Part 4: Enhancing our impact in te ao Māori

We want to continue to build trust and confidence among Māori in our role and for our work to have increased relevance to, and impact for, Māori. We also want to influence the public sector to improve on how it reflects the uniqueness of New Zealand.

In 2023/24, our work will focus on:

• our strategy for te ao Māori; and
• public sector accountability to Māori.

1. Te ao Māori strategy

We have started developing a strategy to help us continue building our organisational capability and capacity in te ao Māori.

We are committed to enhancing our impact so that Māori communities will increasingly see us as a relevant and trusted organisation.

In 2022/23, we planned a second phase for this strategy work. We were informed by the insights from the Māori perspectives on public accountability report that we commissioned from Haemata Limited in 2022.

In 2023/24, we will publish our strategy for te ao Māori, which will set out our key priorities to:

• continue to build relationships in Māori communities;
• take account of Māori knowledge and perspectives in our work; and
• support staff to build their capability to improve outcomes that benefit Māori communities.

We will work with our recently established Rōpū Māori to advise us as we work through this process.

2. Public sector accountability to Māori

In 2022, we published research we commissioned from Haemata Limited on Māori perspectives on public accountability. This research is part of our broader programme of work on how the accountability system is working for the public.

We have also increased our focus on examining how well the public sector is supporting improved outcomes for Māori. In 2022/23 we published two reports on this topic, one looking at how well public organisations were supporting whānau ora, and another looking at the effectiveness of four government initiatives aimed at delivering improved outcomes for Māori.

Public organisations need to honour commitments the Crown made through Treaty settlements to build and maintain meaningful and effective relationships between Māori and the Crown. Te Arawhiti – The Office for Māori Crown Relations is monitoring progress made by the Crown in honouring these commitments.

In 2023/24, we intend to look at how prepared public organisations are to meet their Treaty settlement commitments. This will include looking at the systems for overseeing and monitoring the Crown's honouring of Treaty settlement commitments.

This work will support public organisations, such as Te Arawhiti and Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission, to identify how they can better support the public sector to meet the Crown's settlement commitments.