Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Opinion: Māori business essential to economy

Te Taru White
By Te Taru White
Rotorua Daily Post·
24 Sep, 2018 03:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Te Maori columnist and chairman of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council partnership, Te Taru White. Photo / File

Te Maori columnist and chairman of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council partnership, Te Taru White. Photo / File

Tēnā koutou katoa.

I was prompted recently to comment on the issue of equity for Māori, particularly as it relates to accessing opportunities and resources.

In the mid-1990s, I managed the Asset Management Policy Branch for Te Puni Kokiri in Wellington.

The role of this unit was to provide lead policy advice to Government on economic development issues for Māori.

It was clear at the time that if Māori were to participate effectively in the economy, they needed additional support to create an equitable position in the marketplace.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A policy paper under the heading "pre-commercial facilitation" and championed by the then Minister for Māori Development Tau Henare, was submitted to the cabinet which, at that time, was headed by Prime Minister Jim Bolger.

Treasury did not support the paper, citing Government interference with market forces. Tau was at his best and slammed Treasury on its position and the case was won.

The term pre-commercial facilitation became a common catch-cry and a rallying point to raise Māori capacity and to equalise Māori opportunity in the marketplace.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That was more than 20 years ago so has the situation improved? Have we closed the equity gap?

In the economic development space, there has been an improvement and the playing field has started to level.

Māori business is now seen as essential to our national economy.

This is probably due more to Treaty settlements than the pre-commercial facilitation policy but if nothing else, the policy did raise awareness.

Has this awareness and improvement in equity spread across other sectors of Māori society?

The social deprivation statistics would suggest not.

I would argue at the core of this is inequity – the inability of Māori to access a fair share of resources and the inability of the system to respond effectively to this disparity.

Perhaps a "pre-commercial" type facilitation is required – supporting Māori to build capacity to participate fairly in the social marketplace.

Take housing for example. How many of our people have the capacity to rent homes let alone own them? When Kiwibuild gets into full production how are these houses going to be allocated both for rental and purchase?

Our people will need to be camera ready with the capacity to engage and to be at the front of the queue.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

As it stands they are likely to be at the back and this is just one example of many where inequity is an issue and the consequential capacity to engage in opportunities and access to resources is limited.

Te Taru is a director for the new iwi-led tourism venture Kahukiwi Experiences, announced in Saturday's Rotorua Daily Post.

Te Taru is from Te Arawa, Tainui and Ngāti Porou descent and is the chairman of Te Tatau o Te Arawa, Rotorua Lakes Council partnership. His website is http://tetaruwhite.com

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation

Premium
Rotorua Daily Post
|Updated

'Hiding from the council': Rotorua's secret pod shelter for homeless

Rotorua Daily Post

One critical, three seriously injured: BoP crash closes road


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation
Rotorua Daily Post

Eastern BoP mayors unite against council amalgamation

They argue amalgamation ignores Eastern Bay interests and priorities.

15 Jul 10:57 PM
Premium
Premium
'Hiding from the council': Rotorua's secret pod shelter for homeless
Rotorua Daily Post
|Updated

'Hiding from the council': Rotorua's secret pod shelter for homeless

15 Jul 09:44 PM
One critical, three seriously injured: BoP crash closes road
Rotorua Daily Post

One critical, three seriously injured: BoP crash closes road

15 Jul 09:32 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP