WELLINGTON union organiser Karen Bruce says if the government wants to see fewer Maori on benefits, it should raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.

The National Government’s 25-cent wage increase will do nothing to pull Maori out of a cycle of benefit dependence, she says.

Wellington cleaner Olive Harding has been on the minimum wage for 21 years, and she does not think $12.75 an hour is enough reward for the work she puts in.

WORKERS' STRUGGLE: Karen Bruce with Olive Harding.

Ms Harding, of Ngapuhi, moved to Wellington from Tai Tokerau (Northland) in 1972 and, after being made redundant from New Zealand Post, took up a job as a cleaner. Now 64, she has been on the minimum wage ever since.

Raising two kids on the minimum wage was difficult and the money you get is not enough, she says. “We had to cut down on luxuries, clothing, health and education.”

The latest small increase is not worth it, she says.

Olive Harding is one of a disproportionate number of Maori who live on, or close to, the minimum wage.

Median hourly income for Maori sits at $17.50, 10% lower than the national median of $19.50, according to Statistics New Zealand

Karen Bruce says Maori will be disproportionately affected by the small increase, which will do nothing to increase their standard of living.

Her union represents the lowest-paid workers in the country, including workers in cleaning and hospitality.

“Maori probably make up somewhere between 45 and 55% of our members,” says Ms Bruce.

Having a low minimum wage means Maori are more likely to stay on the benefit and only reinforces a cycle in which parents cannot afford to pay for their children’s health and education, she says.

“A lot of [Maori] weigh up whether they want to get out of bed for $12.75 an hour or stay home and get the benefit.”

Nearly 13% of Maori were unemployed at December 2009 – more than double the 6.1% unemployment rate in the general population, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Increasing the minimum wage would mean Maori families would not be forced to cut back on health and education, says Ms Bruce.

“People will feel confident if they are paid well and they will start valuing themselves.”

The Maori Party also supports raising the minimum wage to $15 and disagrees with National’s 25-cent increase, saying they would continue to fight for a higher rate.

“We will continue to work with the government, to pull these right-wing monetarist policies back into balance, and to protect the interests of te pani me te rawakore, the alienated and the poor,” says Pita Sharples (left) , co-leader, in a press release.

Ms Bruce says that the Maori Party are not doing enough to represent lower-paid Maori.

Their support for National Party policies such as raising GST will have a negative impact on lower paid Maori, she says.

Ms Bruce, who is from the Ngati Hauiti iwi of the central North Island, joined the union after climbing the ranks of an international corporation and studying business.

Working for chemical giant ICI as New Zealand and Australia transport manager made her question why there were so few Maori people at the top of the business world.

“I worked in an office where I was the only brown face in amongst four floors,” she says.  Additional quote to back it up.

 The Service and Food Workers Union have made some progress in improving the position of Maori in the workplace, she says.

A lot of this has been done through a runanga where Maori union representatives from different iwi come together four times a year to discuss Maori workers’ rights.

Some of their successes include getting employers to acknowledge Maori cultural differences, she says.

“This could be as simple as having a karakia (prayer) before work,” she says, or giving tangihanga leave to acknowledge bereavement leave in the context of Maori culture.

Fighting on behalf of the low paid workers like Olive Harding is what keeps her going, she says.

Ms Harding has cut down on hours as she has got older but continues to work because she likes to keep active.

The job can be quite hard on her body and she has stopped doing the buffing which she says was particularly tough.

In the past few years she has suffered health problems including being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

She managed to fight the condition and after dieting she was recently given the all-clear by her doctor.

“I might put in two years before I retire,” says Ms Harding.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

A BABY orca brought together scientists from the other side of the world and around New Zealand to Wellington this week – to cut it up.

The two-metre long, two-day old orca was beached on Waita Beach, north of Haast, and gifted to Te Papa by West Coast iwi Makaawhio.

“Necropsy” was the correct term for the event to study why and how the orca died and to add to scientists’ knowledge of the species.

The absorbed scientists went about their hours of work watched by a small gathering of media, students, and Te Papa and Wellington Zoo employees.

An open roller door had fresh air blowing through Te Papa’s large garage-like building in Tory St, but it was not enough to keep away the underlying smell of dead baby whale.

Explaining the importance of the necropsy, Canadian veterinary pathologist Stephen Raverty said, next to humans, whales were the most widely dispersed mammals so they were an indicator of ecological health.

Te Papa marine mammals collections manager Anton van Helden (right) said he invited Mr Raverty to New Zealand because he has done more whale necropsies than any other scientist.

Also at the table was Dr Ingrid Visser (left) from the Orca Research Trust, based at Tutukaka, who hopes to identify which population the orca is from.

Mr Raverty, who has developed the necropsy protocols for whales worldwide, said they would be looking for signs of disease to establish cause of death.

During the process the scientists collected parts for anatomical studies Mr van Helden said Te Papa would retain the skeleton and organs for analysis and also send some samples overseas.

“We have complete agreement of iwi to do so, our relationship with them is paramount,” he said.

The necropsy found the orca had extensive bruising, indicating physical injury, although definite cause of death will not be conclusively known for months.

LIFELESS: The baby orca ready for the scalpel. BELOW: The necropsy begins.

BLOOD FLOWS: Things get messy as Stephen Raverty goes to work.

SNAP SHOT: A photographer focuses on the process.

DISSECTION: The orca’s dorsal fin lies next to the body

IN DEEP: Stephen Raverty absorbed in his work.

PERK OF THE JOB: Lifeguard Chris Curran test-drives the new hydroslide.

A GROUP of Karori Normal School swimmers will slide into history on Monday when Wellington’s first hydroslide is opened by Mayor Kerry Prendergast at 10am.

Construction of the $450,000 slide began last October.

Karori Pool manager Royce Williams put in two overnighters to help the contractors finish the platform surface, but the extra hours were worth it, he says.

It meant pool users could keep using the pool while the slide was built.

The pool was shut for only two weeks when foundations were laid and pump and valves were installed.

Mr Williams hopes the feature will keep the pool interesting for older children and complement the 18-metre inflatable floating platform used on Saturdays.

The project has been overseen by project manager Recreation Wellington, Jim Warwick, and managed by Mr Williams.

A hydroslide was included in the original plans for the pool when it was first built in 2001. Funding was finally approved in 2009.

Mr Williams says staff and pool users during the construction put up with scaffolding poles taking lane space in January and February and the occasional dust cloud and whiff of vapor while Christchurch building firm Cresta worked on the slide.

St Teresa’s School students and pool staff have already trialled the slide. Mr Williams says the short splash pool helps make it a big hit, as the ride is short, sharp and totally blacked out.

Pump water is taken from the main pool and then returned to the pool but the slide’s use will not affect the main pool users.

The slide has three speeds, ranging from 18 litres per second to 60 litres per second.

Mr Williams says it’s well overdue that Karori young people no longer need to travel to Naenae, Porirua or Upper Hutt for their hydroslide experience.

EXPORTS-IMPORTS: More cars in, fewer exports out.

MERCHANDISE exports have decreased after a year of growth every quarter, according to a Statistics New Zealand report released last week.

Although exports increased 5.5% throughout the 2009 year, in the December quarter seasonally adjusted export volumes decreased for the first time since the September 2008 quarter, by 1.2%.

Statistics New Zealand prices manager Chris Pike says the global recession in 2009 had a strong influence on New Zealand’s export volumes.

“You could see that particularly in the June 2009 quarter, but they began to recover,” he says.

The decrease in the December quarter was mainly due to an 18.3% fall in the volume petroleum and petroleum products exported.

“A lot of the overall decrease in relation to export was also due to a decrease in dairy products,” Mr Pike says.

The volume of milk powder exported for the December quarter fell 13.3% while the volume of butter fell 15.8%.

A decline of fruit and vegetable volumes of almost 15% also contributed to the decrease in the December 2009 quarter.

However, although goods exported decreased, New Zealanders imported more, at prices 6% down on the previous quarter.

Import volumes rose by 1.9% from the March 2009 quarter to the December 2009 quarter.

This was mainly due to rising import volumes in capital goods, such as mobile phones and machinery and plant, by more than 4%.

Although passenger car volumes are still more than 20% lower than the peak in the December 2007 quarter, with an increase of 32.2%, cars imported were more double the low of the March 2009 quarter.

Other factors contributing to the increase in import volumes were a rise in motor spirit volumes by almost 40% and in household goods volumes.

SLIM PICKINGS: No let-out of Kiwisaver for the hard-up.

A RECENT report shows 92% of people who applied to Inland Revenue to have their Kiwisaver contributions refunded due to financial hardship were declined.

The report by government actuary David Benison shows out of 139 applications, only 10 were granted for the year ended June 2009.

It also shows only one of 15 applications made on the grounds of serious illness was approved for payment.

Inland Revenue spokesperson Graham McKerracher was unaware of the report, and unable explain why the number of approved applications was so low.

“Each application for withdrawal of funds under section 113 of the Kiwisaver Act is considered on its individual merits against the criteria established in clause 11 of the Kiwisaver rules,” he said.

The Kiwisaver Act outlines the criteria for financial hardship as being “unable to meet minimum living expenses”.

An inability to meet one’s minimum living expenses is defined as an inability to make mortgage repayments (resulting in mortgagee sale of that home), the inability to meet medical or funeral costs, or the cost of home modifications for a disabled member or their dependants.

Raewyn Fox, of the Federation of Family Budgeting Services, says there are several indicators of significant hardship aside from the loss of a family home.

“Severe financial hardship can result in things like not being able to feed the family, not being able to get medical attention or living without electricity,” she says.

The act does not acknowledge the cost of rented accommodation, food or essential services such as gas or electricity as minimum living expenses.

Ms Fox says there is a need for clearer guidelines around assessing hardship.

“The hardship criteria are at this stage untested and each provider is deciding for themselves what they mean in the absence of any real guidance.”

In the same period – the year ended June 2009 - more than 7000 bankruptcy applications were made to the Ministry of Economic Development and 29,000 families sought advice from family budgeting services.

Statistics New Zealand reported an additional 48,000 people became unemployed.

In the three months to June that year, the unemployment rate grew by 1 percentage point to 6%, the largest quarterly increase since September 1988.

SALAINAOLOA WILSON: A scary gap in Samoan language learning.

IF you ask a young Samoan about the state of the Samoan language in New Zealand they will probably says it’s great – but the numbers disagree.

Statistics New Zealand reports that in the 2006 census, 63% of Samoans in New Zealand were able to hold an everyday conversation in Samoan. This was a decrease of four percentage points since 2001. 

Victoria University Masters student Salainaoloa Wilson has spent the past year researching Samoan students, parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of the language in New Zealand.

Young Samoan New Zealanders enjoy the language but don’t see it as useful, whereas parents and teachers believe it’s helpful for employment, Ms Wilson reports in a thesis to be submitted this month.

“When I interviewed the students about the state of the language their response was, ‘It’s going great’, but this isn’t the case,” she says.

There are significant differences between New Zealand-born and overseas-born Samoans’ ability to speak the language.

The percentage of overseas-born Samoans who could speak the language was 90%, which was more than double the proportion of New Zealand-born Samoans at 44%.

While the proportion able to speak the language increased with age, ability with the language decreased with age for those born in New Zealand

Ms Wilson says the rapid decline in Samoan language competency is “scary”.

Few primary schools have the opportunity to teach Samoan. The eight-year gap between early childhood and secondary education is proving too large for the maintenance of the language, says Ms Wilson.

She would like the status of Samoan promoted but says it’s difficult when night classes such as Wainuiomata High School’s have their budgets cut.

Low language competency was shared across other Pacific Islanders.

Only 17% of Cook Islands Maori were able to speak their own language, and one in four Tokelauans born in New Zealand could speak Tokelauan.

BEHIND THE MIKE: Abdalla Gabriel at Wellington Access Radio.

ABDALLA Gabriel’s poetry will be showcased with the work of other former refugees at Te Papa next month.

The Lower Hutt man’s work will be part of an exhibition called The Mixing Room: stories from young refugees in New Zealand, in which these men and women are being “given a voice” to share their stories about becoming Kiwis.

Abdalla uses poetry to help him work through his life experiences of growing up in refugee camps after fleeing war-torn Sudan and learning to rely on himself.

He loves the beauty in writing, its ability to make him laugh or even cry at times, and was encouraged to write by friends.

He says he has written about 100 poems so far and hopes to get them published.

Coping with homesickness was hard, but even harder for Abdalla was trying to fit in with his new Kiwi community.

He describes the transition as learning “like a new baby”.

“The communication, the language, the street looked different too because I only see white people and I guess got scared and didn’t feel sense of belonging.

“Some people pick on me on the road, they say bad stuff to me and I feel like ‘how will I live here all my life’,” he says of his early experiences when he arrived in 2003.

“I was already not someone young, that was hard,” says Abdallah, who made the decision to further his education which has led to his own slot on community radio.

New Zealanders get to reflect on how they treat migrants and refugees on March 21, Race Relations Day, and while Abdalla has had bad experiences, he is more philosophical about racist remarks now.

“In reality everyone is sometimes racist, but it’s only a matter of showing who you are to people.”

It helped for Abdalla to live close to the then small but growing Sudanese community in the Hutt Valley.

His assimilation into the Kiwi way of life was helped through schooling and extending his network of friends through sports clubs.

Later that included some heavy partying, but having a daughter with his then New Zealand-Tokelauan girlfriend three years ago, forced him to slow up and focus, to do something for his daughter.

“[At first] I ran away to Auckland. I didn’t want to be a father but my friend persuaded me to come back…I really want to be a good father for my daughter.”

He applied for a media course which led to a six-month contract at Wellington Access Radio 783am, where he now has his own 30-minute world music show every Wednesday from 3pm to 3.30pm.

His dream is to perform in his own rap group when he leaves the station at the end of April.

Abdalla feels lucky to be in New Zealand although he admits to feeling stressed, particularly over what the future holds for him once he leaves Wellington Access Radio.

“[But] at least I can sleep without having to be alert that someone might be attacking me and I can relax with no fear,” he says, referring to his former life in Sudan.

“I see myself as an African Kiwi now.”

Perhaps one day I shall go out into the quieten city and

recognize myself among the crow of souls, I will say to them,

“hey look, there goes the man I really am”.

Would they dared to acknowledge me?

No one responded, there was silence in the atmosphere,

silence on mountain top, silence beneath the universe.

Then the world would moved on restlessly, making its love,

greed, pride, and money; minding its own business.

Shamefully, I closed my eyes, then rest my mouth,

as silence is the only language,

that does not need an interpreter.

- Abdalla Gabriel

MAJOR INCREASE: $25 more per household, per week on food.

FOOD prices may have fallen last month, but New Zealand households are paying $25 extra for groceries per week compared with three years ago.

Food price index figures released by Statistics New Zealand last week show that the price of groceries fell by 1.3% for the month ended February 2010.

However, food prices have risen by 15.2 percentage points since 2007, says Statistics New Zealand’s price manager Chris Pike.

That amounts to an annual increase of $1300 in the average food bill.

“In 2007, the average food price a week per household was at $164 and it now sits at $189,” says Mr Pike.

Four of the five food groups – fruit and vegetables (down 3.5%), meat, poultry and fish (down 2.4%), non-alcoholic beverages (down 1.9%) and grocery food (down 0.8%) – contributed to the price declines between January and February.

Restaurant foods and ready-to-eat meals remain unchanged.

Items with the biggest price decreases include apples (down by 26.6%), porterhouse/sirloin steak (by 17.6%) and potatoes (by 11.4%).

KIMBRA Taylor with the portrait of Harriet Bright which she did not enter for judging.

ARTIST Kimbra Taylor did not win the Adam Portraiture Award, but she captured the next best thing because her painting is of the winning artist.

Fellow Kapiti artist Harriet Bright, who won the 2010 national award and the $15,000 prize last month, was the subject of Ms Taylor’s entry.

It was seeing Ms Bright framed in the doorway of her house one day which inspired the painting.

“She has an extraordinary face,” says Ms Taylor of her friend.

Asked why she painted Ms Bright in a beanie hugging a hot water bottle, the reason was a practical one – Ms Bright was busy renovating her house in the middle of winter and it was the only way she could stay warm.

“It was so freezing cold [in the house], that she said ‘you can draw me but I’ve got to hold this hot water bottle’.”

Ms Taylor discarded her first painting and entered her second effort, which she says was technically better but felt it was lacking the intensity of the first painting.

“I didn’t see my picture as a winner because it’s not the way I really want to paint a portrait, it’s a step along the way to somewhere I’m heading.

“I’m very lucky it got accepted and very grateful – but I didn’t see it as one of my best works.”

Winning is seen as a validation of an artist’s work, and Ms Taylor knows how that feels when “a little nude” she’d done won the Gordon Harris Best Painting award, at the Splash National Water Colour Exhibition last year.

She says a judge’s decision is a subjective one, and she herself will be in that position when she judges the children’s art competition, part of the Coastlands Kiwiana exhibition currently hanging in the shopping centre.

She knows how difficult it will be.

Ms Taylor says she will be looking for “that instantaneous attraction to a painting which stops you and takes your breath away”, and then as a judge she’ll analyse why.

Asked for her view on the controversy over the portrait of convicted murderer Clayton Weatherston, submitted for the Adam Portraiture Award, Ms Taylor did not know where she sat on the issue.

“There’s part of me that goes ‘that poor family’, there’s part of me that goes ‘well this is art’ and artists do controversial things.”

Kimbra Taylor is one of 93 finalists chosen from 311 entries nationwide showing at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Shed 11, Queen’s Wharf until April 11 2010.

IMAGE: www.co.washington.or.us

WELLINGTON’S five public indoor pools are all finding it difficult to meet demand at peak times.

Wellington City Council’s recreation and sport facility development manager Jamie Delich says: “The two summer outdoor pools are also experiencing overcrowding at similar times – but only when the weather is at its best.”

Last year councillors agreed to allocate $11 million to pool development in the city over the next 10 years.

Councillor Celia Wade-Brown says that part of the budget is likely to go into refurbishing school pools for the first time.

She says that a system must be worked out so that school pools can be made available to others outside school hours so the public can also benefit from the pool upgrades.

“Fewer drownings and more fitness are essential in this maritime capital,” she says.

Ms Wade-Brown says that she would like to maximise the use of existing resources to save energy time and money.

Wellington City Council recreation manager Julian Todd says in a statement that the decline in school pools in the city has also contributed to ever-increasing demand for the city’s pool space.

“In the 1980s, there were 83 schools in Wellington – 48 of which had a pool… Now just 22 school pools are left and only 11 are in use,” he says.

Fifty schools in Wellington use public rather than school pools.

This puts pressure on public swimming pools and on schools, as they face greater costs for transport and can’t afford the time away from the classroom, he says.

This year, councillors are inviting the public to voice their opinion on fair use of pool space.

Those interested in commenting should visit the council website and make a submission via the Have Your Say section, which will be made available from early April through to mid May.

The council has also proposed that development work on some pools be completed over the next four years. Proposals include:

• installation of a new teaching pool at the Karori Pool
•  a new teaching and hydrotherapy pool and water-play area at Keith Spry Pool, Johnsonville
•  a hydrotherapy pool at the Wellington Aquatic Centre
• a new roof and insulation for Tawa Pool and a retractable roof at Thorndon Summer Pool.

National research conducted by Nielsen in 2008 found that many schools were giving less priority to swimming classes than in the past due to financial and infrastructure limits.

It was found that only one in five 10-year-olds could swim 200m – the benchmark that Water Safety New Zealand considers necessary to swim and survive in the water.