The effective participation of indigenous peoples
te-pati-maori
Thu Apr 22 2010 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
The effective participation of indigenous peoples
Thursday, 22 April 2010, 10:50 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Promoting Inclusive Parliaments : The effective participation of indigenous peoples in decision making
Organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, United Nations Development Programme and the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations
Ninth Session on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, New York
Wednesday 21 April 2010; 10am
Te Ururoa Flavell, MP for Waiariki
I am pleased to be here sharing with colleagues across the globe in the Inter-Parliamentary Union today. Thank you for the invitation.
My topic of "options and possible entry points and mechanisms by which indigenous peoples enter Parliament and securing better access to decision making" is probably best illustared in the context of the announcement by my colleague Hon Dr Pita Sharples on Monday when he advised the world that New Zealand would reverse the decision of September 2007, in which the former Labour Government in New Zealand opposed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
That an indigenous Maori from the tribal nation of Ngati Kahungunu, from a Maori Party which has a goal of being “the strong independent Maori voice in Parliament with influence” was able to provide a statement as a Minister of Maori Affairs on behalf of the New Zealand Government, to a world forum, from the United Nations podium was certainly a momentous occasion for us. It was a proud day, it was good to be Maori in New York on Monday 19th April 2010.
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You see our Maori Party has an agreement with the Government which allows us to work together on matters that affect our country so the change in stand by a new Government might suggest we are making progress.
It was a moment of great joy and immense pride that our Government had reached a point of political maturity, to be able to sign up to the Declaration as a symbol of our aspirations as a parliament to recognise, promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples.
As I stood in that General Assembly I thought of all the people from home: my friends, political colleagues, activists, environmentalists, lawyers, campaigners, advisors who had given so much over the years to advancing that declaration – and I thought too, of those no longer with us.
It was a journey that started many years ago, in Geneva 1988, when a woman of one of my tribes of Ngati Te Ata descent, Nganeko Minhinnick, presented her submission to the sixth session of the United Nations Working Group on indigenous populations.
Nganeko shared her thoughts about being in Geneva and said:
"The very fact that our people have had to travel for three days, twelve thousand miles, from across the other side of the world to speak of the long standing grievances, of the cultural genocide that is imposed upon our people, shows the real situation.
We, the Maori people, should never have had to come to the United Nations, because we have a Treaty that was signed in 1840 between two sovereign nations. The Treaty of Waitangi must be honoured".
Nganeko concluded her address in 1988 by summing up:
"We do not have the funds or the resources to match the government in its endless barrage of reviews, policy studies, commissions of inquiry and negotiations. Full Maori participation is essential for the country".
I wanted to share part of our story, part of our history today, to give some context for our experience in Aotearoa New Zealand of indigenous political participation.
As Nganeko said so eloquently full Maori participation is essential for the country.
Article one of the Declaration makes this explicit, with the statement that indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment as a collective or as individuals of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Maori have used all sorts of methods over the last 170 plus years to secure our place in the political environment in the widest sense, of our own country as indigenous people. We have had:
• our own Declaration of Independence signed and acknowledged by the British settlers in 1835
• a Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between our people and the British monarch
• Petitions and delegations
• Warfare
• Protests
• Development of our own Parliament
• Prophetic movements
• Even passive resistance movements
• Perhaps the biggest sin of believing that mainstream parties would always look after our needs and aspirations
Yet, 170 years since the Treaty was signed, we face a situation still in Aotearoa, where, 15% of New Zealand's population is Maori yet
• Maori make up 50% of total prison population and 60% of female prison population
• Māori unemployment now tends to be approximately 2.3 times the non-Māori rate;
• Māori have lower labour force participation rates than non-Māori,
• Māori are under-represented in higher-level qualifications. And of those who do pursue further study, their completion rates are lower than many other groups.
The opportunity that allowed Maori to participate or not participate started with the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852. The rules were that one could vote if you were over 21 years of age, male and an individual land title holder. Our people fulfilled the criteria except that they were communal land holders and therefore were disenfranchised.
The rationale for such a move was that our people were still seen as “savage” on one hand and on the other, they could swamp many electorates because we had the numbers.
The Maori Representation Act came into force in 1867 and it gave us four seats in Parliament yet on a per capita basis at the time, it was recognised that we were entitled to as many as 16 It was supposed to be a five year exercise but continued and became permanent in 1876.
From 1975, 'half castes' (people with a Maori and European parent) could vote for a Maori or European candidate.
A Royal Commission on our Electoral System in 1985 concluded that separate Maori seats had not helped our people and recommended a Mixed Member Proportional MMP system. In 1996 the first MMP election was held where for the first time, after 129 years, Maori seats were increased.
The New Zealand Parliament generally has 120 members, with seventy electorates and fifty Party list seats. People have two votes, one for a candidate and one for a party.
Seven of the seventy are set aside for Maori. The number of those seats is determined by the number of Maori who register to vote on the Maori roll. At this point around 54% of Maori (based on those who register at census time as Maori) are on the Maori roll leaving 46% on what is termed the general roll. This might tell you then that if every Maori chose to be on the Maori roll then we would potentially have around 12-14 seats. So part of the ongoing challenge we have is to have our people believe that we can do things for ourselves.
The number of Maori seats is important because the two major parties have generally claimed between 45 and 55 leaving themselves short of achieving the majority of 61; they therefore have to look to forming agreements with other parties. This is where we currently fit.
In 2004, the Labour Minority 47th Government was prepared to deny one group of New Zealanders due process, that is the right for hapu, or whanau, tribes and families to have claims over foreshore and seabed, heard in Court.
Tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched to Parliament in Wellington to hear the former Prime Minister describe Maori in terms such as ‘haters and wreckers’; to witness legislation being introduced which a Ministerial Review Panel last year concluded “severely discriminated against Maori”.
In the aftermath of the hikoi; and the Foreshore and Seabed Act, the Waitangi Tribunal of New Zealand 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”.
It was in the heat of the hikoi; the passion of the protest against the Foreshore and Seabed that my colleague Mrs Tariana Turia stood in the House, resigned from the Labour Party and crossed the floor in opposition to this Act.
That period between 6 May 2004 when the hikoi took place, and 11th July 2004 when the inaugural hui of the Maori Party was called in Whanganui, was a period of intense political activity and mobilisation.
On 27 July 2004 Tariana won over 90% of the vote for the seat of Te Tai Hauauru, coming in to the parliament as the first member of the Maori Party and 14 months later she was joined by myself, Dr Pita Sharples and Hone Harawira, at the 2005 General elections. And in November 2008 our team became five with the election of Rahui Katene as member of parliament for Te Tai Tonga. We have five of the seven seats and we will take those two remaining seats next year.
Our campaign was distinguished by a number of factors:
• It was a campaign driven entirely by people power. We had teams of people walking the streets, literally walking the talk right across the land.
• Our inspiration and motivation was clearly generated by our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the constitutional foundation of our land. And in this respect, we are proud to uphold the Treaty principles expressing commitment to oversight, responsibility, authority, control, sovereignty, of te Ao Maori, the Maori world.
• And thirdly, and most powerfully, our party was born of the dreams and aspirations of tangata whenua to achieve self-determination for whänau, hapü and iwi within their own land; to speak with a strong, independent and united voice; and to live according to kaupapa (values and philosophies) handed down by our ancestors.
The logo we wear reminds us of these commitments.
By calling us maori with the small m, rather than the capital letter, Maori – we are expressing our commitment to the word, maori, as natural. We choose to uphold indigenous values to ensure our country maintains its natural beauty and is home for all New Zealanders.
It is natural also to elevate the Treaty as the founding document of our country and it is natural to nurture the relationship that has evolved between our peoples. As tangata whenua and Treaty partners we have the responsibility to ensure that all peoples that make New Zealand their home are treated with fairness and dignity.
We are distinguished therefore by our policy priorities; by our philosophical underpinnings, and by our name.
In closing, I want to leave with one distinctive feature of the current approach towards engaging with Maori.
The relationship and confidence and supply agreement that we signed up to between the National Party and the Maori Party is described as forming the basis for “constructive and mana-enhancing working relationships”.
I think this is one of the particular aspects of note, in thinking of the importance of inclusive parliaments. The investment in relationships which are mana-enhancing, is a marker of the new Government’s approach for engaging with Maori; and it is an investment in quality communication and dialogue; in inclusion; and in the integrity and the strength for both parties to stand united, while also agreeing to disagree.
The commitment we have to being the strong and influential voice of Maori in parliament has also seen us establish an ongoing engagement with key stakeholders such as the Iwi Leaders Group, to oversee the development of policy options to address issues that have been raised by Māori.
We uphold as vital the ability to take seriously a commitment to conversation, to dialogue, to hearing other points of view.
If that commitment, whether it be with the Maori Party Ministers; with the Maori Party as a political party; or with whanau, hapu and iwi, is genuine – can be sustained in a genuine and meaningful way, then we have every confidence that there is both the opportunity and the environment for achieving effective outcomes for iwi.
Of course, we haven’t won every battle. There are always compromises which we have had to bear in the journey for advancing development opportunities for our people.
And there will be those times, when the agree to disagree clause, comes in useful.
However, while the Cabinet conventions encourage us to maintain collective responsibility in relation to our Ministerial portfolios, it is extremely apparent to us, that there is every opportunity to pursue the initiatives we seek as the strong and independent Maori voice of Parliament.
The successful campaign to establish a national Maori flag is a classic case in point where it flies side by side with that of the NZ, or the Maori Economic summit Dr Sharples set up last year to provide a forum by which we can demonstrate that iwi Maori are willing to work together, and with the Government, to fully contribute to the nation's economic recovery.
My colleague, Tariana, has recently been appointed Minister Responsible for Whanau Ora, and is full steam ahead with an approach which is motivated by the goal of Whanau Ora – literally the full health and wellbeing of the collective.
At the same time we have Private Members Bills being considered by the House; we are actively involved in a variety of select committees; we contribute to every debate in the House – there has been no Bill out of the 600 or so that have come before the House in our time – where the Maori voice has not rung out.
There is still a great deal to do, but there is no denying that our influence and our credibility as a party is gradually having an impact.
And probably the greatest achievement of it all, is found in our email feedback from the thousands of people who receive our releases, speeches and statements. Some days, like yesterday, they instantly react, acknowledging the momentous celebration of Government’s position on reversing the former Government’s opposition to the Declaration. Other days they send long thoughtful responses which challenge our thinking and make us look further into any one particular bill.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our experiences with the Inter-parliamentary union. We greatly appreciate the chance to learn from each other, to listen, and to participate in this international indigenous forum.
ENDS
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