Kia ora, this is awesome news especially for my tribe and home community, tino pai, Taima
SETTLEMENT FINALLY FOR TE WANANGA O AWANUIARANGI from Waatea News 5 Oct 2010
Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell says a $14.5 million payment to Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi addresses a long-standing injustice.
Mr Flavell was the Whakatane-based wananga's chief executive in 1999 when the Waitangi Tribunal's Wananga Capital Establishment Report found wananga had to meet their own start-up costs, while universities and polytechnics had benefited from decades of state funding.
He says the settlement signed yesterday by Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples should have happened a long time ago.
“It was all there for everyone to see. It’s just disappointing it has taken four ministers to formalise this agreement bearing in mind we’re talking 10 years since the tribunal hearing and prior to that the arguments had been going at least another 10 years,” Mr Flavell says.
When he was there the Whakatane campus was all prefabs, but the settlement will allow a comprehensive building programme to be completed.
