Opposing the Treaty Principles Bill

Tena Koutou Katoa, ko Anjum Rahman toku ingoa, ko Kirikiriroa ahau

Acknowledge mana whenua where I sit: Ngati Wairere, Ngati Haua and Ngati Mahanga

Acknowledge Kingitanga and Te Arikinui, Kuini Ngā Wai Hono I te po. Also to acknowledge the passing of Kingi Tuheitia.Because I am in the Waikato, I will quote the words of Kingi Potatau Te Wherowhero, the first Māori King, at the time of his coronation: 

Kotahi te kohao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro ma, te miro pango, te miro whero.

Through the eye of the needle, pass the white thread, the black thread, and the red thread.

Acknowledge that I’m taking space from tangata whenua, and that indicates the fundamental flaw of this process of trying to renegotiate a treaty without equitable processes. It is a Crown-enforced process that the other party never asked for or consented to. Nor did they get a chance to co-design process – rights for all were taken away as soon as the Bill was conceived.

My roots and historical context. Treaty of Hudeibiya: unfavourable clauses, but the community kept to it. We honour our commitments. This is part of our faith and our traditions.

Te Tiriti was in no way onerous on the Crown, and shouldn’t have been onerous on Māori. It was supposed to be an equal partnership (at the very least) that protected land, forest, waters and taonga, as well as tino rangatiratanga.

Tangata whenua stuck to their side of Te Tiriti, the Crown is the one who hasn’t honoured it – pages of the Tiriti were almost lost, a couple are actually gone. Continual breaches by the Crown through legislation: the oppression and dispossession was all legal, when very few Māori were in government. They were able to take power through mass migration and importation of troops – imagine how you would all feel if that happened now. Breaches of Te Tiriti has continued right up to this day and if I had time, I would go through our detailed 27 page presentation that lists all the legislative breaches by the Crown to 2023. And we could do almost the same again with how many months this coalition has been in government.

Tangata whenua honoring of Te Tiriti: Māori battalion, participation in an enforced democratic system, using all Crown-mandated methods available to them to seek rights domestically, accepting pathetically miniscule Tiriti settlements that represent 1 to 2% of what they lost.

Ethnic communities: Treaty is the document which gave us our right to be here, and from which we seek our continuing sense of belonging. Not only that, but if permission to ignore indigenous rights is permission to ignore all of our rights.

Racist impact of putting this Bill forward. Making discrimination more acceptable. Taking away tino rangatiratanga in the few spaces they it had been gained. The debate has not been good or healthy for a huge number of people, it has caused active harm in terms of their personal safety and wellbeing.

Politicians have been using the pain of our communities to self-promote, and have refused to acknowledge or recognise that pain and harm.

The party leading this debate on behalf of the coalition government got 8% of the vote. Other coalition parties were weak enough to allow this Bill to proceed and have conceded the space, which shows their lack of electoral strength, resolve and respect for basic rights.

They have been largely silent, and silence is complicity.

Indeed they have hidden behind this Bill to pass other legislation and regulation that strips rights from tangata whenua. S7AA, shutting down of Te Aka Whai Ora, Continuing the ongoing breaches by the Crown.

If I and other members of ethnic minority communities allow you to do this without speaking out, other groups will continue to receive terrible treatment. Issue effects everyone. Allow breakdown of democratic process in one place, then effects everything.

Your system is giving unequal and different outcomes. You haven’t, over 160 years been able to fix that. Look at life expectancy rates, home ownership, incarceration rates, pay equity data, leadership positions, educational achievement. The Crown systems are treating people differently in the impact. Even when they might legally proclaim equality, in practice you have not achieve it. Had Te Tiriti been honoured, we would have achieved it.

Where tangata whenua have tino rangatiratanga, they include everyone where they have the resources to do so eg Te Kohao Health.

Individualism vs collectivism – this a means to take over collective property rights, to reduce the ability of corporate interests to damage papatuanuku. Collective rights and country is not a corporate.

What protections are in place for our mokopuna? The harms of what we damage today is going to to affect them the most.

Toitu te Tiriti.