Former Te Rarawa chair Haami Piripi says the Iwi Chairs Forum has been a great advocacy platform for almost 20 years and is a great way to find out what concerns iwi Māori.
The forum is hosted by Ngati Whatua Ōrākei started this morning, and ministers and officials will attend tomorrow.
Mr Piripi, who has been involved in the initiative since it started in 2005, says the government is not the priority.
“We’re there to focus on iwi priorities and iwi issues and the Government has its own problems and its own focus and its own priorities and it doesn’t seem to involve us very much at the moment but they have in the past. The previous Government for example was very conducive to our involvement throughout the tiers of New Zealand society whereas this Government is not,” he says.
