From the CEO

Anake Goodall

The Ngāi Tahu New Year has arrived with the rise of Puaka (the star Rigel) marking 2009 as a year of meager harvest and concern for future generations. The tītī are lean and few in number, as parents struggle to find food for their chicks from their usually reliable fishing grounds. The scarcity facing the tītī, and its subsequent effects on their communities, is paralleled in the global credit markets. While governments massively increase public debt to keep significant industries afloat in the face of this recession, the economic reality on the ground is also one of lean times and receding tides.

There is the very real prospect the next generation will face even greater burdens because of the growing mountain of debt, combined with a decreasing ability to service those obligations as more and more of the population retires. New Zealand may yet be buffered somewhat from these international trends by a National Government Budget that mirrors conservative iwi debt policies, even if it does not particularly reflect our priorities for distribution. The Government has sacrificed much to limit the growth in our debt. The promised tax cuts that helped win the election and contributions to superannuation funding have been deferred indefinitely, so future generations will not inherit an unnecessarily large debt burden. Ngāi Tahu well understands the strategy of maintaining low indebtedness now so as to protect a perpetual future.

The Budget is also surprising in that, unusually for a centre-right agenda, it prioritises a steady welfare spend and the big bet of government leadership of the expansion of our national infrastructure. Roads, schools and hospitals will be built, homes insulated and broadband fibre laid; all of which will create jobs, stimulate spending now, and lay the foundation for future economic growth when the kinder weather returns.

For iwi, the big-build agenda is an opportunity to explore a new face of the Treaty partnership.

It suggests a collaboration that will deliver intergenerational New Zealand ownership of our national infrastructure, while also producing sustainable income streams iwi can invest back into the reconstruction of their communities. And with the contemporary twist of a cycle way on the side.

The total funding for Māori in the Budget has doubled, but that $120 million is dwarfed by the total core government spend of $2.9 billion, and put into further perspective by Hon Tariana Turia's observation that cutting superannuation funding is of limited relevance to Māori because "most of our people hardly live to be 65". So the road to recovery is not paved with yellow bricks this year; the realities are too complex, the international trends too demanding, and this government too young to yet deliver its seminal work. The quiet drifting of this first Budget into the wake of the recent past indicates perhaps New Zealand is more concerned with balancing its household budgets than that of the nation.

In these tough times, we understand an approach that seeks to protect the interests of our whānau today and the interests of our mokopuna tomorrow. But we also retain high hopes for wider government policy to begin moving from talking about direction to acting on it; including of course the anticipated repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

E rua tau ruru, e rua tau wehe, e rua tau mutu, e rua tau kai.

Two years of wind and storm, two years when food is scarce,
two years when crops fail, two years of abundance.