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Source: ONE News -
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The head of Government agency Te Puni Kokiri is vigorously defending his ministry in the face of job losses and funding cuts.
Up to 50 jobs could go in an overhaul of the organisation and it's a move that's further dividing Maori and Mana Party supporters.
Employees at Te Puni Kokiri will have to wait until at least June to find out if they still have a job.
It's feared the redundancies announced yesterday are just the start of a planned overhaul of the Government's Maori agency.
The restructure has been well signalled and was part of the Maori Party's coalition deal with National after the Maori Party hinted the 20-year-old department may not be providing "value for money".
Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) employs 336 full time equivalent staff and controls $61 million of Government money.
Its CEO, Leith Comer, told TV ONE's Close Up last night he had been speaking to staff about the aims and ambitions for the department under the new Government, "and I did say to them we would have to do this with fewer resources."
Four years ago the department faced criticism for giving education funding to sports teams and in 2010 auditors were called in to review the Tekau Plus development project that TPK poured $3 million into.
And the department had the ignominy of being judged the worst performing government department of 2010 in an independent survey.
Comer rejected criticism that the department had failed, and said there was evidence that it was infact performing well.
PSA secretary Brenda Pilott says the announcement was not a complete surprise and there had been a lot of murmurings that TPK was one of the places that would have to shed some jobs. But she said no one was prepared to hear that it could be 50 jobs.
"It's a pretty high proportion," Pilott said.
"Like other government departments TPK has already suffered significant cuts, but this is a relatively small agency that does a big job.
"Over 60 positions have gone in the past three years and $8 million cut from its budget. We understand the department has made $3 million in savings in a range of areas like hiring fewer consultants.
"The Government keeps asking public service departments to do more with less. It simply can't be done any more."
Consultation will be out until June, but it may take up to a year before final decisions are made.
"Unbelievable"
Hone Harawira says Maori Party support for the restructure is "unbelievable".
The Mana Party leader, and MP for Tai Tokerau, says the move would "gut the only government department that Maori have ever had faith in".
"The Maori Party's been huffing and puffing about walking out over asset stripping and here they are doing exactly the same thing themselves," said Harawira.
The restructure of TPK is said to include the closure of many branch offices, reducing TPK's role to social issues such as education, employment and housing and the removal of major responsibilities such as economic development.
Harawira said the changes will cripple Maori development and have been done without consultation.
"A once great ministry (Maori Affairs) will become just a shell of its former self and other government departments will just ignore them," said Harawira.
"There will be no longer be a single source for advocacy on Maori culture, Maori language, Maori broadcasting, Maori intellectual property rights, Maori economic development, Matauranga Maori, marae development and Maori land and resource development."
The Maori Party's everlasting legacy will be to have destroyed the only department that Maori had any faith in, Harawira said.
"If ever the Maori Party was going to walk, now's the time. Things are just lurching from bad to worse with these guys and none of them have got a bloody clue about what to do about it".
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says he feels for the staff affected and acknowledged that uncertainty creates anxiety.
"While the impacts of the fiscal environment on public sector reform have been widely known, the challenges at an individual and whanau level can be hard. I am sorry if their situation is being made worse by political grandstanding."
Sharples said he expects to be consulted on the proposals for how Te Puni Kokiri "continues to deliver the most effective services to the public, within the budget they have been allocated".
- with Newstalk ZB
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