May 09, 2016
Judd stand pushes racism to surface
Maori Affairs Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says New Plymouth Mayor Andrew Judd’s stand for Maori has shown the racism under the surface of life in Aotearoa.
Mr Judd says he won’t stand again because of the abuse heaped on him and his family for trying to get Maori representation on the council.
Mr Flavell says it would have been easier for the mayor to have let things go along as they were, but he learned enough about the history of the province to want to make a principled stand – to what seems an inevitable cost.
"We get along quite nicely as a country until you scratch the surface of the inherent racism that is in past of our country. This man has gone out to say we’ve got to start thinking about our responsibilities to te iwi Maori on the back of the Treaty of Waitangi and we’ve got to start thinking about the combined history we have throughout this country," he says.
Mr Flavell says Andrew Judd had earned huge respect from Maori in Taranaki for telling things how they are.
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