August 29, 2023
Māori vote tinkering ignores treaty deal
Māori Party president John Tamihere says repealing the law allowing local bodies to create Māori wards takes away Māori rights guaranteed by the Treaty of Waitiangi.
National’s leader Chris Luxon and ACT’s David Seymour have come out against the provisions that allow voters on the Maori electora roll to elect councillors to represent their interests.
Mr Tamihere says Maori seats add to a council’s governance ability rather than detracts from it.
He says the race-baiters ignore New Zealand’s constitutional history.
“Government did not get their rights through discovery. They did not get their rights from conquest. They got their rights through consent. Our ancestors signed a deal saying yes pakeha, you can come and live here, and yes you can share, but we must be equal, and you must protect our rights to our own rangatiratanga. He’s rewriting the law by taking things away from their obligations to the treaty,” Mr Tamihere says.
He says Maori won’t sit by and see hard-won rights being taken away by a change of government.