April 24, 2020
Put up or shut up Te Aho tells Nash
An organiser of checkpoints in the Eastern Bay of Plenty says Police Minister Stuart Nash should insist police do their job to keep communities safe from COVID-19 rather than wrongly call the rāhui illegal.
Willie Te Aho says Te Whānau ā Apanui’s checkpoint at Hawai is still picking up people travelling for non-essential reasons in breach of the Alert Level 4 rules – and Opotiki police are doing nothing to stop those people.
He says if the minister truly thinks what Te Whānau ā Apanui and other iwi are doing is illegal, he should test it in court before the drop to Level 3.
"It is absolutely right for Te Whānau ā Apanui to issue a rahui on our land and what protects that right is the Bill of Rights that basically says we have the freedom to practise our religious ways and that is reinforced also by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples where there is an issue of life or death, and that is the case here," Mr Te Aho says.
He says there have been instances of whānau members returning from places which have COVID-19, and the border stop has been a way to ensure they go straight into isolation to reduce any risk of infection.
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