Te Au Rangahau | Māori Business Research
Advancing knowledge for a prosperous and sustainable Māori economy
The government will spend $900 million on initiatives to support Māori to deal with the fall-out of Covid-19.
The package includes $400 million on Māori education, a $137 million boost to Whānau Ora, and $200 million on a Māori Employment Package targeted at the regions.
But Dr Matt Roskruge, a Māori senior lecturer in economics and finance, told RNZ Māori news correspondent Leigh-Marama McLachlan, that he expected more for Māori businesses.
“Nurses are working on the front lines and experiencing the risks and vulnerabilities not only to themselves but also their whanau. Serious mental health consequences such as anxiety and depression may result, harming wellbeing and undermining our health system,” he says.
Dr Roskruge will work with Associate Professor Margaret Brunton and Dr Catherine Cook, both of whom are internationally recognised researchers and former frontline nurses. Together they aim to “change the way we value and support our nurses” and address workforce sustainability with resilience strategies for nursing staff and their employers.
Read the full article at Auckland Medical Research Foundation
Māori economist Dr Matthew Roskruge says we could see another urban migration post-lockdown as whānau impacted by the tourism industry struggle to get back to business. But there’s potential for a reverse migration as the success of working-from-home may give many Māori the opportunity to return closer to their marae.
Massey University Economics Senior Lecturer Dr. Matthew Roskurge (Ngāti Tama, Te Āti Awa) predicts New Zealand is on track for a two-speed recovery as the country continues to adjust with the effects of COVID-19.
“Parts of the economy that are involved in the movement of people, or personal services are likely to have a big slow down. Whereas parts of the economy that are moving product particularly anything in food, in protein which New Zealand is so great at producing – boom times!”
He believes the Māori economy will be on a similar path, particularly as the return of international tourists appears to be months away at the very earliest.
“If you think Rotorua around some of the tourism ventures there, they’re just going to empty for the next few months up to the next year or two. Whereas parts of the Māori economy that are shipping foodstuffs, I think forestry will pick back up they should be OK or even booming.”
Senior lecturer at Massey University’s School of Economics and Finance Matt Roskruge said while challenges were ahead, confidence should begin to pick up as we step down the alert levels.
“The main thing we’ll see over the next three weeks is just that build-up of confidence. People are starting to feel a little bit more like they’re ready to participate [in the economy] again and are not in immediate danger.,” he said.
“Globally we are not going to see the sort of massive downturns that we’ve seen say with the Great Depression… and there’s a lot of opportunity today thanks to our digital existence that was not around back in the earlier depressions.”
A senior lecturer in economics at Massey University says Māori workers and iwi will feel the economic impact of coronavirus.
Dr Matt Roskruge says while working class Māori are highly resilient, he’s encouraging iwi to consider innovative ways they can support tribal members during the pandemic.
The Māori economy relies heavily on primary industries and tourism, both of which are taking massive hits as the virus disrupts exports to China and international travel.
Federation chair Traci Houpapa said the fall our for Māori is an urgent concern.
“Our people are feeling it, not only from a business perspective but also in terms of employment and labour,” she said.
“And then further, when you consider that these primary industry impacts from corona are hitting our regions – the flow on effect is to our communities.”
The Māori Council estimates the Māori economy has been hit by between $100-$200m but Mrs Houpapa said that is conservative.
Massey University lecturer Matt Roskruge has been awarded a 2019 Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to research what social capital means within a Māori world view and how this is relevant to other populations.
The fellowships are for early to mid-career researchers to accelerate their research careers in Aotearoa.
Dr Roskruge from Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Tama is co-director of Massey’s Te Au Rangahau Māori business research centre and a senior lecturer in the school of economics and finance.
His background is in health and population economics.
The fellowship is worth $800,000 over five years.
Bringing Māori values into the business world seems to be a winning formula.
The Māori economy is believed to be worth up to fifty billion dollars. Six billion of that is iwi-owned post treaty settlement assets. The rest is from small to medium sized Maori businesses and a flair for entrepreneurship.
Businesses range from traditional activities such as farming, foresty and fishing to health care and new high tech initiatives.
However, the businesses often have one thing in common, Māori values at the core of their business practice.
Senior business lecturer Dr Jason Mika of Massey University did his thesis on what makes Māori businesses stand out.
He says the companies he studied were proudly Māori and it was important to them to do business in a way that does no harm to people or the environment.