November 03, 2015
Land value more than money
Labour’s associate primary industries spokesperson Meka Whaitiri says Maori land has a greater value than just the economic return that can be gained from it.
The Ikaroa Rawhiti MP is concerned Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell is pushing on with the government’s Maori land law reform programme without having a clear idea of how the law works.
The Waitangi Tribunal will next week hear a claim against the process used to write the new Te Ture Whenua Maori Bill.
Claimants say many of the proposed changes would breach the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Ms Whaitiri says Mr Flavell is going along with the government’s economic growth agenda rather than standing up for Maori values.
"Whenua Maori, it is about whakapapa, it is about belonging, it's not an economic commodity some would like to think it is, and so I believe you can, it's a different kind of economic development in this country if people open up to the idea that you can have culture on one hand or whakapapa and you also can utilise the whenua to provide some sort of income to whanau hapu," she says.
Meka Whaitiri would like to see Maori land trusts and incorporations doing more to create jobs and training opportunities for their young people.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com