April 20, 2022
UNDRIP not scary says Jackson
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson says people shouldn’t be scared of facing up to their responsibilities under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Government will tomorrow reveal the next steps towards implementation of the Declaration.
National and ACT leaders Christopher Luxon and David Seymour have attempted to make political hay of the process, focusing on an advisory document He Puapua.
Mr Jackson says it was the National-ACT-Māori Party Government which signed New Zealand up to the Declaration in 2010, and he’s now having to deal with the consequences.
“We shouldn’t be scared off about different ideas that come forward from people. Co-management and co-governance is not something that we should be scared of. Co-governance is something that’s on the table and on the Government’s agenda, as it was on the previous Government’s agenda, and all of a sudden Seymour and them are running scared of it. What are they scared of?” he says.
Mr Jackson says Auckland’s Independent Māori Statutory Board, which was created by ACT, shows co-governance need not just be limited to mountains and rivers and treaty settlements.