Mai i te Kaihautū

Tēnā rā tātou, tēnā rā tātou i roto i ngā tini āhuatanga o te wā. Ngarue ana te whenua, ngaoko ana te moana i te hinganga o ngā tōtara o te wao, ā, mō wai ana tērā i te maunga o ngā kākā haetara. Ko tō tātou matua, Te Aorere (Awi) Riddell tērā. Nō reira, e te rangatira, moe mai, moe mai e au i te moe. Waiho rātou kia tiraha mai, ko tātou ki konei takatū ai ki ngā mahi. Me pēnei noa ake te kōrero, ko rātou ki a rātou ko tātou ki a tātou. Kāti rā, e te hunga pāpāho Māori, tēnā anō rā tātou.

I meet Awi Ridell in 1965, my first year at Tipene. He was my first te reo Māori teacher and started me on this journey. Moe mai rā e te pāpā.

As you will all be aware, we are currently navigating the waters of change. The Government is asking all government departments and agencies to make savings. You will also appreciate that at this stage the ‘fiscal sustainability’ conversations being held are Budget sensitive. However, what we can say at this time, is that we will engage openly with the sector as soon as we are in a position to do so and before any final decisions are made. We also undertake that it is our plan to avoid any major disruption to the current funding priorities in the next two years. That is, from the perspective of our funded entities it will largely be business as usual.

Having said that, there will be a need for us all to carefully consider every dollar of expenditure. Previously, we indicated that we would be engaging with the sector to discuss some proposed adjustments to our funding programmes and in particular an enhanced approach to both the assessment and monitoring of funding initiatives. While the current Budget conversations have delayed that intention a little, we hope to soon be engaging with the sector to discuss how we propose improving the scrutiny of costs and the measuring of outcomes. Please watch for opportunities to contribute to those conversations.

Finally, in our pre-Xmas pānui we talked about the review of our internal operations and the fact that we will be looking to fill gaps in our ranks early in the new year. Work is progressing well and in the next two or thee weeks we expect to make public the results of our organisational refresh.

Karekare kau ana ngā tai kei mua i a tātou, tēnā me whakakotahi ai te hoe o te waka eke noa.

Larry Parr
Kaihautū o Te Māngai Pāho