Relationships with community are critical to Closing the Gap: Lessons from Aotearoa

24 January 2025 | Selwyn Button

The Productivity Commission’s first review of progress towards the National Agreement on Closing the Gap found little evidence of governments transforming the way they work with Indigenous people.

We know that intentional action is needed to reverse this trend – but where can governments start? On a recent visit to New Zealand, I was inspired by what I learned about the role of Te Arawhiti – the Māori name for the Office of Māori Crown Relations.

Te Arawhiti in Te reo Māori language literally means ‘bridge’. It was created in 2018 to help improve government relations with Iwi (Maori tribes) across the country in support of the finalisation of treaty processes.

At its heart, Te Arawhiti is about changing the way government does business with communities. The overall approach can be best described through a set of foundational principles.

Mandate

Te Arawhiti was the brainchild of former Minister for Māori Crown Relations, the Hon Kelvin Davis, who led the cabinet decision to initially create the department in December 2018. Prior to commencing its operations, Kelvin led extensive consultations with Iwi across the country to determine what priorities they wanted to progress alongside government. This gave Te Arawhiti a mandate from Māori people nationwide who directly informed the functions and priorities of the agency.

Māori-led transformation

The selection of Lil Anderson as the inaugural Chief Executive to lead Te Arawhiti was the next most important step. As a senior public service leader who has worked in various agencies with a focus on building Māori/Crown relationships, Lil was ideally placed to lead the new agency. Given the primary focus of Te Arawhiti is about relationships, having a leader with experience working closely with both government agencies and Māori was critical.

Authorising environment

At the commencement of operations for Te Arawhiti, the then-Minister for Crown Māori Relations, Mr Davis, gathered the Chief Executives of every NZ government agency to outline his vision for the agency. He explained that for too long Māori people had been crossing the bridge between Māori and Pakeha (or non-Māori people), and that Te Arawhiti was an opportunity to ensure that Pakeha are traversing the bridge between the two worlds more often. Many chief executives that I met with during the trip to Wellington said these remarks inspired them to transform the way their agency interacts with Māori people. Minister Davis had provided the authorising environment for heads of government agencies to drive internal transformation and focus on their relationships with Māori people.

Relationships based on trust

Building trusting relationships with Indigenous peoples is the cornerstone of good policy outcomes. As the Assistant Director-General for Indigenous Education in Queensland from 2014 to 2018, I implored principals in all public schools to focus on these relationships, which ultimately helped improve outcomes. Relationships are critical to the success of Te Arawhiti. Iwi across the country know they can pick up the phone and call Lil and her team about any issue they are experiencing in their dealings with government agencies, and Lil and her team can connect with government agencies to resolve issues as they arise. This dynamic has developed over time through leading treaty negotiations with Iwi and overseeing the implementation of the post-treaty process with government agencies. There is an inherent trust among Māori people in the role of Te Arawhiti and conversely there is trust in the work of Te Arawhiti by their government colleagues.

Non-transactional interactions

An important difference between Te Arawhiti and other NZ government agencies is that they do not administer any grants or funds. This means that the relationships they build with Iwi across the country are about determining priorities and resolving issues they are experiencing with other agencies. As we have experienced with many government agencies across Australia, once the starting point for discussions with Indigenous people is about access to funds, the power of the conversation will always sit with government.

Building our bridge

Government departments across Australia can learn a lot from the Te Arawhiti approach. While all of the principles I’ve discussed are essential to success, it’s worth reemphasising that the greatest impact that government agencies will experience in their work with Indigenous people will be through building trusting relationships. Building relationships is much more effective at the local level, which means a state and territory government Te Arawhiti model in Australia may work better than a national approach. This is not to say that Federal government agencies are off the hook for transformation, as work is already occurring and should continue at this level, although we are yet to see the rewards from these efforts.

The Productivity Commission’s review of progress towards the National Agreement on Closing the Gap showed that without transformation of government agencies, the targets in the Agreement will become harder to reach year after year. We can learn from the Te Arawhiti approach: where priorities are determined by Māori people and government departments are required to support their aspirations for success and maintain strong relationships to achieve them together. Let’s start building our bridge.

Selwyn Button is the Productivity Commission’s Indigenous Policy Evaluation Commissioner. This article first appeared in The Mandarin on 23 January 2025.