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Crown Maori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis says his new agency Te Arawhiti is helping make the crown a better treaty partner.
Te Arawhiti was created out of existing units like the Office of Treaty Settlements as well as taking over responsibility for statutory functions like administering the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act and providing an independent cross-government view on the health of the Māori Crown relationship.
Mr Davis says it has developed guidelines for government agencies to engage with Māori and established partnerships so the agencies can better understand Maori aspirations.
"What I would like to achieve over the next three years is to grow the number of partnerships with hapū, iwi and Māori groups, at least double them so we have got probably 40, 50, maybe 60 of these partnerships happening and Maori aspirations around housing, education, health, conservation, we work on them and see them come to fruition and Māori achieving those goals on their own really without any input from the crown," he says.
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