Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi is questioning the Government’s priorities, saying ministers are focused on culture-war debates while serious threats remain for Māori workers, whānau, whenua and taonga.
Waititi says political debate over definitions of a man and a woman does nothing to address the real pressures facing whānau, including unsafe workplaces, attacks on conservation land and the growing misuse of artificial intelligence.
He says changes to health and safety legislation must be judged against the reality that young men, including many Māori, continue to be killed and injured in dangerous industries such as forestry.
Te Pāti Māori is expected to push back against any reform that weakens worker protections, warning that lessons from workplace tragedies must not be watered down in the name of reducing compliance for business.
Waititi is also taking aim at the Conservation Amendment Bill, known as the Bits and Bobs Bill, saying the Government’s approach treats whenua and taiao as an economic asset rather than a living inheritance.
He says Māori have never seen conservation land as waste land, and any proposal affecting public conservation land must uphold Te Tiriti, mana whenua rights and the protection of biodiversity for future generations.
The party is also raising concerns about artificial intelligence, after a disturbing case reported on Marae involving a Tairāwhiti whānau whose images were allegedly used on an AI-generated pornography site.
Waititi says Māori cultural property is also at risk, with concerns that Māori music, language, imagery and mātauranga are being scraped by AI systems and repackaged without consent, attribution or benefit to the people and communities they come from.
Te Pāti Māori says stronger protections are needed for personal identity, cultural intellectual property, whakapapa, reo, waiata, moko, mātauranga and other taonga in the digital age.
Waititi says the issue is about mana, consent and tino rangatiratanga, and the law must catch up before more whānau and cultural taonga are exploited.
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