Māori Party Co-Leader said today’s Te Tiriti Policy release is a 25-year strategy that would bring about major change for Māori.

“Our policies are designed by Māori for Māori to Māori,” Tamihere said.

“They are not a 3 year lolly scramble. We must build a Māori middle class and we must break out of a welfare dependency. We must move from poverty to employment. Only we Māori can bring that change.”

The Māori Party will:

1. Commit all Māori to the Māori electoral roll by 2023.
2. Entrench all Māori electorates.
3. Establish a Māori Parliament.
4. Implement all Matike Mai recommendations for constitutional transformation
5. Overhaul the Te Tiriti settlement process and end the fiscal envelope.
6. Insert relativity clauses into all Te Tiriti settlements, to ensure all iwi have parity with Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui.
7. Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown, and implement all unaddressed WAI claim recommendations.
8. Abolish “full and final” settlements and the “large natural groupings” approach to recognising mana whenua groups.
9. Return conservation land to whānau, hapū and iwi Māori.
10. Introduce a first right of refusal policy for mana whenua when private land of historical significance comes up for sale – like Ihumātao.
11. Remove the racist provision that allows for referenda to overturn council’s decisions to establish Māori wards.
12. Establish a Parliamentary Commissioner for Te Tiriti o Waitangi to provide oversight of the Crown.

These demands are contained in the Māori Party Mana Motuhake policy.

“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.”

Released at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where Northern Māori signed the founding document with the Crown, was a fitting place for the Māori Party to release one of its flagship policies.

“We all want what was contracted for in Te Tiriti to be delivered.”

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2009/MANA_MOTUHAKE_POLICY_290920.docx

© Scoop Media