Aotearoa New Zealand GMO Regs to be updated

Continuing the rush of legislative changes in Aotearoa, the Minister for Science released Cabinet papers on GMO regulations. 

Link here 

Māori consultation highlighted the role of wāhine Māori in protecting taonga species, and how the Nagoya Protocols would empower Māori in this space. 

Came to nought.

MBIE has released a vid explainer:

A single regulator is to be established, with technical advice and a Māori advisory committee (MAC). The decision-making process is seen as a technical and scientific process with socio-cultural concerns irrelevant.

The Pant Varieties Act 2022 is offered as a model for Māori engagement; Section 63 has is worth perusing:

Assessment where kaitiaki relationship asserted

In a case where an iwi, hapū, individual of Māori descent, or Māori entity asserts that they have a kaitiaki relationship with the plant species that is the subject of a PVR application, the Māori Plant Varieties Committee must also consider—

(a) whether that person, iwi, hapū, or other entity has demonstrated their kaitiaki relationship with the relevant plant variety and associated mātauranga Māori:

(b) if a kaitiaki relationship has been demonstrated,—

(i) the kaitiaki’s assessment of the effect of a grant of the PVR on their relationship; and

(ii) any agreement to mitigate adverse effects reached between the breeder and the kaitiaki; and  

(iii) whether there is any evidence that the parties have not acted in good faith during their engagement (if any).

Keep on Truckin'

 I'm what some call a 'qual', relying on qualitative methodologies, but I do love a good spreadsheet.

Here's the ANZ's 'Truckometer', a simply metric that basically counts trucks, heavt trucks in the graph below. Simple and instinctual no? 

What we see is traffice tracking down wehich is a lead indicator for GDP.

Heavy traffic data (mostly trucks) tends to provide a good steer on production GDP in real time, as it captures both goods production (including agriculture) and freight associated with both wholesale and retail trade. The heavy traffic index slumped markedly in June, with the 5.2% fall unprecedented outside of lockdowns.

Hard rain's gonna fall...

No Natural Treasury: NZ coffer-keeper still behind the times

 Back in Aotearoa after several years away in Turtle Island, I am somewhat disturbed to find the NZ Treasury - now labelled 'Te Tai Ohanga - using the term 'natural disaster'.

This framing of disasters as exogenous to society was kicked to the sidelines in the 2015 UNDRR Sendai Framework, with disaster risks now recognised is embedded in development processes. 

The report is just published, I'll pick through it over the next week and see in what ways Aotearoa NZ is manifesting the much fabled resilience, and in particular how Māori are positioned. (The demographic projection for Māori, 21% of the total population by 2043, and 11% of the over 6.)

The prediction is that...

"Natural disaster events [sic] are likely to become more common and add economic and fiscal costs on top of the costs of more gradual temperature and sea level changes. Policy action today on adaptation could reduce some of those costs in the future."

Well, yes. 

As an example, the report provides this table of impacts from climate change.

 

The Climate Change Minister notes Te Arawa's climate change strategy provides some ways forward in this troubled future.

Te Urunga o Kea - Te Arawa Climate Change Working Group 

For those wanting a bit of the history of Indigenous Peoples and disaster risk reduction, John Scott and I wrote about this in a paper published a couple of years ago in the International Indigenous Policy Journal. 

link

NZ Productivity (via 'Croaking Cassandra')...

A while ago, I listed Michael Reddell's blog 'Croaking Cassandra' as a good one to follow for critique's of New Zealand's macro economic performance. His has had a few posts on productivity - the measure of wealth produced per unit of effort (normally GDP/hour). The latest presents this graph:

And recall how often we compare our economic indicators to Oz?

In layman's terms we are poorer as a nation. The relevance of this to the Maori economy - always pitched as a way to grow the NZ economic pie - is that there is no extra paua's or pipi's for social programmes.

Hard rain's gonna fall.

Maori Economy on Waitangi Day

The Maori Economy discourse continues its momentum - ie the Common Knowledge on Maori economic functioning expands - yet the fragility of Maori communities remains.

Here's a good article on the diverse components of this economy, and respect to Dr. Maria Bargh on highlighting such 'under-the-radar' contributions to the PMS (Private Military Security).

But this $42b sector amounts to just over 6% of the NZ economy and as the new PM sez, the government has reached the limits of what is can (by what he means will) do for Maori. So we gotta pay our way.

User pays remember.

Downhill I'm afraid...

But there is one area where we can get an empirical understanding: "And there are stats to show that Maori business people are innovators. The rate of innovation in small to medium Maori businesses, with 100 or fewer employees, was 63%, Statistics New Zealand figures show. That is considerably higher than the 'whole' of New Zealand business rate of 49%."

'Innovation', like 'sustainability' and 'resilience' are things you just have to say you are, regardless of the definition or auditing.

An innovation is a new idea, object or activity. It can also be a rediscovered idea, object or activity (and in this conceptualisation, Indigenous Peoples can really bring some change!).

But I rarely, if ever, see commentators discuss empirical innovations.

Hybrid corn varieties were one of the classic case studies, and one Maori can identify with (Zvi Griliches work was among the seminal publications). We - as in NZers - have come up with some seriously valuable innovations in agribusiness.

But we now import considerable inputs to our main sector (Palm Kernel Extract for example). We are, if anything, late adopters of best practice agriculture. Our 'clean, green image' is now completely trashed internally and subject to dispute externally. Our increasing inequality is yet another symptom of a dysfunctional society.



And through all of this, the Maori Economy is to not just maintain our communities but improve their situation?!

Ain't gonna happen without significant transfer of wealth from individuals with wealth to those without. Which political parties promise that?

The Maori Economy 2017: Not my economy...

Anand Menon was in Newcastle speaking before the Brexit referendum. 'Invoking the gods of economics', Professor Menon argued the UK’s GDP was likely to plunge if Britain left the EU. A Geordie woman yelled out: “That’s your bloody GDP. Not ours.”'

Out of the mouths of hecklers, ay.

And therein lies the rub.

So what Maori economy?

Recall its inception by BERL (at the behest of the Minister of Maori Development). The initial model toted it up as:

• Trusts and incorporations of $4.0 billion
• Other Maori entities of $6.7 billion
• Businesses of self-employed Maori of $5.4 billion
• Businesses of Maori employers of $20.8 billion

I'd suggest few Maori are actually 'beneficiaries' (a loaded term) of this economy, and many who are, aren't picking up much of a cheque.

Fast-forward to 2017. Yes an election year, so expect lots of soundbites (including a rich white man calling a not-so-rich Maori man an Uncle Tom). The key comment for me came from the new Prime Minister, Bill English:

"[W]e have reached the limits of what government can do."

This is contrary to what Professor Jonathon Boston stated on Radio NZ (interview link here). Boston discusses evidence on the growth of poverty and the loss of opportunity for many New Zealanders through explicit government policies (from the left and the right although the mainstream left in NZ are hardly supportive of labour)

So if the government won't do more (I actually think they will, simply to maintain appearances), where are the resources to come from? I think it's quite clear that the expectation of government and many Maori leaders (iwi and business), is that Maori are to be supported by this Maori economy.

One might expect Maori to start heckling speakers such as Bill English. But not just Wee Will Pom (let's not forget his double-dipping over Parliamentary accommodation monies). Maori leaders should also be heckled over their economic naivety (ok, tikanga may prevent or at least censure traditional European heckling. And as an academic i must abide my many ancient rules that frame debates).

This Maori Economy is not the economy of many Maori at all, at all...

Epsilon Theory

I've been reading a wide range of blogs this summer (such as Croaking Cassandra, linked in a previous post) and now am linking Salient Partners 'Epsilon Theory' which has focused on China, an important trading partner for the so-called Maori Economy.

The blog gives a nice line up of US pop culture quotes (lot of nods to The Godfather). This post n particular got me thinking... The Dude Abides.

"...if you don’t recognize that the growing concentration of global wealth within a tiny set of families is a big problem and getting bigger worldwide, you’re just not paying attention. No country in the world is more vulnerable to the political problems caused by wealth inequality and concentration than China."

We talk of this inequality all the time now but Salient's point is that while in the US, inequality can be interpreted as the system working - individualistic self-interest in a capitalist system - in a communist one-party state, extreme inequality (China has always had a mass of peasants) is counter to State legitimacy. 

I was musing on this in our own backyard, that is the increasing wealth concentration among the Maori elite (confession: I am in theory one of these elites, holding a PhD. Believe me, it ain't so w.r.t. income! I earn half what a good plumber can earn. And perhaps rightly so...).

The legitimacy of Maori elites is being undermined by the growing inequality that is a function of NZ neoliberal business models. (I would argue academics are not elites in NZ society in general although some Maori professors have some sway in Te Ao Maori, more so than their Pakeha peers). However, their situation is not one of survival as it is with Chinese elites where heads can and do roll, literally. 

Here's a thesis: Maori elites are protected by Pakeha elites as they are a necessary barrier to restless Maori communities. 

We get carrots from our own - 'Work hard, get an education, be like me', and we get sticks from Pakeha - 'If you don't work hard we'll punish you, if you don't go to school, we'll punish your parents, if you don't be like us, we'll mock you...'

Other Links:

The Maori Worldview and Policy (Ross Nepia Himona, 'Te Putatara')

Annette Sykes, Maori Elite, and Neoliberalism ('Maui St.')

Treaty Politics versus Class Politics 

Ian Taylor on the 'Maori economic engine'...

Maori businessman Ian Taylor speaks out at Te Tau Ihu O Te Waka A Maui 2015 Economic Summit. Taylor thinks the Maori economic engine isn't doing enough for young Maori.

Our Pakeha friends and whanaunga could say the same about NZ Inc.

The so-called Maori economy referred to in this article stems from a model by BERL published n 2011 (based on 2010 data), updated in 2015 (based on 2013 data). The majority of this $42,573 billion 'economy' is made of Maori employers ($23,433b). $6,647b is self-employed Maori. The raw data are culled from Stats NZ census data (ie if an employer or self-employed person identifies as Maori, then their business is added to the BERL Maori economy). Trusts and Incorporations make up $12,493b. This sector is the one that most of us have a dog in the fight for, that is it is based on Maori land with Maori collective ownership.

Taylor says 'the "economic engine" comprising an estimated $40 billion in Maori-owned tourism, fisheries, agriculture, forestry and other industries was not delivering on the strategy for Maori economic development drawn up in 2012...'

Well since when did capitalist players do anything other than seek profit for their own ends (this 'profit' can include cultural outcomes of course).

I also see Taylor's sector - IT - has received specific Maori funding of $30m over 6 years. I'm not opposed to this - corporate welfare seems to be a necessary but insufficient condition for any successful economy - but why isn't that sector 'self-funding' if it is so great? (Okay, farming is also subsidised through breaks in carbon credits, and fishing had a few golden years of cheap Asian labour, and forestry gets away with, if not murder, then manslaughter...)

Ian Taylor is doing sterling work, no doubt. I guess he sits within the Maori employer bracket? And I absolutely agree with him that we need our rangatahi getting into software and robotics (indeed I wrote a futurist piece on this for a chapter on Maori leadership with my friends and colleagues Jamie Ataria and Melanie Mark-Shadbolt). 

But maybe the 29% of the Maori economy is doing all it can do?! And if each individual Maori employer or self-employed Maori hired one more Maori, and provided them with a living wage and training, well maybe that would lift this entire 'sector' in a way that would solve some of the issues he identifies?

Paint it red...

Who knows. But the so-called Maori economy is highly exposed to world markets. And most world markets are painted in red this week...

Wheat is up, and so are lean hogs. Beer, bread and BBQs will survive!

Unemployment to June 2015

Slight increase in Aotearoa NZ unemployment rate (to 5.9% from 5.8%), with Maori figures unchanged...

While NZ compares reasonably in the OECD, if Maori were a country ...

Maori Economy 'updated'...

BERL have updated their snapshot of the Maori economy in Te Ōhanga Māori 2013 and now interpret the Maori asset base at 42.6 billion paua, up from the 2010 figure of 36.9 billion paua...

  The primary sector still dominates, as might be expected...

The geographic distribution is interesting, with Te Puka o te Ika dominating...

The Report is interesting for many reasons, not least as a reflection of how Pakeha measure us as citizens contributing to the wider NZ economy. (I'll leave aside the obvious irony in much of this economy originating with the dispossession of Maori land and marginalisation of Maori from decision-making...).

There's a lot to say about this report, and I'll dig a little deeper this week.

One very interesting comment: assets are only truly valuable if they contribute to wellbeing.

Another very interesting thing is that the release of this report is pretty much unannounced...

We not sexy any more?!

The Nature of Wellbeing: How ecosystem services contribute to the wellbeing of New Zealand and New Zealanders

After much gestation, this Department of Conservation (DoC) contracted report by Lincoln University researchers (and a couple of ring-ins including Robert Costanza) is now released.

We define ‘ecosystem services’ (ES) as the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystems are widely considered to provide four categories of services: supporting (e.g. nutrient cycling, soil formation and primary production); provisioning (e.g. food, fresh water, wood, fibre and fuel); regulating (e.g. climate regulation, flood and disease regulation, and water purification); and cultural (aesthetic, spiritual, educational and recreational).

Interactions between ecosystem services, human needs, satisfiers and wellbeing.

Of course ecological systems have played an important role in the survival and development of Māori as a people, as they have for all societies. However, Māori identity also has more subtle connections with the land and water, such that ‘Māori aspirations and well-being are interdependent on ecosystems and ecosystem services’ (Harmsworth & Awatere 2013: 274). The relationships continue to be recited through ancient waiata/songs and whakataukī/proverbs, which rekindle the breadth and depth of their engagement with the enveloping ecosphere (Kawharu 2002; Selby 2010).

The report is available through the DoC website.

Latest unemployment figures...

Household Labour Force Survey for December 2014 just out.

In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment was 5.7% in the December 2014 quarter. That's up 0.3 percentage points from the September 2014 quarter. 8,000 more people being unemployed over the quarter. Merry fricken Xmas, right?

For Maori, unemployment was down 0.2 to 12%, still shit and the drop is within the margin of error.

'One the first day of Xmas my government gave to me, a Maaori ecooooonomyyy'

The latest reports on 'our economy' are out. This one from Kinnect/MPI finds that not only is MPI brilliant at working with (selected) Maori, there remain issues over governance, scale and capability, specifically:

• a need to consolidate multiple owners with small shareholdings into mandated governance entities with effective decision making;
• economic scale to support profitable agribusiness;
• and the capability to grow agribusiness productivity and profitability.

Another report (PriceWaterhouseCoopers/MPI December 2014, same link as above) has some interesting tables on Maori land use and potential for improvement. Note over a quarter of Maori Freehold Land (MFL) is in natural forest and a further 8% in plantation forest. Conversion to dairying remains the sexy beast in the picture... 

The purpose of this report was to confirm the value of additional work into converting and otherwise innovating on Maori land (the original impetus for this came from the BERL reports of 2011 I've posted on before). The Benfit Cost Ratio of 'interventions' are tabulated below, by sector:

A figure below 1 means you technically 'lose' money by intervention.

We can quibble about methodology till the cows come home but dairying remains the go to approach for growing our/the economy (although note horticultures high BCR though against a very low percentage of MFL).

So, business-as-usual.

Given the now confirmed decline of our water quality, including our iconic beaches (remember when iwi/Maori were the risk to these strips of foreshore and seabed?!), there are considerable costs and risks associated with dairy. Further, given the urban character of our rangatahi and the struggle we have with the education system, how to we get our people into secure employment when the trend is less security?

No answers, just more patai.

Meri kirihimete tatou katoa!

Simon Lambert

 

Maori unemployment back up?

WTF as the rangatahi would say...

Yeah, we're the brown line, the line that is heading UP while the other line (labelled 'European' in the Houshold Labour Force Stats), the blue line, is heading down.

Oh yeah, what the fuck indeed...

Maori unemployment finally down...

It took a while but the Government can now go into the election boasting a cut to Maori unemployment.

Source: Statistics NZ Household Labour Force Survey

Iwi Development As-It-Is: the Maori economy, capitalism, and democracy

Increasing chatter from the 2011 BERL report which cemented the 30-sumpin' billions we are worth ;)  Innovation (and science) drive a lot of this re-positioning of the so-called Maori economy. (My thoughts on this are out there). I think we need to get our facts right too...I was at an international conference where a Maori researcher argued the Maori economy was now 25% of the NZ economy.

'No,' says I, 'surely it's just 5-6%?'

'No,' sez she, 'it's $36 billion...'

'Yes,' sez I, 'from the 2011 Nana report...' which usefully provides a piechart showing Maori contributing 5-6%, which includes self-employed Maori ($5.4 billion) and Maori employers ($20.8b) taken from Stats NZ data. The guts of the 'Maoriness' of this economy is that encompassed by Maori trusts et cetera: $10.6 billion.

Heoi ano. Of course economic activities can - and I would argue, should - be interpreted as all-encompassing, a subset of our mythical and environmental parameters. (Don't panic, Judeo-Christians have thought this way through generations of capitalists...). The back story is that mainstream NZers have been on a nice little earner here in Aotearoa.

Circumstances have changed.

The capitalist mode of production still rests on the fact that the material conditions of production are in the hands of non-workers in the form of property - capital and land - while the masses are only owners of the personal condition of production, their labor power.

Further, the peculiar evolution that is neoliberalism now appears in all its stunted glory. Aotearoa/NZ's strategy seems to be a state of 'not-being': not being Spain, not being Ireland, not being Greece.

But as we stumble into a post-settlement era, Maori have a unique position: increasing numbers of us are capital owners (land and assets), albeit as often (very) small-shareholders, while remaining reliant on selling what labour power we possess to survive.

Awhile ago, after the NZ government had replaced the democratically-elected (regional) Environment Canterbury councillors. Local iwi authority, Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu, support this usurpation. And why wouldn't they? The previous arrangement hardly worked in their favour and now that the government is hell-bent on opening up water for dairying, TRoNT are well-positioned to milk this for all its worth through Ngai Tahu Farms.

Our economy is sexy at the moment, not least as the global capitalist system has squeezed all the low hanging fruit and is looking to drill down - pun intended -and move into the peripheries, literally and philosophically, with Indigenous land and resources now being revisited for ongoing commodification and capitalist economic growth.

Hard rain's gonna fall...

Maori unemployment worsening

Latest Household Labour Force Survey shows an increase in unemployment for both Maori, to 13.2% from December 2013's 12.8% (sampling error of 1.6%).

Despite claims that the NZ economy 'is on fire', Maori are not able to fully participate.

This is shit.

Wider unemployment is flatlining at 6% (predictions were for 5.8%) although labour force participation is up. Wages are flat although hours worked are up 2.7%.

Interesting times. I suspect the net migration increase (cuzzy's coming back from Oz) means increased competition for still scarce jobs as well as inflation pressures although housing may be easing back. (Housing may be crashing...)

Huihuinga Wahine: Speech by Vicky Robertson at the Maori Women Leadership Summit

A speech from Vicky Robertson, Deputy Chief Executive of Treasurey, reiterates current political-economic discourse on the NZ economy and the place of the Maori economy within NZ Inc.

Robertson (Ngai Tahu) is confident the NZ will ride on the Asian expansion in the medium term but notes our GDP is 15% lower than the OECD average. Further, she highlights the relatively poor indicators for Maori though doesn't unpack this, indeed the salvation seems to lie in greater productivity as reported by MAF a couple of years ago:

• only 20 percent of Maori land was well developed. 
• If the productivity of the remaining 80 percent of that land was brought up to average industry benchmarks it could generate an extra $8 billion in gross output over 10 years
• this equals $11,600 for every Maori living in New Zealand.

The BERL report is of course mentioned - I've posted on this before - but comments that the Maori economy is 'bold, brown and on the move' makes it sound like a healthy bowel movement!

Culture, and our relationship building expertise, is elevated yet again as the advantage we possess as a people. I don't accept that our culture is a necessary and sufficient condition for our development (technically I'd accept culture as an insufficient but necessary conditions that are themselves unnecessary but sufficient, a classic INUS variable) Robertson then goes on to talk about lifting education outcomes for Maori, a necessary piece of the puzzle for individuals and whanau.

All good stuff.

But we're in the midst of a paradox where standing still is going backwards yet our traditions are what make us. Of course we're adaptable - woe betide those Indigenous Peoples who won't change! - but it seems no matter what compromises we make, poverty tracks us like a hungry beast.

And lets not fool ourselves into thinking all Maori can tap into this Maori Economy. We are split along similar lines to Pakeha, with ruling elites and proles.

Sigh.


Anyways, yesterday I went on a tour of Ngai Tahu farms as part of Lincoln University's Whenua Kura programme. Massive scale (I'd argue it's the biggest Indigenous development in the world at the moment) with huge expectations for a) profit, b) employment for tribal members, and c) sustainability.

I'll post on this soon, with pix...

Latest unemployment figures: Maori and Pasifika labour force participation way up...

Stats NZ has just released the latest Household Labour Force Survey.

Unemployment is down...

Labour participation is up, dramatically so for our Pasifika whanaunga...

This volatility reflects the transient nature of jobs for Maori and Pasifika workers.