Building our capability to engage, support and partner with Māori

Standards New Zealand will deliver on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Te Ara Amiorangi Organisation- Wide Strategy, Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery’s Wawata Māori Strategy, and our broader Te Tiriti o Waitangi Crown obligations by being an active and effective Te Tiriti partner. Implementing a Standards New Zealand Māori engagement capability work programme will increase Standards New Zealand’s ability to partner better with Māori, while continuing to increase our capability under the government-wide strategy, to increase Māori capability – Whāinga Amorangi and the Public Services Act 2020.

This programme will encompass the following elements:

• building the capability of Standards New Zealand staff through professional development. Areas of focus will include:
  • Māori language and cultural knowledge
  • awareness and appreciation of the needs and aspirations of Māori, and
  • Standards New Zealand’s Crown/iwi partnership obligations.
• building Māori capability and representation within our standards development committees, chiefly through an active focus on recruitment of Māori onto standards committees. This will ensure that Māori interests and needs are better represented and catered to in the work committees undertake and the standards they produce.
• building Standards New Zealand’s relationship and engagement with organisations representing and championing Māori needs and aspirations and focused on delivering outcomes for Māori, for example, Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand, Te Aka Whai Ora the Māori Health Authority, Te Puni Kokiri. It is intended that, over time, these relationships will strengthen and translate into concrete partnerships that may deliver on specific pieces of work overtime.

By forging new and stronger connections with iwi/Māori, Standards New Zealand will support MBIE and the Crown by meeting its obligations to be an active and effective Te Tiriti Partner. We can do so by developing standards focused on supporting Māori needs across a range of important areas, for example, hauora (health), mātauranga (education), pakihi Māori (Māori businesses), tāpoi (tourism), taiao (environment) and papakāinga (Māori housing).