ADVOCATE COLUMN 2nd WEEK MAY 2013

ADVOCATE COLUMN 2nd WEEK MAY 2013 Towards the end of April, the Department of Conservation launched their Te Ao Pakihi initiative in Northland with two public events, one in Kerikeri and one in Whangarei. This is an ambitious project that is focussed on supporting Maori to take the next step in establishing their own businesses. Why this is ambitious and what makes this initiative so worthy is that the benefits of this to Northland could be considerable. The events were well attended and had a range of speakers that had something interesting to offer on the relationship between communities of interest, conservation, business and what our aspirations should be if Northland is to fulfil its true potential. While these two events provided information relating to the business support available to Maori or in fact anyone who wishes to start up a business, the real inspiration that came from them, was hearing the success stories of some of our region’s business people. The conversation around the productivity disparity between Maori and non-Maori owned pastoral land was just one example of the difficulties facing Maori business. Part of the discussion was around the difference between business owners being able to act unfettered on their own behalf as opposed a business with a wide range of shareholders whose interests must be protected and observed. This was highlighted by the challenges of multiple-landownership, the complexity that this brings to governance and the limits this imposes on using such land as security. While the challenge is enormous so are the benefits. In a report prepared for the Ministry of Primary Industries by PWC entitled Growing the Productive Base of Maori Freehold Land, the writers modelled the outcome of investing in this land and raising its level of production to the national average. They used case study models based in Northland and indentified potential growth in employment and GDP. As these are common objectives for most territorial authorities and central government it would make sense for those agencies and various private sector institutions to consider how they can work with this sector of the economy to enable this potential to be realised. Improved business and governance capability of a significant portion of our regional population accompanied by a more enabled business environment can result in economic growth. This is one area where the existing productivity base level is not particularly high. This growth would create employment opportunities across Northland.