Speech: Katene - Time to Take The Treaty Seriously
te-pati-maori
Fri Sep 04 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Speech: Katene - Time to Take The Treaty Seriously
Friday, 4 September 2009, 4:39 pm
Speech: The Maori Party
Te U Maori Union Members; Hui-a-Motu Dinner
Thursday 3 September 2009; 7pm
Rahui Katene; MP for Te Tai Tonga
‘The Treaty : Time to Take it Seriously’
On the opening day of the 49th Parliament, the Speaker of the House, Hon Dr Lockwood Smith, in delivering the Governor General’s address, put forward a concept that would become the trademark of the National – Maori Party agreement.
The Speaker, referred to the relationship and confidence and supply agreement between the National Party and the Maori Party as forming the basis for “constructive and mana-enhancing working relationships”.
That reference literally opened the flood-gates for references to mana enhancement in the Parliamentary debating chamber.
The commitment articulated in the very first sentence of the relationship agreement, that both parties “recognise the importance of mana-maintenance and enhancement” has provoked comment and critique from all quarters.
If you were to browse through the pages of Hansard, as I’m sure you all love to do, you might find some ninety references to mana enhancing, as a marker of the new Government’s approach for engaging with Maori.
Not all of these, have of course, been overflowing with praise.
Mr Mallard in the context of taxation legislation asked the question: What is mana-enhancing about a tax increase of $60 a week for a low-income family?
Mr Twyford, in the context of the Auckland Local Representation Bill, put forward the challenge, and I quote, In spite of National’s much-vaunted mana-enhancing relationship with the Māori Party, it has ridden roughshod over that relationship.
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And Mr Horomia – on the day that the 97 million early settlement of the Crown’s pre-commencement aquaculture space obligations to iwi was announced, stood up in the House and asked the question,
“How can we take the Government seriously when it talks about its obligations to Māori when it is clearly failing its obligations to hold a mana-enhancing relationship with its coalition partner the Māori Party”.
I’m not sure how Mr Horomia would define a mana-enhancing relationship, but it would seem to me, the 6th May was the wrong day to be asking that question.
For the 6th May is an historic day. On that day the Crown’s obligations to Māori in relation to the Māori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004 were finally realised.
The Government signed a deed of settlement with iwi of Te Tau Ihu, Ngāi Tahu, and iwi represented by the Hauraki Māori Trust Board, which honoured a commitment that had been passed in legislation some five years earlier in 2004.
It was an action which finally took the Treaty relationship seriously.
The 2004 legislation of the former Government had failed to secure even one single hectare of new aquaculture marine farming area anywhere in New Zealand. Not one marine farm; not one arrangement in place.
So in consultation with Te Ohu Kai Moana Trustee, iwi leaders and negotiators, and as an active expression of the good faith relationship between National and Maori Party - a new solution was created - a cash equivalent instead.
The 6th May – the day of the aquaculture settlement – is historic for other reasons when we look at an interpretation of mana enhancing.
For the 6th of May of course, is the historic anniversary of the hikoi – a day in which the former Prime Minister described Maori in terms such as ‘haters and wreckers’; a day in which legislation was introduced which “severely discriminated against Maori” as the recent report of the Ministerial Review found.
It would seem to me, that there is no better example of both parties agreeing about the importance of mana maintenance and enhancement, than the ministerial review of the Foreshore and Seabed Act. The review was a key milestone for us both in our relationship agreement signed on 16 November 2008.
Our intention was to review the application of the Act to ascertain whether it adequately maintains and enhances mana whenua.
Eleven sitting days into this new Parliament, a terms of reference was released, and a ministerial panel announced, and just two months ago, the Panel’s report was received.
And if you happen to have missed it, the Report concludes, definitively, that the Act must be repealed.
It recommends a new Act based on the Treaty of Waitangi principle of providing for both Maori and Pakeha world views.
It clarifies that customary rights in any area, belong to the hapu and iwi with traditional interests in it, not to all Maori, and that the customary rights amount to property rights and so should not lightly be taken away.
And it endorses the recommendation of the Waitangi Tribunal from back in 2004 –at the time when the original Foreshore and Seabed Act was introduced.
The Tribunal recommended a “longer conversation” was required –an approach which the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination supported, in its 2007 report on the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
The UN Committee recommended that there be a “renewed dialogue between the Crown and Maori to seek ways of mitigating the Act’s discriminatory effects”.
These events all form part of the fabric of the relationship between the Government and Maori about matters close to the heart of Maori.
One of the particularly exciting areas for us, has been in the energy that has been devoted to the settlement of Treaty claims – an area which the former Government neglected for eight years, until a sudden frenzy of pre-election negotiations came to bear.
I have to say that from day one, the new Minister for Treaty Negotiations, Hon Chris Finlayson, has brought an enthusiasm and a level of efficiency to the process which has been welcomed.
We have been particularly pleased that our support for streamlining the process has been actioned; an action which has to be promising for the aspiration of enduring reconciliation between iwi, hapū, and the Crown.
Two particular priorities in the Maori Party policy - involving independent facilitators and the support for promoting chief-to-chief negotiations—have been adopted. And there’s more to come!
The different policy situations I have described are instances of a relationship in which we promote the Treaty partnership as the very basis of the Crown’s relationship with Maori.
It’s about taking the Treaty seriously, in action and in deed. And of course, it is not just about Treaty settlements. It seems that successive governments have taken the Treaty to mean settlements, and that when claims are settled, the Treaty can be done away with altogether.
When the Maori Party signed up to an agreement with the National Party there was a sentence of faith in the opening paragraph of the document that said it all
“Both the National Party and the Maori Party will act in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi”.
We take that statement of faith seriously, recognizing the opportunity for legislative creativity to give meaning to the Treaty in legislation.
Ideally we would like to run the ruler down all legislation to ensure Treaty principles are upheld. The Treaty is our constitutional basis for nationhood, and we are determined that we use the current political opportunity to support development of and respect for a Treaty-based relationship.
Taking the Treaty seriously is an ongoing responsibility; it creates new approaches and thinking.
As an indication of the types of strategies we have applied:
• We have consistently sought to raise the profile and status of the Treaty including proposing numerous amendments to get the Treaty into legislation on a range of policies to do with immigration, policing, the emissions trading scheme, and public health.
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• We negotiated into our relationship agreement the commitment to establish a constitutional review aimed at, among other things, drafting arrangements that give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi. A group to advance this inquiry will be set up by no later than early 2010.
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• We have drafted a Maori Party member's bill: Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty which will appoint, as an independent Officer of Parliament, a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty to proactively promote the Treaty’s commitment to partnership.
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To think about how this Treaty Commissioner would work in practice, we need look no further than your sector.
It is a great thing to look into the rules and constitution of the New Zealand Tertiary Education Union – Te Hautu Kahurangi o Aotearoa – and to read:
• Te Tiriti o Waitangi shall be implemented in the policies and practices of the union; and that
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• The Council shall monitor the implementation of Te Tiriti o Watangi and ensure that the union is fulfilling its obligations to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
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This in itself simply fleshes out the intention of Section 181 of the Education Act 1989, in which institutional councils are required to acknowledge the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in the performance of its functions and the exercise of its powers.
Councils are therefore required to acknowledge the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. How do you do that?
The system needs to support Maori aspirations and achievements, including the revitalisation of te reo, nga tikanga, nga matauranga.
The education system needs to work in partnership with whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori communities.
We would go one step further and have institutional councils acknowledge Te Tiriti o Waitangi, rather than its principles.
How we envisage the role of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty would be that it would have broad powers to investigate how departments and institutions implement the Treaty - including the Tertiary Education Commission, and including institutions like universities and polytechnics.
Of course, I’d be stretching the truth to say we’ve come up trumps all the time.
There are always compromises which we have had to bear in the journey for advancing development opportunities for our people.
The case of the Maori seats is of course an issue in which we have vehemently opposed the response of the National and ACT Parties to the question of democratic representation in Auckland.
Our position was to support the recommendations of the Royal Commission, that mana whenua representation on the Council is critical to the success of building a world class city – and to investing in the commitment articulated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Another recent clash for us has been in the decision to drastically reduce community representation in Polytechnics.
We see this as an outright attempt to restrain the involvement of the community including of course mana whenua in the Polytechnic sector, and we will oppose any policy decisions which seek to reduce Maori representation on tertiary governance bodies, including mana whenua and Maori student representation.
Finally, I make a call to Te Toi Ahurangi, the national Maori runanga for the Tertiary Education Union. I am aware that Te Toi Ahurangi provides advice to the Council and annual conference on issues of concern to Maori.
I would hope, that in taking full responsibility for the management of all matters Maori, mana Maori motuhake, that some of the ideas I have mentioned today may be issues that you seek to comment on in representing the interests of tangata whenua in the Tiriti o Waitangi partnership.
Our bottom line is that as the strong and independent Maori voice of Parliament, we seek to be a vehicle for the aspirations and priorities of tangata whenua.
As you will know, advice is only as good as the advisors who present it, and to this end, I would like to let you know that the Maori Party values the unique expertise of Te Toi Ahurangi; and we will always hold our doors wide open to you, to ensure our positions are shaped and influenced by those who actively promote the Treaty in practice.
It’s time for us all to take the Treaty seriously, and we all have a part to play in ensuring the agendas are visible and the strategies are effective, in taking the nation forward.
Kia ora koutou.
ENDS
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