Foreword

E te Minita Whanaketanga Māori

He hōnore ki ahau te tuku atu i te pūrongo ā tau o Te Kaitiaki Māori mō te tau i mutu ai i te 31 o Māehe 2017.


To the Minister for Māori Development

I am honoured to present the Annual Report for the Māori Trustee for the year ended 31 March 2017.

Jamie Tuuta
Māori Trustee
21 July 2017

From the Māori Trustee

As Māori Trustee, I’m proud of the progress we’ve continued to make towards achieving our vision to mobilise Māori land and assets. 

At the core of our work is the support we provide to Māori land owners to protect and enhance their land – for now and for generations to come. Our highly skilled and effective staff are committed to building land owners’ participation in decision making and seeing more effective use of Māori land.

The case studies in this annual report are a sample of how we’re achieving social, cultural, economic and environmental returns for Māori land owners and for New Zealand as a whole.

While the landscape in which we deliver our services is forever changing, our focus remains the same – he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

That’s why this year we’ve focused on developing the people as well as the land. As a professional trustee organisation, we’ve continued to build engagement while modelling best practice governance and growing returns to owners. We’ve delivered free courses to build financial capability within the trusts. And we’ve made accessing information even easier by launching a new website, adopting an organisation-wide plain language standard, and increasing our reach through digital communications channels.

“I see the land here retained. I see more land (for the owners). I see more of our people working in areas that they enjoy working in. It’s about creating this asset so it continues to sustain and support our people.” — Joeann Walters, Advisory Trustee, Pūkahakaha East 5B

Strong leadership across the organisation has enabled the development of our kiwifruit mobilisation programme. We’ve made a significant commitment to enhancing Māori land and assets by contributing to the conversion of nearly 90 hectares of semi-productive and unproductive land into high-performance grower businesses that will one day transfer to the land owners. Our unique investment model allows owners to grow their capability alongside experienced horticultural experts so that, when the orchard transfers to them, they have the skills and capability to successfully lead the business.

This year, the dairy industry has been on the rebound after a long period of low milk pay outs. With careful cost control at the core of our five-year plan we’ve managed to build resilience into our dairy farming. We’re now set up to take full advantage of the improved market.

Our sheep and beef farming enterprises experienced a challenging summer. There were areas of low rainfall, which interrupted our sales process of animals. This has had an impact on our businesses but we’ve managed to take full advantage of a strong late season. As a result we’re closing strongly on the year.

Our kiwifruit enterprises are set up well and we have promising crops in spite of the climatic season. We’re confident our orchards are prime for taking the next step towards full optimisation after we were set back by the Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa) outbreak in 2010. 

Innovating

Our approach to partnering with innovators who share our values and see investment in developing Māori land means we’re finding new ways to increase returns to owners. Our mānuka honey programme is helping to shape New Zealand’s relatively young honey market into a billion dollar industry (Ministry for Primary Industries. Outcome Logic Model for High Performance Mānuka Plantations. Accessed 2 May 2017).

In partnership with Mānuka Farming New Zealand, we’re identifying appropriate underutilised land and working with the land owners to develop a mānuka plantation. And, with Auckland University of Technology and Precision Hawk, we’re leading the way in developing hyperspectral cameras and drone technology to make it easier to identify mānuka and kānuka in inaccessible areas.

Connecting

We’re using digital technology so owners can build their connection with their land and access information shared at meetings. Our successful pilot of electronic meetings allowed owners unable to attend the meeting in person to watch a series of custom videos. These videos included detailed information on the block’s land use, financial information and drone footage of the whenua. As a result, owners felt more connected with their land and confident in governance arrangements.

“None of the family in the area go to the meeting. I do what I can from Australia. This is more information than ever before. Wonderful job. Anyone overseas should take advantage.”
— Rangi, 70, Australia, Owner

Empowering

This year, we completed the launch of My Whenua websites. This means owners in over 1,300 trusts are even more connected with their whenua. They can access detailed information, photographs and videos, and the latest news about their land when and where they want it. The value of this information to owners is helping to increase their capability and raise aspirations for their whenua.