December 19, 2023
Jones push back on treaty creep
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones says the party wants to counter some of the overblown rhetoric about Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
He says the party will be at Ratana and Waitangi, where many of the new coalition Government’s policies are expected to come under fire.
He says Aotearoa Tuatahi has deeper concerns about the economic challenges facing the country rather than fashionable new interpretations of the treaty.
“I’m going to call time through our part n this frothy rhetoric that the treaty is a charter of Indigenous sovereignty. That is a view people are entitled to argue. It is not the view of New Zealand First and you cannot continually revise the treaty or tug it in all nooks and crannies of parliamentary legislation without standing back and saying ‘bold on a minute, is this actually enriching, emboldening or enjoining our nation to a common purpose?’ No it is not,” Mr Jones says.
He says the Waitangi Tribunal is coming up to the 50 year mark, and it’s legitimate for a Government to review its writ and if necessary change it to something more appropriate to the time.