Maori jobless rates fall but gaps persist

When delegates at this year's Hui Tamata considered the economic future for Maori, it was with the work of Business Roundtable chairman Rob McLeod on their minds.

His draft study has indicated it is equal participation in and rewards from the economy - not Treaty of Waitangi settlements - which could more effectively break down the gap between Maori and non-Maori earnings.

He has estimated that if Maori employment rates equalled those of non-Maori, and if Maori average wages equalled those of non-Maori, the benefit to Maori would be $45 billion, far higher than likely treaty settlements.

The need to lift the economic and social wellbeing of Maori, most probably through work and incomes, has been well documented in the two decades since former Labour finance minister Roger Douglas' economic overhaul hit Maori hard.

According to first Closing the Gaps report, prepared by the Ministry of Maori Development (Te Puni Kokiri) for the National-NZ First Government in 1998, Maori participation rates in the labour force exceeded those of the European population in 1986.

Yet with traditional employment sectors such as railways and forestry struck by the restructuring, unemployment rates soared and within six years, combined with the benefit cuts of the early 1990s, Maori incomes had plummeted.

By March 1992, Maori unemployment had reached 27.3 per cent, nearly three times the non-Maori rate. Almost half of Maori teenagers in the workforce were without a job.

A recovery in the jobless rate stalled amid the economic slowdown of the late 1990s and it took until 2003 for Maori employment participation to reach 1986 levels.

Even now, in the years following a booming economy, Maori unemployment remains at 8.8 per cent, well above the 3.8 per cent national rate and 3.1 per cent European rate.

In 2000 Te Puni Kokiri produced its second report on the social and economic inequalities between Maori and non-Maori, and the Government - ahead of a poll slump - was on board.

"It is simply not tolerable to this Government to see tangata whenua consigned permanently to the status of disadvantaged citizens in their own land," the Prime Minister said.

The Government earmarked $114 million in its Budget for Maori and Pacific development, in the face of criticism from NZ First leader Winston Peters and others that programmes should be based on need and not ethnicity.

Five years on from that Budget, with Closing the Gaps consigned to the scrapheap and race-based programmes under review after National Party leader Don Brash's Orewa onslaught last year, there is mixed news for the economic development of Maori.

A booming economy has lifted Maori incomes and participation rates in the workforce, as it has for the general population.

According to an analysis of Statistics New Zealand's Income Survey by policy researchers Motu, the boost in workforce participation has not just increased incomes at the lower end of the scale, with people moving off benefits and into paid jobs.

There has also been a rise in the number of Maori moving into the middle-income brackets, earning $500 a week or more, and significant increases in those earning between $1200 and $2200 a week.

According to the 2001 Census, Maori enterprise has assets of $9 billion, mostly invested in primary industries but also in retail. There are 5526 Maori employers, and 11,565 self-employed Maori.

Motu says the biggest driver of the improvement in income levels is simply job creation. Better education and qualifications, leading to a shift from manual to managerial and professional careers, were factors, but Motu says the improvements should be put in a longer-term context.

"The substantial improvements in employment and incomes that were recorded during the 1997-2003 period were in part a reversal of ground that was 'lost' earlier on."

The Ministry of Social Development's latest social report shows that despite improvements, inequalities remain all too real.

It notes that hourly wage and salary rates for Maori still trail European rates - $13.76 against $16 - and literacy skills and educational achievement are also lower.