KEY POINTS:
Expectations should be lowered about iwi organisations as drivers of Maori economic development, a report says.
Instead Maori should focus on entrepreneurship to increase wealth and it is individuals and whanau who should do this - not the collective - says the report, sponsored by the Business Roundtable.
But Maori leaders believe tribal members have a right to high expectations about their iwi's economic performance.
US-based author and economist Frederic Sautet said a key theme of the report - that a degree of perspective is needed - was in terms of what iwi could achieve in economic development.
"The total quantum of settlement assets is relatively small given the current population base," he said.
"Even if these assets generate a commercial rate of return, this situation is unlikely to change given projected population growth. If Maori people are to flourish and live better and longer lives, traditional Maori institutions must blend within the modern structure of the market system."
Jobs, skills and entrepreneurship were the way forward, the report said.
"Iwi are not the engine of Maori development; entrepreneurship is. Sustained prosperity only comes about if the creative talents of individuals are unleashed through the web of exchanges that constitutes the market economy."
But Waikato-Tainui chief executive Tuku Morgan said the report missed the point - that iwi did want to be dominant players in their regions.
His iwi owns $600 million worth of assets before the pending Waikato River settlement and is one of the largest commercial landlords in the Waikato.
"We want to be the big players. Clearly iwi are sleeping economic giants. As more iwi control their settlement assets I think you're going to see a different wealth landscape. If anything our expectations are heightened about what we can achieve.
However, the next step in a post-settlement environment was to ensure that wealth "flowed on" to individuals, whanau and hapu.
While individualism was a "Pakeha paradigm", parts of the report were redundant as many Maori already realised that skills and entrepreneurship were important.
Roundtable chief executive Roger Kerr said the report wasn't about telling Maori what to do. Instead it and five other reports were about looking at Maori institutions in an empirical way to see how wealth could be increased.
"We wanted to demonstrate that we don't have a narrow perspective about business interests. Our aims are broad. We want to promote a better New Zealand and that raises issues about a significant and important population.
"It's aim is to look at Maori economic progress and ways to improve it."
