Monte Ohia Jnr passing a great loss for the nation.

The Kiwi Party
Press Release
June 14, 2008

Kiwi Party Leader Larry Baldock asked the 80 attendees at their Auckland Regional conference today to observe a minutes silence to pay their respects to the passing of Monte Ohia Jnr on Thursday.

"Monte was a man of enormous wisdom, vision, and compassion.  It is a real loss to us all in this nation, and on behalf of the Board of Management of the Kiwi Party I express our deep sorrow at his passing, and wish to convey our condolences and sympathy to Linda and all the Ohia whanau. His passing will also be a huge loss to his colleagues in the Maori Party, and we share their grief at this loss of a mighty Totara falling too early.

"Monte’s wisdom and humility has touched and changed my life on many occasions.
I was personally looking forward to seeing Monte take his place in the House of Representatives, where he would have made an enormous contribution with all the experience he would have drawn upon from his life to this point," said Mr Baldock.

In the light of recent announcements by some political parties about holding a referendum on doing away with the Maori Seats, Kiwi Party Leader Larry Baldock reaffirmed the Party’s policy of recognising that Maori must be allowed to make that decision, not a simple majority of New Zealanders in a referendum.

“As a Party we are deeply committed to giving the people of New Zealand the opportunity to have their say in referenda on many issues, but in regard to the Maori seats we believe it would only be a further breach of the Treaty to remove them without Maori consent,” he said.

Ends

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