Fran O'Sullivan: Diva and Tamihere in harmony

When a stellar performer like Dame Kiri Te Kanawa breaks the PC stranglehold and speaks out on Maori welfare abuse it's time to take notice.

Te Kanawa, after all, has shared the spotlight with many a New Zealand political leader - including Prime Minister Helen Clark - during her pinnacle years as an internationally acclaimed opera star.

Reported in an Australian newspaper, Dame Kiri said too many Maori were living on benefits in New Zealand.

"When they come to Australia, they are completely different, they actually have to work, but when they're in New Zealand ... it just drives me mad. I've known someone, a Maori, who's been on a benefit for 37 years. Now what sort of pride is that? Not good."

It's hard not to believe the kumara vine has been operating again.

Just days ago, Labour's John Tamihere had his own wings clipped by the Prime Minister for breaking another code: that of Cabinet collective responsibility.

His first sin: to have stepped onto another minister's turf by having the temerity to advocate that the welfare system should be privatised and state benefits paid through non-government case managers.

His second sin: to dare to deliver his speech at Knowledge Wave 2003 - when the PM was in a standoff with its organisers over her own growth target.

His third sin: to slag Social Services Minister Steve Maharey as a "bullshitter" and rubbish "Third Way" policies.

Tamihere's escapade might have been brushed off by Helen Clark as "over-enthusiastic".

These were the words her officials initially used when Ross Armstrong lost his position as chairman of Television New Zealand - and as a Clark confidant - by promoting an insider advantage to a group he had pulled together to talk public-private infrastructural partnerships.

But the real issue that bugs Clark is that the Minister for Youth Affairs made such a major speech without first briefing her on its contents.

The PM exerts an extraordinarily tight grip on her ministers. She is, as one privately jokes, "the mobile-phone jockey from hell". In public it is always "the boss".

Tamihere was not born yesterday.

When he told the conference, "It is no good having a growth and innovation strategy if large numbers of our community cannot participate", he was also having a whack ipso facto at the PM over the innovation framework that is the centrepiece of the Government's growth policy.

"If we want better living conditions and higher economic performance, we must let communities take back the ability to be responsible for themselves, to manage themselves, and to grow a work ethic, commitment, and responsibility themselves," Tamihere said.

"In this speech I outline an approach to such reform, based on challenging the monopoly of the state in providing welfare.

"I have been born and bred in communities that are now in their third and fourth generation of beneficiary, state-dependent individuals and families. The solutions to dependency are caught within a rich matrix of our very recent history and the significant impact that technology change and massive trade liberalisation have had on the economy."

Compare this with Dame Kiri's words: Asked why she could not go home and inject some of the pride she believed was needed, she said: "How do you tell someone that's been on a benefit for 37 years? They won't get off it. It's all too good. It's ridiculous.

"I just wish we had a bit of attitude in our culture. We have slipped through the cracks of education. That's the saddest thing."

Neither politician nor opera star is likely to attract much odium from Maoridom over the sentiments.

There is a groundswell building on the issue of Maori under-performance which is far more likely to reach an early crescendo than the Knowledge Wave.

Rapidly gaining currency in Maoridom - and throughout commercially minded Government departments - is a ground-breaking Institute for Economic Research report on the Maori economy.

The report was commissioned by Te Puni Kokiri - the Ministry of Maori Development headed by Leith Comer, formerly of the Commerce Ministry.

The institute report shattered more than a few myths:

fuchevs Maori households contribute more in tax than they receive in benefits and other Government transfers;

fuchevs The Maori economy is also a net lender to New Zealand's general economy, is more exposed to international trade than the general economy and offers "important opportunities and challenges".

While Maori underperformance is an issue - see Tamihere's speech on the Herald's website - those employed in distinctively Maori enterprises had a "spectacular" 1990s decade and have good prospects.

Together with a slew of in-depth background papers, the report builds a platform for Maori to move away from the welfare mode towards independence.

Its basic underthrust has been supported by a raft of Maori leaders, from Timi te Heu Heu through to Sir Hugh Kawharu.

More importantly, it is raising consciousness among Maori that they have the capacity to greatly improve their economic wellbeing - assuming that largely Pakeha politicians make legislative changes that will enable them to secure their collectively owned assets.

This was the rising wave that Tamihere attempted to surf.

His suggestion that public-private-sector joint ventures and relationships in commercial fields be extended to social policy areas is, in fact, happening in some publicly ordained Pakeha ventures - if at a largely token level.

But the Awatere Huata affair - with allegations that Government grants intended for the Pipi Foundation have been subject to ripoff - has put the focus back on overall accountability.

Tamihere has been pummelled by his colleagues for suggesting non-government caseload managers - instead of up to 15 Government agencies - ensure benefits are paid specifically to "achieve shelter, food and electricity and warmth into each beneficiary household".

This is a notion that is not going to disappear. Likewise his belief that decentralisation will allow us "to return the concept of mutual responsibility to the forefront of the welfare system".

Tamihere may find himself publicly nobbled for now.

Ironically, if he had chosen to run the argument that it was Maori taxes in the first place that were funding Maori welfare benefits, his thesis that the cash should be devolved to private payment agencies to fund Maori clients might have gained quicker currency.

Broad agreement is starting to build in Maoridom that the Treaty of Waitangi and the current settlement process is "not a panacea for Maori success or participation in any new economy".

At the Auckland launch of the NZIER report, senior Maori leaders recalled Sir Apirana Ngata's criticism of the first Labour Government at the launch of the social welfare state in the 1930s. Ngata believed it would bury Maori initiative and create a culture of dependence.

To a great degree it did just that.

But there is an increased determination by a new section of Maori leaders - of which Tamihere is one - to ensure Maori stand fully on their own feet in society.

Tamihere's challenge is to prevent his colleagues from ensuring his victimhood. Then he might become the "beacon for nationhood" to which he aspires.