Te Tōrangapū Māori, the Māori Party, is the independent Māori voice on the stage where all matters of importance to the Nation attract attention and debate. In these past four years the Party has emerged from being a suggestion to having a distinctive presence on this stage. Hardly a day passes without an act in our Nation’s history being played and being the subject of debate and public scrutiny. The motu is the audience; that audience is the judge and it hands down its judgement every three years. It will do this again in a year’s time.

Leading up to September 2005 when our four members of Parliament were elected, we promised that through these MPs the Māori Party would be an independent Māori voice in Parliament. Have we been that? What is our future?

When our tūpuna and the Crown agreed on Te Tiriti o Waitangi both signatories knew that they were creating a situation in which a natural tension between Kāwanatanga and Tino Rangatiratanga would exist. This has been the reality and it will continue. Both partners must be vigilant in monitoring the tension and searching for reconciliation of the two forces.

Kawanatanga has dictated the outcomes of the tension. Reconciliation of Kawanatanga and Tino Rangatiratanga has been elusive.

We have seen in the short life of the Māori Party that it is the independent Māori voice on matters of national and international importance. We have seen, also, that the Māori Party can be influential. We have much to do contribute to the Nation’s future prosperity, including the survival of Māori as a people. Our people, Te kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea, spent a thousand years in complete isolation, developed a distinctive society and prospered. Forty years ago, a museum in Chicago had an exhibit of a “perfect human specimen” labelled “New Zealand Māori”. I haven’t been back to see if we are still exhibited with this description. Let’s remember that whakapapa tells us that “we are what our tūpuna were” and our future can be the same if we commit to ensuring the survival of our people as a distinct cultural group.

Our two years in Parliament

After twenty five months of activity

• the Māori Party now occupies a place at the centre of the Nation’s debating chamber

• the Nation expects that our MPs will express a view on evry matter of importance that reaches the floor of this chamber

• our MPs and their families justify responding positively to the heavy demands of office because they take the Nation’s expectations in this regard seriously

• the interest and support of our 21,000 members has been maintained

• we are encouraged to commit further to political activity to contribute to the survival and wellbeing of our people.

We fulfilled our commitment to Te kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea to prepare a Bill to repeal the foreshore and seabed legislation. This Bill is on the legislative agenda of Parliament and bigger parties cannot that they are denying their own principles in opposing our Bill. We remain firmly committed to repeal in the first instance or to major amendments in the second. Confiscation of Māori property rights and the denial of due process to the Māori partner to Te Tiriti o Waitangi will remain features of the tension that resides between Kawanatanga and Tino Rangatiratanga. Our MPs have taken the solution to Parliament.

Our four MPs have consulted with our people as they promised to do. They have done this in person during parliamentary recesses and in responding to the huge number of invitations to speak.

We have supported national and international endeavours to raise the wellbeing and political influence of tangata whenua through our opposition to unfair police action against Māori, through the promotion of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and through public pronouncements and travel to oppose the Australian ill treatment of their tangata whenua.

In Parliament we have contributed to the debate on every legislative proposal that has come before Parliament through analyses that are based on our world view as our membership asked us to do.

The Caucus of the Tikanga Māori House meets on Tuesday mornings when Parliament is in session. In attendance are our four Members of Parliament [1], three senior staff members [2] and the President [3]; the Caucus is convened by the Whip [4]. These meetings of Caucus are complemented by weekly meetings of the Co-Leaders and a high level of interaction between the MPs and senior staff due to the closeness of their offices [5]. In the last twelve months during three periods in which Parliament was in recess, our four members have carried out coordinated visits to the three Māori electorates not held by the Māori Party as well as spending time in their own rohe.

At every Caucus meeting upcoming Bills are discussed with the help of analyses done by staff and positions identified, consultations responsibilities are assigned and speeches are allocated according to portfolio responsibilities. Reports from the MPs on activities around the electorates (their own and buddy electorates) are received along with reports on meetings of the National Council on other important goings on around our membership.

The kaupapa tuku iho have been important in guiding Caucus to reaching a consensus. The kaupapa/tikanga framework is values driven, natural source of innovation when facing tough problems.

The independent Māori voice in Parliament

Speeches made by our MPs on Bills (for the 1st, 2nd or 3rd reading), general debates, urgent debates and other parliamentary debates far exceed speeches delivered by the other most prominent Māori speakers in the House. Since first entering the House late in 2005, our four MPs have delivered 387 speeches, an average of just on 100 speeches, 97 to be precise [6]. This compares with exactly 30, on average, for the other most prominent speakers of Māori ancestry in Parliament. That is, each of our MPs occupies the speaking stage three times as often as the other four most active Māori speakers.

Our 387 speeches have been across all of the issues that have come before the house in proposed legislation. We can say,

• not only has there been wide diversity in the topics covered in our speeches,

• not only has the content been compelling for the reason, history and evidence presented in our speeches,

• not only has the flow of language and the oratory been of the highest parliamentary performance in delivering our speeches

but, in addition, they have been imbued with kaupapa tuku iho that underpin the Party’s Constitution and our many activities, that make us distinctive and that contribute to our survival as a people.

In addition to these 387 speeches in Parliament each of our MPs has spoken at dozens of conferences and other gatherings.

The independent Māori Voter in Parliament

Relative to the Greens, Labour and National, our four MPs have recorded votes as follows on all bills [7] in the current Parliament, the 48th:

Māori MPs voted [8]

the same differently

Party as from

Greens 108 times 55 times

Labour 89 “ 80 “

National 55 “ 112 “

These figures reveal our independence in the House. We can note that

(i) there was no single party with which we aligned our votes,

(ii) we collaborated more with the Greens than with any other party by 2 (same) to 1 (different),

(iii) it was the opposite for National, 2 (different) to 1 (same) and

(iv) about half the time we saw eye to eye with Labour.

There were 23 votes on which our four MPs abstained and three occasions when we split our vote. Accordingly, we relied little on the abstention for expressing our view.

The Tikanga Māori House

Our four members of Parliament, their operating procedures described above, our 21,000 members and their networks, including rōpū tuku iho (whānau, hapū and iwi), are the foundations blocks for the Tikanga Māori House that has emerged. This is the House that our tūpuna tried to fashion a century ago. It is now a reality.

We can vote for the Tikanga Māori House simply by giving the “party vote” to the Māori Party. Every vote for the Māori Party is a vote for the Tikanga Māori House.

Our four MPs, their staff of researchers and writers and our members who willingly respond to calls for help have revealed to the Nation what the Party means by committing itself to being an independent Māori voice in Parliament. The figures on speeches delivered and voting patterns tell the story.

But how strong are we? How influential? The quality of our speeches, the effectiveness of our consultation with other parties and how we use our small number of votes determine our strength and influence. As we approach the general election in 2008 our attention needs to go on increasing our number of seats in Parliament.

How can the Tikanga Māori House be more prominent? How can it become influential enough to be a determining player for more issues before Parliament. By this I mean having enough votes to determine the outcome in Parliament. The more seats we have the more influential we will be.

With four seats and the remainder of seats spread as they are now, we are mildly influential when Parliament calls for the vote. With all seven of the Māori seats we would have greater influence. With

• twelve seats (if we attracted 10 percent of the party vote) and

• the other 108 seats in Parliament divided among the other political parties in proportions and with voting tendencies more or less as they are now

the reconciliation of Kawanatanga and Tino Rangatiratanga in ways acceptable to the Māori signatory would be closer to being a reality than ever. Each partner to Te Tiriti o Waitangi would be dependent on the other.

We need to invite the Nation, particularly our people to vote for the Tikanga Māori House. They can do this simply by giving the Māori Party their party vote.

Spreading the word on the Tikanga Māori House is one of our many challenges for the next twelve months. Kia kaha tātou.

The Next Twelve months

Later in this hui we will address remits from our electorates and, in doing so, return to some of the themes touched on above. Also later we will give attention to the work of our Kāhui Pūkenga and each of us will be called on to make commitments to many tasks to ensure our success in the 2008 general election.

There is much to be done.

Whatarangi

ENDS

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