January 25, 2024
Ratana boos boost Jones
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones has invited his critics to come to Waitangi if they want to talk about the future of the Treaty of Waitangi.
In response to booing and claims by kaikōrero that he and leader Winston Peters were slaves destroying the Māori language, he told yesterday’s pōwhiri at Ratana Pa they were there to celebrate the prophet and his movement, and Waitangi was where he would debate treaty policy.
He said having the distinction of being the first politician to be booed at Ratana would not stop that debate.
“Please do not think that the volume of language denouncing either me or my leader is going to cause matua Shane Jones to shut up,” he said.
Speakers referred to the coalition Government as a three-headed taniwha – but one of those taniwha, David Seymour, did not front to defend his bill asking for a referendum on the treaty, and dismissed the annual Ratana commemoration as a church service.