Revamp at TPK axing five jobs in Wanganui

Tariana Turia

Five jobs are being cut by the Ministry of Maori Development, Te Puni Kokiri, in the Wanganui region.

Numbers are set to drop from 14 to nine in a restructure, said Te Puni Kokiri chief executive Michelle Hippolite yesterday.

Whanganui regional director Sam Bishara said the restructure had been going on since June and was due to finish in October or November. After that there would still be Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) staff in Wanganui, New Plymouth, Taumarunui and Palmerston North.

Current staff were applying for the nine remaining jobs, but Mr Bishara said morale was high.

The change would enlarge the region to include Wellington, which was losing four of its 11 positions, making for a total of 16 job losses across the region. It was unclear where the main office of the larger region would be.

Mr Bishara said the role of TPK was changing and narrowing. Its involvement with Whanau Ora had been moved to an independent organisation, for example, and as Treaty of Waitangi claims were settled its role in that process was reducing.

Ms Hippolite said TPK had been thinly spread but would now focus on five areas, including relationships between government and whanau, hapu and iwi, and strengthening cultural and economic wealth.

Neither Te Tai Hauauru MP Tariana Turia nor Whanganui MP Chester Borrows knew about the restructure.

Mrs Turia said downsizing would have major implications for local Maori - especially if the regional office was in Wellington.

She would have preferred iwi to perform the role of TPK, as was intended in the early 1990s when the Iwi Transition Agency was set up.

It was to "assist Maori people in progressing toward self-determination". In 1992 both it and the Ministry of Maori Affairs were replaced by TPK.

"We shouldn't depend on the state to provide for us or to us," Mrs Turia said.