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Monday, May 6, 2013 cook Islands News
regionalNeWS nuti no Te PA eNuA
School bans junk food PORT VILA – Vanuatu’s efate School in Port Vila is taking the issue of obesity and lifestyle diseases seriously. efate School cooks have been informed after a school committee meeting that junk food and unhealthy snacks are to banned in the school’s canteen – and students are to be generally discouraged from bringing junk food to school from home. In a statement the Vanuatu Ministry of Health has stated: “Children eat about one-third of their day’s food at school, so it is very important that the food they buy or bring to school is healthy and nutritious.” The Vanuatu daily Post says while a lot of schools in Port Vila are currently discouraging the consumption of junk food, it is still hard to control it as school canteens continue to make money from food considered to be “junk food”. This was confirmed by several school cooks who attended a Vanuatu School Cooks Associa-
tion meeting recently. Voicing their concern to oficers of the Ministry of Health and staff from Shefa Province education, the cooks argued that despite their efforts to promote a healthy diet, and discourage students eating junk food – many school canteens still continue to sell “rubbish food” to the students. The Ministry of education has made it very clear saying: “Healthy eating and good nutrition helps school students to develop and grow properly, physically and mentally. “ It keeps students healthy and strong, stops sickness and help recovery from sickness, keeps them active and helps them learn well at school. One of the comments raised during the Cooks Association meeting was that communication between cooks and school heads is ineffective. “Our school heads blamed a lack of finance to enable us to cater with local food, so we con-
tinue to get more rice than local food,” one cook commented. The cooks added that school heads also complain that buying local food from the market was not budgeted for, so canteen cooks must make do with whatever they were assigned to cook. School heads must understand the importance of why students should eat a healthy meal, the daily Post says. According to the Healthy Vanuatu School Food guidelines, students must eat a variety of food, eat a lot of locally produced fruits and vegetables, drink a lot of water, eat less sugar, salt and unhealthy fats and eat less rubbish food and soft drinks – and avoid over-eating. The daily Post says noncommunicable diseases are becoming a silent killer in Vanuatu– therefore, the Ministry of Health is encouraging everyone to eat more local food, vegetables, and fruits instead of imported food. - Vanuatu Daily Post
aotearoa NeWS DereK foX won’t attemPt to fill horomia vacancY High proile broadcaster Derek Fox says he will not stand in the by-election to ill the Ikaroa Rawhiti seat left vacant by Parekura Horomia’s death. “No, I won’t stand. I tried twice to win the seat and failed,” Mr Fox told TVNZ’s Marae Investigates programme. He says Labour will retain the seat. The by-election is expected to be held within the next two months. In the 2011 election Horomia retained the seat for Labour with 10,558 votes, the Maori Party ran second with 4017 and Mana was third with 2484. That gave Horomia a 6541 vote majority. Fox contested the seat for the Maori Party in 2008 and Horomia’s majority was just 1645. There are seven Maori electorates, which were traditionally safe Labour seats. The Ikaroa Rawhiti electorate covers nearly all of the North Island’s east coast from Te Araroa down to Wellington and taking in Gisborne, Napier and Hastings. Horomia held the seat for Labour since entering Parliament in 1999 and was Maori Afairs Minister from 2000-08. - Newstalk ZB
Pm not lost for worDs PaYing tribute to horomia THE Prime Minister attended Parekura Horomia’s tangi on Friday, saying he came to farewell a friend, a leader and a great New Zealander. John Key lew to Tolaga Bay by helicopter accompanied by about a dozen Cabinet ministers. They were welcomed on to Hauiti Marae where they stayed for about three hours. Key said he was genuinely sad when he heard the news that the 62-year-old Labour Party MP had died on Monday. He said Mr Horomia was always a gentle giant and a big man in everything he did with a big smile, a big laugh and big ideas - which he couldn’t always translate into words. Key delivered anecdotes about his experiences with the MP, which prompted much laughter. He said on the day a newspaper had described him as inventing words, he ran into Horomia in the corridors of Parliament. “Parekura came up to me and he looked at me and said, ‘Ah, I see you’re making up words’. And I said, ‘Yeah, but I didn’t know I was’ and he went, ‘Me neither!’” Speaker David carter expressed his condolences on behalf of the many hundreds of people who work at Parliament. - RNZI
maYor hoPes rePort Prevents another trageDY INVERcARGILL Mayor Tim Shadbolt says he hopes the recommendations of a new report will result in safer Ngai Tahu muttonbirding trips. In 2012, eight people died when the ishing boat Easy Rider sank while on a muttonbirding trip in Foveaux Strait. A Transport Accident Investigation commission report says Maritime New Zealand should create a database of the safety records belonging to all New Zealand sea vessels. It also recommends the organisation further promote the beneits of life jackets, lares, and improved communication systems. Shadbolt says he, Ngai Tahu, and Maritime New Zealand all want to see safety on the water improved in the future. Shadbolt says he’s conident Maritime New Zealand will act on the report’s indings. - RNZI
call to streamline maori housing organisations A MAORI architecture specialist is calling for a more streamlined approach towards Maori housing. Rau Hoskins says better housing solutions would be found if the three organisations that deal with Maori housing are combined. With about 7000 substandard Maori homes in Northland alone, Mr Hoskins says it’s important incorporations, trusts and individuals work with one entity to develop housing plans rather than jumping over a number of hurdles. “I think there’s been a long held desire to see a ‘one-stop shop’ Maori housing entity.” Hoskins, says there are already about 1000 papakainga across the country, but not all of them have many, if any, dwellings on them. “There is a demand for people to have high quality housing on ancestral land as long as they can maintain some level of employment.” Hoskins says councils in Northland, Auckland, Hastings, the western Bay of Plenty, and Wanganui are particularly proactive in making provisions for papakainga in their annual plans. He says more funding is also needed to raise the standard of Maori housing and to provide for diferent housing arrangements, like communal housing clusters on ancestral land. - RNZI
waitangi tribunal to hear iwi views on railwaY
a Vanuatu school is taking the need for healthy food seriously and is to ban junk food from the school canteen.
New university planned PORT MOReSBY, – The Papua
New guinea government has approved a plan to have a new university established in the nation’s Highlands region. This move announced by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill is hoped will create more space to provide tertiary education opportunities for school leavers. Speaking at the university of Papua New guinea’s 58th graduation ceremony at the Waigani campus in Port Moresby recently, O’Neill said the Office of Higher education would soon commence preparatory work for the new university. The prime minister said that the government’s move to establish the new university was largely due to lack of space in existing higher institutions. “Let me just give you what is a sad situation. Last year, 17,000 young people finished their grade 12 education and only 4,000 were absorbed into the higher education system,” he said. “This is unacceptable. How can any responsible government
live with this, denying our children the right to a decent life? “Our government is not going to deny our children, we are committed to ensuring that the opportunity for decent and quality education is available to all citizens,” the Prime Minister said. O’Neill also stressed the importance of the current higher learning institutions and he said the government would make reforms, reconstruct and rebuild for a better learning system. “Our government has begun to focus on institutional reforms and reconstruction as part of our overall public infrastructure development programme,” he said. “We will repair and renovate our universities and training colleges and to restore them as our highest learning institutions. “Our oldest universities, the university of Technology and university of Papua New guinea are our national icons, our national pride and identity.
“Their prestige must be restored and that is what our government has undertaken to do. “We will overhaul administrations of these institutions. We will weed out a culture of ineficiency, nepotism and complacency,” he said. O’Neill said that an ongoing administrative crisis and rundown facilities at the unitech in Lae was a good example of years of frustration expressed by the community, including staff and students. He said it was a serious concern to his government and every parent that the premier institutions had been reduced to a state-of-hopelessness by those who were trusted to manage and administer them. “I want to reassure our citizens and parents in particular that our government will do everything in our power to restore dignity of these institutions. “We will make the tough but fair decisions for the good of country and our people,” O’Neill said. - Post-Courier
THE Waitangi Tribunal opens a hearing in the Waikato on Monday to hear the views of iwi afected by the North Island’s main trunk railway. The hearing at Te Ihingarangi Marae in the settlement of Waimiha, north of Lake Taupo, runs until Friday. It is part of the Tribunal’s King country district inquiry, which is hearing evidence on a number of topics, including the impact of war and coniscations on Waikato iwi. This week, the inquiry will look into the Main Trunk Line, including the way it afected the lives of Te Rohe Potae (King Country) Maori. Work irst began on the line in 1885, after the government reached an agreement with Ngati Maniapoto leaders to open the King country up to rail development. It took 23 years to complete. This is the ifth week of hearings for the wider inquiry, which began in November last year. It is expected to take a total of 14 weeks, covering more than 270 claims from a range of iwi and hapu. - RNZI
trust Plan Part of inDigenous PeoPle on a ramPage WAIPAREIRA chief Executive John Tamihere says the West Auckland social services trust is part of a worldwide movement of indigenous groups taking control of their destiny. The trust has unveiled its strategic plan for the next 25 years, spelling out how it intends to improve the lives of those it serves. Tamihere says part of the plan is to partner with similar groups around the world, such as Families First which works with African American communities in Atlanta, Georgia. “Our workers or some of our key workers will go over there on a secondment and some of their key workers will come back here. We will do the same with the First Nation; we will do the same with our Hawaiian brothers and sisters and our aboriginal brothers and sisters. They are on the rampage around the world, winning back which was stolen from them, taken and coniscated. These people are raging and doing great things. It’s regretful that people in our own backyard don’t value, don’t rate us but they do,” he says. Tamihere says Waipareira developed in response to the challenges of Māori urbanisation, and its 25 year plan will put it in an even stronger position to respond to future challenges. - Waatea News
Kaumatua objects to 1080 drop on mountain A NGATI Pukenga kaumatua says a drop of the toxin 1080 on a Coromandel mountain is disrespectful to the ancestors of Te Arawa. The Department of Conservation will drop the toxin over 4500 hectares of Mt Moehau between June and August. It has used 1080 in the Coromandel before to eradicate pests such as possums and stoats, but this will be its irst aerial drop over the mountain. Te Moana a Toi Leaders Forum chairman Awanui Black says Moehau maunga is the inal resting place of the captain of the Te Arawa waka, Tamatekapua. Black says the 1080 drop will hurt the mountain’s mauri (life-force) and threaten Moehau’s waterways and wildlife. He says the Government should trust Maori with the mountain’s guardianship. Doc says it is important to protect the forest and wildlife at Moehau, and the drop is necessary to eradicate rats and possums. It says it has consulted more than nine tangata whenua including Ngati Whanaunga, Ngati Hei, and the Hauraki Collective. - RNZI
traDitional sKills not taught Due to river Pollution A BAY of Plenty Regional council member says river pollution is preventing Maori from handing down traditional ishing skills to their children. Cr Tipene Marr told a meeting of MPs in Whakatane on Thursday he supported a law change that would help clean up the nearby Tarawera River. An amendment to the Resource Management Act is being considered by parliament’s Local Government and Environment Select committee. It would limit the time during which companies are allowed to expel discharge into rivers under an “exceptional circumstances” clause without reapplying for permission. It would reduce the timeframe from 35 years to ive. Marr said the bill would enhance the cultural guardianship that Maori have over the river. He said a paper mill in Whakatane that expels its waste into the Tarawera would have to negotiate every ive years before it could continue doing that. Marr said the mill has been polluting the river for more than 50 years. - RNZI