Comment: Te Arawa commitment to city goes deep

Te Taru White

I have read with increasing frustration the paranoia around the supposed undemocratic and unconstitutional demands of Te Arawa.

Te Arawa never said in the current process that they wanted to bypass democracy and constitutional rights. They understand that in the current system only duly elected members can make the final decision and, at best, they can only give advice and make recommendations. What Te Arawa are trying to offer to the Rotorua District Council is an effective helping hand and not a move to seize control.

The Te Arawa standing committee model established in 1993 in effect is being reviewed. That involves considering new systems, structures and capabilities that enable more robust discussions, advice and decisions to be made in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect. The council will decide whether they want this or not and have already stated that they intend to take this to the wider community for comment.

Merepeka Raukawa-Tait mentioned in a previous article that Te Arawa doesn't need the council but the council needs Te Arawa. I agree. Just take a look at the significant council debt, the stagnant economy and the disproportionate social pathologies.

Te Arawa is a pathway to a plausible solution. The largest landowners and ratepayers, the largest landlords, equity owners in geothermal energy, forestry, farming and tourism, co-managers of the lakes and owners of the lake beds and recipients of significant Treaty settlement funds. Demographers have also indicated that Maori youth will make up a significant proportion of Rotorua's population within the next 20 years.

Why would you not want to position this willing group of long-term investors and stakeholders in a manner where they can help implement the socio-economic and cultural prosperity of our city? After all, they have been here forever and will not be selling up and leaving like so many others. Our commitment to our place is unquestionable. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

I attended the recent Chamber of Commerce presentation by Bill English on the Budget 2014. I posed the question to him around the potential of the emerging Maori economy and its future contribution to New Zealand's socio-economic prosperity.

He indicated the Government was impressed with progress being made and viewed potential growth and contribution of the Maori economy as being very significant.

This certainly applies to Te Arawa and its current and potential contribution to our city and I believe our mayor referred to this as "the sleeping taniwha." Well, this taniwha is well and truly awake but it must be hard for some to stare a gift horse in the mouth when they prefer to act like ostriches and bury their heads in the sand.

Te Arawa have a strong history of being gracious, generous givers notable among which is Ngati Whakaue's gifting of the land upon which our city stands.

We have resided for at least 25 generations on this land we refer to as our turangawaewae - our home.

We will be here for many more generations to come and I have no doubt we will continue to give simply because we care about our community and those generations yet to be born. Te Arawa is a significant long-term investor like no other and to suggest as a previous writer has noted, that Te Arawa is a group only interested in benefiting itself to the detriment of the community is simply arrogant and ignorant, but then I note, he lives in Tauranga.

Te Arawa wishes to participate positively in the future growth and prosperity of our city.

There is no better investor than Te Arawa and to ignore their willingness to help would be stupid.

To quote Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does".

Te Taru White is the deputy chairman of Te Arawa Federation of Maori Authorities.