The Māori Party today launched a radical 25-year plan that includes all Māori joining the Māori electorate roll over the next three years, setting up a Māori parliament and all conservation land being handed to hapū and iwi.
“Our policies are designed by Māori for Māori to Māori,” Māori Party co-leader John Tamihere said at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the party launched the Generational Mana Motuhake Programme. “They are not a three-year lolly scramble.
“We must build a Māori middle class and we must break out of welfare dependency. We must move from poverty to employment. Only we Māori can bring that change.”
Fiscal envelope crumpled
Tamihere said the strategy would bring about major change for Māori.
He said the party wanted to see Matike Mai recommendations for constitutional transformation implemented and the Te Tiriti settlement process overhauled, with the fiscal envelope dumped. Relativity clauses would be incorporated into all Te Tiriti settlements, to ensure all iwi had parity with Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui. Waitangi Tribunal recommendations would be binding on the Crown, and all unaddressed WAI claim recommendations.
Tamihere said the party wanted all “full and final” settlements abolished along with the “large natural groupings” approach to recognising mana whenua groups. Conservation land would be returned to whānau, hapū and iwi Māori.
Tamihere said the party wanted a first right of refusal policy for mana whenua when private land of historical significance comes up for sale – as at Ihumātao. The “racist” provision that allows for referenda to overturn councils’ decisions to establish Māori wards would go too. And a Parliamentary Commissioner for Te Tiriti o Waitangi would provide oversight of the Crown.
“Article 1 of Te Tiriti awarded custodianship to the Crown,” Tamihere said. “We have never gave up ownership. Article 2 gave Māori the right to total control of all their domains, including land and water and Article 3 asserted that Māori would be treated equally with non-Maori.”
“That is certainly not the case in 2020 New Zealand.”