August 07, 2023
Know your real mates says dovish Tamihere
Māori Party president John Tamihere says New Zealand needs to avoid entangled into other counties’ conflicts with China.
The party has a platform of military neutrality, including staying out of the new AUKUS alliance and Australia’s nuclear submarine programme.
Mr Tamihere says it reflects the call by Sir Robert Bom Gillies, the last surviving member of 28 Maori Battalion, that he does not want to send his mokopuna to war.
He says China’s military conflicts have been about securing its borders rather than attacking other countries.
“I don’t get this hate on China when it’s our largest trading partner and our so-called trading partners block and place large tariffs on our exports to them, and in doing that they’re not mates but they make out we’re all mates,” Mr Tamihere says.
He says the Defence Force should be a peace keeping force, not an attack force, and its military spending should be on things that serve the mana motuhake of the population here in Aotearoa.