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Posts Tagged ‘treaty of waitangi’

Who is Selling out Now?

Posted by Nanaia Mahuta on January 31st, 2012

As we head towards Waitangi Day a core issue for the Government is about to be tested. Pitching the Sale of State Owned Energy Companies will be fraught with subtle yet powerful undertones that will test Nationals mettle and it’s real desire to forge a long lasting relationship with Maori.

The easy route would be to complete the round of consultation hui and satisfy the Governments ‘obligation’ to consult. But, I suspect iwi and Maori are well past the box-ticking mentality.

Perhaps even some concessions that would see c.9 of the SoE Act being substituted for something ‘more meaningful’ to the current political landscape, the PM may even a propose to iwi a shareholding interest in SoEs (albeit too small to be effective).

But the Real Issue confronting all New Zealanders – Maori and Paakeha alike is that we have a vested interest in these SoEs not because of some romantic view that the State knows best, but that we must take leadership and derive the benefits from more efficient and high performing companies that deliver to us as citizens. Privatisation in itself will be a shortsighted gain with very few people benefiting – the risk being greater disparity between ‘haves and have nots’.

Waitangi Day is a time to see who walks their talk, a debate on retaining a Treaty of Waitangi clause in the SoE Act must not detract from the central issue of keeping kiwi assets in kiwi hands. Now is a time to have Maori on your side!

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Oil extraction from the Northland Basin

Posted by Kelvin Davis on July 11th, 2010

Lying under 100,000 square kilometres of seabed off the west coast of Northland is an estimated one trillion barrels of oil equivalent.

This is the seabed that shortly no one will own because under the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act it will become “public domain”.

Bids are being sought for “petroleum exploration permits.” (Closing date 18 August)

Maori should have been involved in the process to determine who wins these permits. They haven’t.

This means the Crown alone gets to decide which third party over the next five years, can poke around on the Seabed, looking for oil.

1. The Treaty of Waitangi was a partnership between the Crown and Maori. Maori should be sitting at the table with the Crown participating in the process of making decisions in regards to anything to do with this resource.

They aren’t. The Treaty is still being dishonoured.

2. Under the repeal the F&S no one owns the seabed but the Crown still reserves the right to decide who does what to the Seabed, when its done and where its done.

Sounds like ownership to me.

The Crown will still have the final say therefore the repeal is a joke. 

3. Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People says:
“States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”

Free, prior and informed consent has not been obtained.

The United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights has been treated with contempt by the Government who endorsed it on the world stage just a couple of months back.

This is a perfect example of why Maori appear to be in a constant state of grievance.

The Treaty has again been dishonoured. The Foreshore and Seabed repeal is a farce . The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is being treated with contempt.

A contemporary case of Maori being shafted.

Solution?

Involve Maori in the process of allocating oil exploration bids.

Simple.

My guess is that Maori are only too willing to make sure all New Zealanders benefit from the extraction of this resource.

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F&S repeal – will it really help?

Posted by Kelvin Davis on January 12th, 2010

There’s been a bit of talk about rape and pillage recently.

Our Maori Party parliamentary colleague says it’s been our land, foreshore and seabed that have been raped and pillaged.

I see community leader and Black Power life member Dennis O’Reilly believes the real battle today is the fight against the drug P.

Others will say that something else is the issue for Maori. None will be wrong.

The fact is bad stuff has happened to Maori over the last couple of hundred years which has led to Maori being at the bottom of the heap. We are generally dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant than any other group of people in New Zealand. We know the problem, but what’s the solution?

Well let’s repeal the Foreshore and Seabed and put the F&S into Maori title. We can be dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant at the beach. That’ll make all the difference. At least we’ll be dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant on our own turf and surf.

Let’s get rid of P. That crap is a scourge and along with alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana is killing our people. But it’s still only a symptom of what the real issues are.

The real issue for Maori is ourselves.

We generally live with this big chip on our shoulders.

I’m Maori, so I have every right to be a victim. Personally, I can’t be bothered.

We can accuse all and sundry of raping and pillaging our land, foreshore ad seabed – but we as Maori have done a helluva a lot to ourselves too. We would do well to hold a mirror up to our own faces, but it’s a helluva lot easier to blame those bloody pakehas.

We have a really simple solution to all our woes. It goes like this – every Maori child born from the start of this new decade (and earlier) be loved, fed and educated so that he or she may go on to become a successful leader, and become extremely wealthy and/ or influential. Then when he or she see an injustice against our people, use that wealth and influence to correct the situation.

That’s what pakeha do. We could learn from them.

Didn’t Sir Apirana Ngata say something along these lines a few years back? If we’d listened then we wouldn’t be in this mess.

By 2040, the 200th year after the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi we could have thousands of wealthy and influential 30 year old Maoris. Imagine that – a generation of Maori capable of leading the world.

By all means keep up the fight to correct injustices – but can we honestly say we’ve put an equal effort into sorting our own crap out?

Feeding, loving and educating our kids is a good start.

Our apprenticeships into the world of wealth and influence need not be by way of drugs, violence, alcohol and court appearances.

Of course we could carry on like we are – and be even dumber, sicker, poorer, more pissed, drugged and pregnant,.

But at least we’ll have our Foreshore and Seabed.

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Spectrum a treaty right – I don’t think so

Posted by Trevor Mallard on December 23rd, 2009

Back in 2000 I was acting Minister of Communication while Paul Swain was sick. I made it very clear at the time that the Crown did not accept that the radio spectrum was an asset that attracted rights for Maori from the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Frankly I thought, and still think, that that concept is nonsense.

We will shift sometime in the next decade from analogue to digital TV. That frees up bandwidth for mobile phone or wireless broadband use. It is worth about $300m.

The idea that we get trapped in the analogue dark ages because of a specious treaty claim has no appeal at all. Nor does the idea that the crown pays out taxpayer funds to settle the claim.

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Filed under: M?ori, broadband, broadcasting, coalition management, comms & IT, finance, media, national
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