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Download AudioTe Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene says the passing of his bill creating seats for Ngāi Tahu on Canterbury Regional Council triggered a denial of service attack on parliament’s email servers.
The law empowers mana whenua through Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to appoint two councillors with full voting rights.
National opposed the bill, even though it set the precedent by appointing a Ngāi Tahu commissioner alongside six Crown appointments when it sacked the former council.
Mr Tirikatene says the sky hasn’t fallen.
“Although you’d think from the 2 million spam bot emails that we got bombarded with something was afoot but thankfully the defences were in place at parliament and likewise there was plenty of support and our whole line-up of speakers were very compelling in terms of the very outdated and ignorant arguments that were put up by the Opposition,” he says.
Rino Tirikatene says opposition to the bill shows the contrast between the New Zealand of yesterday and the Aotearoa of today where even conservative councils realise their decision-making is improved by having mana whenua at the table.
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