<&>Wellington Corpus of Spoken New Zealand English Version One <&>Copyright 1998 School of Linguistics & Applied Language Studies <&>Victoria University of Wellington <&>side two <&>2:20 kia ora my name is barney manaia um i'm involved my position at this very point in time is i'm the c t u runanga rep to the c t u executive and we have monthly meetings and i've just come <.>dow popped down here to to have a bit of a korero about um the sort of things i do and how i got involved i guess is that the kaupapa oh kia ora um <.>my my <,> what i do is i actually teach children and um a while ago i've <.>be been quite an active unionist i got involved in um with the c t u <&>3:00 which stands for combined trade union and um that all goes <.>the historically i went back to the hui in nineteen eighty six word and er the then f o l which <.>is federation of labour called this big hui in in rotorua and the kaupapa for them was to get some sort of a direction and indication of how they could best service um workers and um directionally um perhaps maori workers and so you had the people of those times that were in the forefront that are now activists today you had er people like syd <.>s jackson er you don't see a lot of tom murray now but you do um have various other people who've gone on to other things and i guess at that time i was very new to it but being maori i wanted to actually um take some um responsibility and <.>g and get out and actually activate things um that was where <&>4:00 i came to understand a little bit more about the treaty of waitangi and the actual special unique relationship that that actually develops and um so voc from that sort of beginning you know i <.>g i got involved in the local um c t u now let me let me sort of explain their structure cos it's <.>a it's a little bit you know i don't know how many maori people out in the <.>c wider <.>e actually understand what it's about but they have basically a sort of a <.>an an er a vertical type structure i guess um and it's there's a national executive and it goes down to your local branches and they presumably um feed into this local branch network and they feed up to the national executive now this is all funded by unions okay <&>5:00 so you have a what's called a a union like for our union it's um n z e i now they have a maori structure within their own union and that maori structure within our own union the n z e i which is primary teachers actually funds my activities into the c t u maori structure there okay so <.>that all this sort of participation has been funded by er people who pay their fees to unions now the sort of <.>kau <.>thing issues we deal with are well today we were getting a assurance about the minimum <.>wa wage and getting things activated there and from we were <.>t seeking a commitment from mike moore today about <.>the just what sort of participation levels you know we'd get from <&>6:00 them and in the wider context um i think today the issues that we i had set out was for him was maori and the employment we need to see some concrete things happening and whether this government is a hung parliament government a minority government elected right and we need to see those issues still activated and pushed you know we need to make sure that maori is left the flag waving in terms of their responsibilities and in terms of the things that have to happen um we've got to be clear in our own minds what that actually means er <.>s and we've got to be clear that they understand what we mean so <.>w we we're actually getting into quite an exciting time you know um there <.>are you will hear lots of opinions about what you <.>f what maori feel about it but the maori i've talked to actually think it's quite an exciting time because with the m m p thing <&>7:00 we're going to be there's a process now available for us to actually put something in <.>i'll i'll take our own structure te reo ariari and n z e i um that structure <.>ha works on developing a relationship with your treaty partner and you discuss the issues er together but any maori issues you discuss and then you present and then you decide right you want a budget line you sit down and we discuss it together we negotiate what type of budget line and that in principle is what we're trying <.>to to um get going and i <.>f think um judging from what jim anderton is saying and and what others are saying voc well jim bolger on last saturday night i think that's the direction that they're going to have to <&>8:00 move in a in a in which we are um we've been modelling and that's the that's the direction of cooperation of korero real korero and of real honest open communication now um barney <.>w what is the level of er of maori involvement in in say unions <.>es especially at a a level like c t u well since ninety eighty six obviously maori have not <.>the <.>the the level of maori participation has fallen simply because maori have lost jobs <.>more a heck of lot more than nonmaori so voc if you're looking at the real implications there the amount of maori in the sense of numbers has fallen the amount of active maori within the numbers that are still there has <.>i i believe has actually risen <.>a <&>9:00 <.>a and <.>i it can be directly attributed to some affiliates showing the good will and showing the farsightedness to actually resource and to actually empower those members within the union and within the structure that they have devised there is <.>an there is also a real commitment to <.>res to resource in the terms of the <.>i the ideas that they may have but haven't quite got <.>the <,> the feeling of where they're actually <,> got to go next i think <.>i i think <.>o what we've got <.>to um understand now is that we don't have all the answers but we do have communication and we do have a feeling of good <&>10:00 will out there that <,> should <,> maori get together voc and discuss things that will be real for them that an answer will and a direction will appear i'm not quite sure what this er our our union's direction will be as a result of this um hung parliament <.>a or hung government as they're calling but i would imagine that there would be a <.>f members out there who have worked really hard to see m m p members out there that have worked really hard to see a direction that stops the privatisation of our schools of our buildings of bulk funding and movements in that direction that actually <{><[>take away workers' rights i believe that <&>11:00 they will be there'll be another expectation that we will deliver on what we've actually said we'll do that in the turn will create a challenge and that type of challenge that we as maori have to do is is to take up the issues and actually walk with them and actually front up and make sure that the commitment by whatever government whatever decision making body is established is carried out <[>mm what are the implications of of this election <.>a and <.>h how does it um involve maori or how does it affect them well over the next couple of days maori'll be looking hard at what actually happens to the state the state <.>re housing rentals it's going to happen because whatever whatever system <&>12:00 we've got in place right now THAT will still happen because that's been decided upon and it's in the process of being activated on and whether it becomes the responsibility of every m p in that particular area and the local maori or whether it becomes the responsibility of this new this new piecemeal government that we're going to put into place <,> every maori needs to make <.>themse their situation known because that was the problem i i think i heard i heard lange talking the other night about the fact that um <.>the the processes um weren't followed accurately because some voc peer groups like to make a particular political point out of the thing the point is for us we know that in state housing it will <&>13:00 affect maori more than nonmaori so we need to make that issue clear that they must be they must <,> let everyone know advertise it they must not feel uncomfortable about making it public that they are not it's not going to work and that it needs addressing because if you don't it will happen without you actually knowing it and before you know it you're powerless now part of empowering yourself is knowledge let people know take the information to the people and ASK for help and people will give it er i think <.>that that's a direct issue the another issue that is um being needs to be looked at closely is the stability thing because maori whether they like it not and i know derek fox won't like it but we are influenced by what the <.>ma i m f and the <&>14:00 wider field actually want to do and anyone with a mortgage will know that because it's going to go up about one percent in the next week if we don't watch it well it's going to happen the point is even though national bank and a few others haven't said it it is a <.>m only a matter of time now um <.>there's so maori need to actually look at those things they need to get their hands around things like education and health and make sure that the things that <.>pe all those political parties actually campaigned on are actually kept in their front because they're now starting the worst thing we need is a collaborative type government which actually gives away voc gives away so much that we actually don't er we feel a real betrayal about the whole thing so um i think we <.>n also need to have a pride about ourselves i think er you know we we need to accentuate the positive about ourselves i think there's <&>15:00 more young maori out there and i've seen it that are getting clever they're very wise to what's going on the decisions that are being made and they are actually not only wise about it but they're willing to actually get up and front up and speak to it in a wide public arena we need we need to <.>pu encourage those people the last thing i would like to say voc and this is only a situation a model situation is <.>ma the so called kaumatua status people actually slagging them and actually saying taihoa you know hei aha we need to encourage korero you're only gonna get korero if people do not feel that people you'll only get korero when people feel as though what they've got to say will be listened to and will be given the credence that it deserves and that's that's <&>16:00 really what it's about um we actually got into quite an exciting time now and i i mean it in the sense that there are <.>b good decisions and there are better decisions and there're even there are terrific decisions but there's not necessarily a bad bad decision now because there are quite good guidelines on on what has what is needed and what is not needed i think one of the things if you're going to er level you know things at politics i would <.>ha voc one of the concerns i have is the personalities that each of the leaders have and whether they can get past their own egos and their own personalities and actually <.>di discuss the issues will be the challenge for each of them and we need <.>a <.>we <.>need <.>and <.>m that will be the trial in the next two weeks whether they can convince our <.>a our american people cos they're the fickle people they're the people that want to pull their money out all the others all my feedback has said that all the <&>17:00 other financial interests in the international think longterm and they can see past all the rubbish that has been put up by the media who i must say have done a real good <.>wa job of campaigning for national and and and um isolating a lot of issues that really should have been on the front page and um but i better not be too hard on them have maori um stepped up from voc say the plight they were in what two three weeks before the elections or has there been a change <.>i i think i think maori need to keep the button on voc in the terms of if they don't keep the button on someone'll take it away from the ground away from them and actually <.>t actually use it for their needs <&>18:00