This article was first published by RNZ
Analysis - Between 40 and 60 jobs are expected to be affected by the government’s restructure of Te Arawhiti.
RNZ understands about 20 to 30 percent of the approximately 200 jobs at the agency are considered to be duplicating roles at Te Puni Kōkiri, or are considered no longer needed with the stripping back of Te Arawhiti’s functions.
While some of the jobs will move over to Te Puni Kōkiri to help with its beefed-up mandate, others will be cut in line with the coalition’s efforts to trim back the public service.
In an opaque media release on Tuesday afternoon, Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka announced the government would be “clarifying the respective functions of Te Arawhiti and Te Puni Kōkiri [the Ministry for Māori Development]”.
Potaka said Te Arawhiti, the Office for Māori-Crown Relations, would remain a departmental agency and “continue its core role of progressing long-standing Treaty of Waitangi settlements and Takutai Moana applications”.
Te Puni Kōkiri would pick up other responsibilities like monitoring and reporting on the Crown’s implementation of Treaty settlements, and leading post-settlement relationships.
ACT and New Zealand First both campaigned on scrapping Te Arawhiti and there was speculation ahead of Tuesday the agency would be folded into Te Puni Kōkiri altogether rather than structural changes at both.
NZ First leader and deputy prime minister Winston Peters was Māori Affairs Minister in 1990 and is understood to have a soft spot for Te Puni Kōkiri continuing on its Māori development work.
Te Arawhiti was set up in 2018 by then-Minister, Labour’s Kelvin Davis, making it an easier political decision for this government to unwind its role in leading post-settlement relationships and instead pass them onto Te Puni Kōkiri.
ACT campaigned on getting rid of both by shifting Whānau Ora, which is currently managed by Te Puni Kōkiri, into the Ministry of Health, and returning to an Office of Treaty Settlements, which was folded into Te Arawhiti in 2018.
Where Potaka has landed is a slimmed down Te Arawhiti that meets cost-cutting targets and paves the way for the agency to be closed altogether in 2030 - the goal set for Treaty Settlements to be concluded.
The restructuring and change of focus on Māori development in a post-settlement world is already proving to be another flashpoint for opposition parties and iwi to question the coalition’s commitment to these issues.
When political leaders gather at Koroneihana - the Māori King’s coronation celebrations - at Tūrangawaewae Marae in Ngāruawāhia on Monday, it’s sure to be yet another example of policy and programme reform predominantly affecting Māori.
The re-introduction of boot camps, the repeal of Section 7AA, the scrapping of cultural reports, and changes to the Marine and Coastal Customary Act have already led to protest and outcry in recent weeks and months.
Potaka was adamant on Checkpoint on Tuesday that iwi he had spoken to welcomed the clarification by the coalition, but when pressed to name one iwi or person he came up empty.
The Minister’s job isn’t made easy with the likes of ministerial colleague Shane Jones being quick to offer inflammatory remarks about Te Arawhiti at the same time Potaka is trying to say it continues to have a place and isn’t being shut down.
Tūrangawaewae Marae is nearby home turf for Potaka - the MP for Hamilton West - and while the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is understood to be attending on Monday, it will likely be Potaka who is left on the paepae to kōrero on his behalf.
By Jo Moir of RNZ