solutions reflect the lived realities of the whānau most affected. The lived experience of tangata whenua IS the expertise required to address intergenerational trauma and violence and is essential to achieving the vision of Te Aorerekura. To remove this voice from national decision making is not just short sighted; it is grossly negligent when whānau safety is at stake. Our Resolve We, as collectives across Hauraki and Waikato, remain committed in our support for Māori led approaches and advocate for the reinstatement of meaningful Māori leadership mechanisms in national governance. We will continue our mahi to protect and heal our whānau through culturally grounded practices and call on the Crown to honour its Te Tiriti obligations. We are not stepping back. We are stepping forward to protect the mana of our mokopuna. Call for Accountability We call on Minister Chhour and the Government to acknowledge the essential role of Te Tiriti based partnership in addressing family and sexual violence. They must reinstate meaningful mechanisms for tangata whenua leadership and recognise that effective solutions require the expertise and leadership of those most affected. We will continue to stand with Te Pūkotahitanga and all those working to ensure that tangata whenua voices remain central to the kaupapa of ending family and sexual violence across Aotearoa. Ngā manaakitanga
Scoop
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Greatly Reduced Confidence In Min Chhour - Non-Violence Sector
As a group of violence-prevention experts and practitioners, the Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children is appalled and shocked that the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence has dis-established Te Pūkotahitanga, a critical Māori voice at the national decision-making table. Te Pūkotahitanga is the Māori-led collective developed to ensure accountability, shared leadership, and cultural integrity under Te Aorerekura (the National Strategy to Eliminate Family Violene and Sexual Violence). The unilateral action to disestablish this partnership body by Minister Karen Chhour has greatly reduced community and sector confidence in her leadership and in the Crown's commitment to Te Aorerekura. It is disrespectful to both Māori and non-Māori, and furthers the systematic erosion of Tiriti-based governance, entrenching distrust of the Crown across all communities. As an umbrella of predominantly tauiwi-led violence-prevention organisations, the Coalition rejects the idea that removing Te Pūkotahitanga will benefit non-Māori. On the contrary, we agree with the outgoing members of Te Pūkotahitanga that it is by honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and upholding Māori solutions that we ensure safety and equity for all communities across Aotearoa. We also agree with Te Pūkotahitanga that the unilateral actions of the Crown directly contravene the principles of Te Aorerekura, including shared leadership, tikanga Māori, and Tiriti-based partnership in all governance and decision-making processes. We acknowledge the huge significance of Te Pūkotahitanga's reclamation of the name 'Te Puna Aonui' on the basis the Crown is no longer honouring its responsibilities. In addition, the removal of Te Pūkotahitanga displays a lack of understanding on Minister Chhour's part of the importance of the State working in partnership with Māori, if we are collectively to find effective ways to eliminate violence across all communities. It is important that government agencies uphold their obligations and partner with Māori as tangata whenua, as well as supporting Māori-led initiatives. More Māori empowerment, not less, is required if Aotearoa New Zealand is to eliminate family violence and sexual violence, due to the Crown's historic and ongoing exacerbation of such violence within Māori communities which creates disproportional victimisation of wāhine Māori. For example, wāhine Māori have genuine reason to fear their children will be uplifted if they attempt to seek safety from the State as victim-survivors of family violence. Such barriers to protection are part of ongoing colonisation, as is the disestablishment of Te Pūkotahitanga. Tino rangatiratanga is vital to remove State-imposed obstacles to whānau Māori living free from violence. The Crown's disestablishment of Te Pūkotahitanga greatly reduces the visibility of generously-offered kaupapa Māori expertise essential to preventing and responding to violence in many communities. The related lack of community and sector confidence in the Crown will make violence reduction more difficult for both Māori and non-Māori communities, and we are greatly concerned about the implications for Aotearoa New Zealand's future violence-response system. The Coalition for the Safety of Women and Children stands in solidarity with tangata whenua to call for the Crown to uphold its Tiriti obligations including reinstating Māori-led mechanisms that ensure equity and safety for all.
Scoop
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Prevention Of Family And Sexual Violence Agency To Drop Informal Name, Expand Advisory Board Diversity
Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is today announcing it will no longer use the informal name of Te Puna Aonui and will adopt its legal name: the Executive Board for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence. 'This decision reflects the reality that all people are potentially victims of Family Violence and Sexual Violence, as well as the wishes of disgruntled former advisory board members who have asked for the gifted Te Reo name to be returned,' says Mrs Chhour. 'They have raised their concerns with me around my decision to not extend their tenure as the Ministerial Advisory Board, as well as concerns around my decision to include other communities in a new, multi-cultural advisory board which will replace the current Māori-only one. 'I need an advisory board that can advise on all issues victim-survivors face, and one that reflects the diversity of our nation, not just the seventeen per cent of New Zealanders who identify as Māori. 'Yes, I am Māori, and proud of this. I am also a mother, a wife, and a survivor of both family and sexual violence. The idea that one part of my being is somehow more important than any other is something I don't accept, and I don't believe that the majority of New Zealanders would accept this either. 'It is also Government policy that Government departments, with the exception of those focused on Māori, will have their main names in English. 'By continuing with a Te Reo name I believe we risk potentially making non-Māori victim-survivors feel like their lived experiences do not matter. I can assure them that they do and will continue to. 'This is the right thing to do, it reflects our national values of equality. 'The important work of the agency will be strengthened by the incorporating Pasifika, Asian communities, and other groups who were deliberately excluded by the scope of the previous Ministerial Advisory Board for this portfolio. 'While Te Puna Aonui is an informal name, not a legal one, it will take time to update the agency's branding and letterhead. 'This is a positive tep forward for the Executive Board for the Elimination of Family Violence and Sexual Violence and for our national response to these hugely important issues.'
The Spinoff
19-06-2025
- Health
- The Spinoff
Star Wars jokes and surgeries, not strategies: Inside scrutiny week, part two
The vibes were tense as ministers and officials got a grilling in the final two days of scrutiny week, where government spending is put under the microscope. Health The energy was testy, to say the least, when health minister Simeon Brown faced the health committee at Bowen House on Wednesday morning. More accurately, Brown faced off with former health minister and current Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, who caused a bit of a delay as things kicked off by attempting to move that the session be extended by 30 minutes (she was voted down on that), then that only the opposition could ask questions (again, she was voted down). Verrall and Brown argued over deficits, medicines and bed shortages, and when they failed to see eye-to-eye, Brown would challenge her to 'look in the mirror'. When Green MP Hūhana Lyndon asked why the minister had recently decided to repeal the health charter and sector principles in the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022, many of which are underpinned by obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi, Brown said the frameworks didn't have enough focus on patient outcomes. 'If you look at those health sector principles, one of them is requiring the health system to deliver against climate change obligations,' Brown said. 'We have a ministry for the environment for that. I want surgeries, not strategies.' Oranga Tamariki That tense atmosphere persisted all day. In select committee room 5, the social services and community committee gathered just before midday to hear from children's minister Karen Chhour on Oranga Tamariki spending, but committee member Willow-Jean Prime ( Labour's children's spokesperson) was more keen to talk about the second preliminary youth boot camp evaluation released on Friday, and why the minister hadn't bothered to send out a press release to let anyone know it existed. 'I don't usually make it my personal job to pick up the phone and ring you,' Chhour told her. It wasn't an easy session for Chhour. Prime and Labour colleague Helen White grilled and heckled her over the boot camp pilot, the unrevealed reoffending rates and the fact that six of the nine rangatahi who went through the pilot were now in a youth justice facility. When committee chair Joseph Mooney attempted to turn the heat down by blocking Prime's questions and asking her to be silent, Prime bit back at him, too. The constant hubbub was enough to make NZ First's Tanya Unkovich snap 'show some respect!' But to her credit, Chhour was candid when she spoke about the grief experienced by these rangatahi following a death in the cohort, and how it 'derailed some of these young people mentally'. Pilot lead Iain Chapman told the committee that reoffending rates were 'not a sign of failure or success of a programme … it's about trying something different for these young people' – but he couldn't convince the opposition that the price tag and outcomes had been worth it. Whānau Ora The hearing into Whānau Ora's spending was a funny one, considering two of the Māori affairs committee members (Labour's Willie Jackson and Te Pāti Māori's Takutai Tarsh Kemp) once had leadership roles in the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA). Though WOCA wasn't the only agency to lose its Whānau Ora contract earlier this year, it was naturally at the forefront of many of the opposition's questions. Jackson, putting it 'all on the table', was reassured by both Māori development minister Tama Potaka and Te Puni Kōkiri chief executive Dave Samuels that neither cabinet nor any minister had a say in the Whānau Ora tender, nor was WOCA's contract rescinded because its CEO, John Tamihere, is also the president of Te Pāti Māori. After telling Labour's Peeni Henare the Whānau Ora tender was 'brown-clad', in response to concerns mainstream providers could one day be favoured over Māori ones, Potaka only had 'Oh! Ka pai!' to say to Kemp. She used the last few minutes of the hearing to lament the 'waste of time' the changeover in contracts had been for providers – 'we already had a commissioning agency that did that [navigator reporting and regulated outcomes], and there's evidence for days to prove that, so your responses don't make sense'. 'I don't think there was a question,' Samuels responded. Media Broadcasting minister Paul Goldsmith had to assure the social services and community committee on Wednesday afternoon that it was 'certainly not my expectation' that RNZ Concerts would be on the chopping block in light of recent cuts to RNZ's funding. At the end of the day, 'it's ultimately up to the [RNZ] board'. With that life-or-death matter out of the way, Goldsmith was free to confirm that he would be making progress on a domestic screen production rebate, had no commitment to regulating streaming platforms and, no, Winston Peters was not responsible for the aforementioned RNZ cuts. But he did have an inspirational message to the media industry: 'Get out there and keep on hustling.' There was a slight uproar at the end from Labour's Reuben Davidson and Rachel Brooking, both of whom couldn't believe committee chair Mooney called the hearing off with one minute to spare – precious grilling time, gone to waste. 'Let's just say we got shut down before our time,' Brooking complained. 'Like the media,' Davidson remarked. Environment Thursday morning in Bowen House was slightly awkward. Environment minister Penny Simmonds, RMA minister Chris Bishop and biosecurity minister Andrew Hoggard were gathered to talk about Vote Environment, and it didn't take very long for one of the ministers to put their foot in it. When Act MP Simon Court asked his party colleague Hoggard what should be done about Te Mana o Te Wai – a concept underpinning the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management that recognises and upholds the health and mauri of water – the minister said the government needed to 'balance things out' so that the 'life force of the water' didn't come ahead of economic growth (as promised in the Act-National coalition agreement). 'There's a whole range of spiritual concepts in [Te Mana o Te Wai] – what is the life force? As a Star Wars fan, when someone says 'the life force' I'm thinking, 'what's the midi-chlorian count?'' 'That was a joke,' Hoggard explained, to not a single laugh from the room.
Newsroom
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Newsroom
‘Reports of concern' rose 60 percent after Govt cut child safety contracts
Children's Minister Karen Chhour is defending higher reporting of possible harm against children in the months after her cost-cutting directives led to Oranga Tamariki dropping community agencies. The 11th-hour withdrawal of contracts a year ago, with only hours of notice over Matariki weekend, left the agencies having to try to find other providers to care for children in trouble, and led to a damning report from the Auditor-General. At a Scrutiny Week select committee hearing on Wednesday, Chhour faced questioning from opposition MPs over the impact of those cuts. Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter highlighted Oranga Tamariki's own numbers from a report before the social services committee that showed 'reports of concern' about children to the ministry rose by 58.7 percent for the second half of 2024 against numbers for the same period a year earlier. 'This occurred after your government cut or 'reprioritised' $120m from frontline community providers and $41.2m from Oranga Tamariki's back office in 2023-24, involving 403 job losses at OT.' Carter quizzed Chhour, from the Act Party, on further plans in the 2025-26 Budget to cut more in the back office and prevention. 'How can you justify continuing to hollow out a system in the face of such a dramatic surge in need under your watch,' she asked. Carter said the 58.7 percent increase was from 34,719 reports of concern in the second half of 2023 to 55,171 in the same period last year. Chhour's response? 'There are people within our communities and other government agencies that are concerned about our young people, making reports of concern – and I encourage that to continue because that's how we get oversight of our young people. 'Every report of concern is not necessarily something that Oranga Tamariki has to intervene in. We need to make sure that when that report of concern happens, if not by Oranga Tamariki it is addressed by other agencies.' She said the goal was to have the 'right people in the right places' to help, but not necessarily OT. Chhour hit out at Carter's questioning. 'To make the big assumption that reports of concern are caused by the Government – I find that quite concering. A report of concern means that a child has been put in a situation where someone believes that child is in a dangerous environment that needs support.' The rushed changes in mid-2024 to which agencies would have OT contracts to provide services for tamariki and rangatahi were the subject of one of the Auditor-General's harshest reports in years. It pointd to a cluster of poor practice, bad execution and near non-existent communication from the children's ministry in cutting around $60m in its contract spend, cancelling around 30 agencies' funding for 2024/25 and trying to strong arm others by not paying its bills on time. The 64-page inquiry report says Oranga Tamariki decision makers did not adequately establish what the changes would mean for the children needing care. Worse, the agency simultaneously moved last year to accentuate a policy of grabbing back from some providers all money it said they underspent and had instead put into their reserves. 'Previously, Oranga Tamariki had generally allowed providers to retain funding even if they had not achieved 100 percent of all contracted measures,' the Auditor-General's office said. 'For example, providers could move funding from under-utilised services to over-utilised services to meet demand.' The select committee hearing on Wednesday saw Labour's Willow-Jean Prime press Chhour over further cuts to community service providers. The minister told her the Auditor-General had a right to say what he said, but she believed the contracting process needed accountability. 'I do not accept what was happening previously and it could not continue … Contracts are not guaranteed. I do not apologise for making sure our contracts are meeting the needs of our young people … we need to make sure that money has been spent well.' Chhour faced questioning over her commitment to Māori children's needs, with MPs pointing out rangatahi make up 70 percent of those in care but just 30 percent of funding goes to Māori providers. 'I accept I'm responsible for every child. It does not matter what ethnicity.' Te Pāti Māori MP Mariemo Kapa-Kingi interjected: 'It has to matter.' Chhour: 'I'm responsible for all children who need help in care, all children who need help wrapped around them, not by their ethnicity … I'm not going to box a child …' Kapa-Kingi: 'Culture is a box minister?' The committee chair Joseph Mooney intervened, stopping the questioning. Kahurangi Carter told Chhour an Independent Children's Monitor report found Māori were over-represented and the system was still letting them down. Chhour said she did accept that report and OT shared the concerns about over-representation not only in children's protection statistics but in education and health.
