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The Accident Compensation Corporation wants to form closer relationships with iwi and urban Maori groups around the country.
On Friday it signed a memorandum of understanding with west Auckland’s Te Whanau o Wapareira, and other such agreements are set to follow.
Chief Executive Scott Pickering says it’s a way to increase understanding among Maori communities of what the corporation does, including its accident prevention and rehabilitation work.
He says Maori are a priority because they have more accidents.
"For example in some of the higher risk industries there is a disproportionate number of Maori industries and so therefore it is an area where we can work with groups like Waipareira but also with employers to get better outcomes but also in areas like road crashes, there is a higher proportion (of Maori) so we want to make sure that our messages are being communicated effectively to those communities and we will achieve much better results in collaboration rather than just on our own," he says.
Scott Pickering says there will be investment through Maori organisations in programmes like injury prevention.
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