March 18, 2022
Iwi water role too much for Peters
New Zealand First leader Winston Peter says giving iwi half the seats on the boards running the country’s water infrastructure will do nothing for ordinary Māori.
The veteran politician has reemerged into the limelight to fight the latest proposal for the Three Waters reform, which has been tweaked by a working party of mayors and iwi leaders to include greater iwi participation.
He says iwi are making demands in the name of the mass of Māori who are never consulted.
“Whatever they have proposed is not going to advance the cause of ordinary working-class Māori men, women and families, but just the elite. I’ve seen it for a long time. I’ve seen all sorts of demands being made and when it’s all over, Māori housing, Māori education, Māori access to first-world health and first world wages are the things that have been neglected,” Mr Peters says.
He says despite Labour’s denials, it seems to be following the course laid down in the He Puapua document for implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – a document which was kept from New Zealand First when it was part of the last Government.