By Torika Tokalau, Local Democracy Reporter
A south Auckland local board member has fought to keep a rangatahi mentorship programme visible in his local board initiatives.
Franklin Local Board member Logan Soole (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa) on Tuesday, raised concerns over the Tuia Leadership Programme being excluded from the board’s governance work programme – a detailed list of activities a local board allocates its annual budget towards.
Soole has been a mentor in the Tuia Programme for the past three years.
The Tuia Programme involves local mayors selecting a young Māori from their district to mentor on a one-to-one basis, to encourage and enhance leadership skills.
The programme was excluded from the work programme because staff had not been able to make contact with the Tuia Trust.
Soole, speaking at the local board meeting, requested that the Tuia programme be included in the work programme for 2024/2025, for zero dollars.
This means the programme doesn’t have any allocated budget at present.
He wanted it recorded so it was visible for staff to continue doing the work to support it for the next round in January.
If it wasn’t on the board’s work programme, Soole said it would essentially be forgotten.
“In my experience it can be really hard to get back,” Soole said.
He said they promoted the Tuia Programme when they met with mana whenua in Franklin, and it was also mentioned three times in the local board plan.
“And then, to remove it now would be, I think, disingenuous to our local board plan.”
The board had already indicated its support of $24,000 funding of three initiatives and programmes, funded from the draft locally-driven initiatives (LDI) budget.
Soole said the Tuia Programme wasn’t a financial risk to the board, and they could add money to it later.
In 2022, the programme cost the board $2000 but this money wasn’t spent, he said.
“I can understand why the staff didn’t want it included in the work programme because they have a lot of other work to focus on, but because it’s in our local board plan and because we use it all the time and it’s actually quite an effective programme, why not?”
From 2011 to 2020, Tuia have had 56 councils, 19 participating iwi and organisations, and over 350 rangatahi participate in the kaupapa.
Five south Auckland local boards are a part of the initiative.
“I think we need to do more work on this, the way to ensure that work happens is to have it sitting in the work programme,” Soole said.
He supported keeping it in there for zero dollars.
“It will be a massive disappointment to mana whenua if we had to drop it off, especially when it has zero dollar value around it.”
His recommendation was agreed unanimously by the board.
