Category: Media

Our Truth, Tā Mātou Pono is a Stuff project investigating the history of racism. Part one has focused on Stuff and its newspapers, and how we have portrayed Māori. Business reporter Anuja Nadkarni analysed how we have reported on the Māori economy.

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Economist and researcher Matt Roskruge said the media has been quick to write about the failures of Māori.

A lack of relationship and understanding between the mainstream media and Māori business structures has meant journalists have felt more confident reporting on issues that have been through the courts, Roskruge said.

Iwi also faced greater scrutiny because of the perception they were getting “handouts” from Crown settlements, he said.

“Farmers rely heavily on infrastructure subsidisation, yet Māori funding structures are seen as handouts.

“The Waitangi Tribunal has done a lot of good but has also perpetuated some opinions around any subsidisation, which is a shame.”

Read the full story on Stuff

The coronavirus pandemic has driven people who have lost their jobs to look at their options, and one they are turning to is franchising.

But with a sizeable chunk of money needed to buy into a franchise, and no guarantee of success, what should people look out for?

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The pros and cons of franchises

Massey University school of business senior lecturer Dr Matt Roskruge (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Tama) said franchises were great incubators.

“You can absolutely see how it could be a really nice nursery model, not that we have a shortage of self-employed or small businesses in New Zealand. And in lots of ways our biggest challenge is capital-deepening and getting businesses to expand beyond being a small to medium business.

“The franchisor’s certainly filling that niche, by expanding through franchises.”

For the franchisor, it was a way of expanding without having to take on a lot of staff, and having perhaps a more motivated workforce, he said.

For the franchisee, they’ve got a support system, existing knowledge they could tap into, an existing customer base, and an opportunity to dip their toes in and start learning in a comparatively safe and organised environment.

Disadvantages included the upfront investment and ongoing payments, constraints on creativity, limits on the ability to capture the benefits of that creativity, and possibly different goals for the franchisee and franchisor.

Roskruge advised people to look for established and reputable brands. If something’s too cheap to be true it’s probably not, but equally, the most expensive franchises may not be the best to buy into, he said.

“I don’t necessarily think you need to have one over $1 million to get into a good franchise.”

There were more established and reputable franchises for sale for about $300,000, he said. One factor when looking at the price was the amount of stock that was also required.

You also need to think about how much risk you’re willing to take on, he said.

“You obviously like some risk, otherwise you wouldn’t be looking at a franchise, you’d be looking to be an employee.

“If you’re willing to take on more risk, you might look at a less supportive franchise that also offered more of an opportunity to grow and innovate on your own.”

There was little data on success rates of franchises, but around three-quarter of franchises lasted at least the length of their five-year agreements, he said.

That was a better survival rate than other small businesses, although it looked like about a third of franchises were not that profitable, he said.

Read the full article on Stuff

Some of the smartest people in the country examine the effects of the pandemic on Aotearoa’s future in 400 words or fewer. 

…Matt Roskruge: Māori economic impacts and opportunities arising from Covid-19

The Māori economy is a wonderful success story and a significant contributor to the New Zealand economy. However, Māori workers and their whānau are disproportionately impacted by the health, social and economic impacts of Covid-19. 

Māori are still excessively employed in precarious work, vulnerable to changing economic fortunes. Coupled with barriers to economic participation like wealth inequality, systemic racism and discrimination, we get a downturn like Covid-19 creating greater risk to the wellbeing of Māori whānau.  

While we cannot ignore the vulnerability facing Māori in the workforce and their whānau, there are some really encouraging signs emerging from Covid-19. The first is the strengths and resilience of both Māori enterprise and the Māori economy generally. While tourism and hospitality remain concerning areas, diversification, low levels of debt and Māori governance and values appear to be contributing to their economic resilience.

However, there is no point having vibrant and strong Māori enterprises if Māori whānau are struggling. Solutions include finding employment and wealth creation opportunities for whānau, empowering Māori entrepreneurs and innovators, and finding our own solutions to stubborn social and economic problems.

We also need to ensure that the inevitable opportunities for wealth creation which follow an economic downturn are equitable. Ordinarily, the benefits of that recovery are disproportionately realised by those with significant wealth, and inequality grows. However, with the strength of the Māori economy we’re in a position to realise the benefits of the recovery through investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and strategic use of the now significant wealth held within parts of the Māori economy.

With the excellent leadership, entrepreneurial mindsets and commitment to Māori values we see in the Māori economy, there is every possibility that we can survive and thrive in the face of this and future crises.

Dr Matt Roskruge (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama) is co-director of Te Au Rangahau, Massey University

Read the full article on The Spinoff

Labour has failed to get DHB deficits under control this term, despite going hard on the issue when in opposition.

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Massey University Te Au Rangahau Māori Business Research department senior lecturer Matthew Roskruge said there were some big inequities from DHB to DHB when it came to deficits.

For example, those with populations with more complicated health needs, or with old buildings and equipment.

“It’s expensive to look after obsolete infrastructure. It’s expensive to maintain it, to keep it warm, it’s expensive to work within it. And so that places a lot of pressure back on operational budgets,” he said.

Read the full story on RNZ

While management of Covid-19 has captured a good deal of attention this election campaign, it is important to consider other concerns that have been around for a lot longer.

Dr Matt Roskruge shares his viewpoint in the October 2020 issue of Kai Tiaki.

Read the full article (page 29)

A new app inspired by troubles translating a text could set the benchmark rate for te reo Māori translations nationwide.

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About five years ago, Te Taura Whiri commissioned a research project to investigate the contribution of te reo Māori to the New Zealand economy.

The research was prepared by Matthew Roskruge, Sandy Morrison and Te Kahautu Maxwell through the University of Waikato.

Roskruge is still based in the Waikato but now works for Massey University.

He said the research was prompted by reports such as those for Te Matatini, the national kapa haka competition, where an economic dollar value had been defined for Māori events.

“What our research aimed to do was to get to a dollar figure, to demonstrate what the economic value of te reo was to the country’s economy.

“But we never got to that magical figure, and we ended up talking more qualitative, about how te reo contributes to the economy.”

Roskruge said the researchers had “vigorous debates” on how to “ring-fence” te reo Māori in order to put a value on it.

“I don’t think we ever did or were able to separate te reo Māori from te ao Māori.

“So when we were talking about the economic contribution of te reo Māori, in a way we were really talking about the economic contribution of everything Māori.”

Roskruge said the researchers thought of taking a purist view, looking strictly at the language industry, media industry and a few places where te reo has a distinct and direct input into production.

“But actually nearly everything we do in Aotearoa, where we are taking Māori-led initiatives as new concepts, is influenced or touched in some way by te reo Māori.

“So it was incredibly difficult if not impossible to separate te ao from te reo.”

The other aspect of the research he enjoyed was discovering industries were te reo was an important part of wellbeing and productivity.

“Those are industries like forestry, and others that you might expect like the media, consultants, public policy and education.”

Roskruge said te reo enables Māori participation, it is something that is distinctly New Zealand.

“It facilitates a Māori way of thinking about problems, new businesses ideas and entrepreneurship, it can create a unique New Zealand brand and imagery around our products and processes.”

Full story on Stuff

Auckland Action Against Poverty alleges many beneficiaries are being denied additional assistance such as food grants.

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The ultimate stress test

Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Tama economist Matthew Roskruge says crises like Covid can help identify weaknesses in government welfare, such as weaknesses that would not exist if the welfare system was robust enough to start with.

“Ideally, a strong welfare system would already be in place.”

Roskruge says the government has done a good job at creating a safety net but, as time goes on, the net is thinning.

He wonders if subsidising businesses and giving displaced workers souped-up benefits is delaying the inevitable. He questions whether the government needed to prop up businesses or not.

“There is certainly a strong argument for allowing businesses to ‘die’ so that new businesses can be ‘born’,” Roskruge says.

Read the full story on te ao Māori News