Speech: Head of State Referenda Bill

Head of State Referenda Bill
Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga
Wednesday 21 April 2010; 9.15pm

If the Standing Orders were able to be relaxed just for this one night I would have had the perfect t-shirt to wear to this debate.

I’m thinking of the t-shirt which says honour the treaty.

Honouring the treaty means a great deal to this nation.

It means that for our indigenous people we will, as we did before the signing, be able to exercise our sovereignty, our mana motuhake, over all things that are ours.

To draw on the wisdom of Judge Durie, honouring the Treaty is, however, not just a bill of rights for tangata whenua. It is also a bill of rights for those who belong to the land by right of that treaty, tangata tiriti.

Yet despite the policy and legislative changes that have taken place to better recognise the Treaty of Waitangi, shortfalls remain which adversely affect the lives of whānau, hapū and iwi; and which compromise our potential as a nation.

The Muriwhenua Fishing Report from the Waitangi Tribunal of June 1988 expresses this concern most clearly when talking of the issues around the practical application of the Treaty for the modern world.

The Tribunal’s Report says “any impracticality today results not from the Treaty but from our failure to heed its terms. The important point is that there was, and still is, room for an agreement to be made”.

These shortfalls also affect the quality of cross-cultural relationships and the operations of society more generally.

But despite these limitations, the answer does not lie in disregarding the Treaty and embarking on a process of debate to establish a process by which the House of Representatives appoints the head of State.

The sole purpose of this Bill is to provide for the holding of two referenda on proposals to reconsider the matter of New Zealand’s Head of State.

The key concern for us in the Maori Party is that the proposal is not ‘grounded’ in the Treaty of Waitangi, but separate from it. As such we believe the Bill has the potential to make the Maori/Crown relationship obsolete which would be a major concern for many iwi.

It is our utmost belief that enhancing respect for and giving better effect to the Treaty of Waitangi will enhance the quality of life for all.

The ratification of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the ideal that has come through the words and actions of generations of Maori leaders.

It was written into the Kohimarama Covenant, attended by some two hundred chiefs in 1860. Indeed, every iwi has their leaders and their legacy, bound up in the commitment to enshrining the Treaty in law.

We believe the time is right to entrench Te Tiriti o Waitangi in all legislation, so that decision making on matters concerning Maori, and the Maori and Crown together, is shared with us all.

As an example, the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act would be re-drafted to ensure that Articles 1 and 2 guarantee our mana and rangatiratanga and the ability to exercise power sharing on all issues that affect us as tangata whenua.

The Maori Party therefore has a major concern around embarking on a process of debate about the Head of State in terms of the potential for creating vulnerability around the status of the Treaty.

The Maori Party is the only political party where the Treaty underpins its actions through kaupapa tuku iho. The Maori Party is calling for open and informed debate for constitutional change.

It was part of our manifesto that we would establish a Constitutional Commission to begin a constitutional review aimed at, among other things, drafting arrangements that give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi. It was also a key policy objective of ours to appoint a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty of Waitangi.

Accordingly as part of the confidence and supply agreement between National and the Maori Party, both parties agreed to: the establishment of a group to consider constitutional issues including Maori representation.

There has been much talk about documents of aspiration in the last 24 hours. What better precedent do we have for understanding aspiration than the promise articulated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi for a new relationship between Pakeha and Maori, a relationship wherein the rangatiranga of Maori would be enhanced and our respective cultures and autonomy would remain intact?

It is an aspiration that we will continue to uphold, and it is in that context that we must vote against this Bill.