Prime Minister’s Debate: The Flag

te-pati-maori

Fri Feb 16 2007 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Prime Minister’s Debate: The Flag

Friday, 16 February 2007, 10:08 am
Press Release: The Maori Party

Prime Minister’s Debate
_Hone Harawira; Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau
Thursday 15 February 2007
_

The Flag

Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister flagged a number of good ideas in her speech the other day, but in allowing her government to support Transit’s mind-numbing decision to refuse to allow the Maori flag to be flown on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day, she also flagged her government’s support for petty bureaucracy, small-mindedness, and block-headed racism.

I say this Mr Speaker, because Transit and Government have allowed us to be shown up by no less a country than Australia for heavens sake !!!

Australia, who we like to look down our noses at for their horrendous treatment of indigenous people, who treat their tangata whenua as either sports heroes, artists, or drunks.

Shame on us then, when a former Australian Commissioner for Indigenous Affairs can say at Waitangi, that he is surprised that Maori are not afforded the same rights as Aboriginals.

I say this Mr Speaker because his views echoed those of thousands of others stunned at Transit saying only national flags could fly from the bridge when we can all remember the Loyal Flag flying proudly from the bridge during the America’s Cup campaign.

So I had to laugh when I saw Brian Rudman’s article in the Herald, when he said “if it's acceptable to fly the flags of such remote and democratically challenged countries as Albania and Lebanon atop the bridge to mark their national days, then how can flying the de facto Maori flag alongside the New Zealand ensign on Waitangi Day be deemed inappropriate?”

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“If I were in charge,” said Rudman, “I'd go further. I'd hijack the Maori flag as our new national flag and fly it over the bridge - and elsewhere - permanently, posting the borrowed British naval ensign we've made do with for too long, back to the admirals in Whitehall.”

Mr Speaker, when the hikoi crossed the bridge in 2004 over the howling protests of the rednecks, the fools, the foul-mouths and the bigots, there were no problems, no injuries, no traffic jams, no hassles and no arrests. For all the foul weather, the day went off like a dream.
So flying the flag on Waitangi Day should have been a no-brainer - a measure of our maturity as a nation, and recognition of the partnership that Waitangi Day speaks so eloquently of.

In the end it flew with pride all over the country, except the Harbour Bridge. Next year hopefully, it will also fly with pride from the bridge which joins the nation’s finest electorate of Te Tai Tokerau, to the nation’s most boisterous, Tamaki Makaurau.

Crown Denial
And yet, in truth, the flag wasn’t the only thing being ignored by the Crown on Waitangi Day.
Indeed I can recall a comment from a Minister of this very government who said in 2000, “The omission of any reference to the Treaty would be interpreted by Maori as indicative of a less than whole-hearted commitment to the principle of partnership… ”
My, my my … how those words have come home to roost, for here we are in 2007, and what do we see?
That Government is:

• now voting to delete Treaty references;

• taking the Treaty out of the school curriculum;

• dropping Maori appointments to government bodies;

• denying Maori the right to due process that all other Kiwis enjoy.

Mr Speaker, denying Maori the right to fly their flag on Waitangi Day is symbolic of this Government’s flagrant denial of Maori rights and refusal to honour the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Commissioner

And so Mr Speaker, it was with that background of heavily politicised debate around the Treaty, that I floated the idea of a Treaty Commissioner, at Waitangi on the 6 February 2007.

As a guide for that role, I looked to the late Laurie O’Reilly, Commissioner for Children from 1994-1998, and a man who vigorously defined the role of protecting and promoting children’s rights, for that’s the role I see for a Treaty Commissioner – protecting and promoting the rights of the Treaty.

To encourage us all to uphold the Treaty as the very foundation of our nation – and I quote the Prime Minister herself, who said in 2002, that“the basis of constitutional government in this country is to be found in its founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi”.

• To honour the vision of those who signed the Treaty;

• To promote the Treaty’s commitment to partnership;

• To support Maori rights to control and authority over their treasures;

• To ensure that Waitangi Day is meaningful to all citizens of Aotearoa;

• To review any decision made in respect of the Treaty by government;

• To raise awareness and understanding of the Treaty;

• To be an advocate for the Treaty; and

• To promote the proper application of the Treaty in legislation.

Mr Speaker, the Treaty of Waitangi is this nation’s most revered and treasured document, indeed our most important constitutional manuscript.

Given the intensity of the debate which continues to rage around its validity, I would humbly suggest that a Commissioner to protect and promote its interests, is an idea whose time has well and truly arrived.

ENDS

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