MEDIA STATEMENT
27 January 2015
The chameleon of New Zealand politics strikes again
The Māori Party says voters need to wake up to the ever-changing politics of New Zealand First.
“It’s hypocritical of Winston Peters to whip up the threat of separatism at the Orewa Rotary Club two days after telling
the crowd at Rātana that if they voted New Zealand First they would be doing ‘God’s work’. What a joke!”, says Māori
Party Co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell.
Mr Peters told the Orewa Rotary members last night “that it is obvious that National have been brownmailed into making
policy concessions to the Māori Party”.
Mr Flavell says, “The changes proposed to the Resource Management Act (RMA), which will require councils to engage with
local iwi on the management of natural resources, are a common-sense solution to ensuring Māori and the Crown honour
their Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
“If Mr Peters truly believed that requiring councils to engage with local iwi will have a devastating impact on our
nation, why didn’t he say so at Rātana? Is he doing God’s work when he preaches his anti-Treaty and racially divisive
diatribe to a largely Pākehā audience?”
Māori Party Co-leader Marama Fox says it’s ironic that New Zealand First brands itself as the party protecting New
Zealand’s sovereignty while it’s happy to discard the rangatiratanga (sovereignty) of Māori promised under Te Tiriti.
“New Zealand First like tapping into people’s irrational fears that if you honour Treaty rights for Māori it takes away
the rights of others.
“In reality, changes to the RMA will result in better management of our natural resources and a more streamlined
process,” says Mrs Fox.”
“We make no apologies for ensuring the Treaty rights of Māori are recognised by the proposed changes to the RMA. We want
to live in a country where we recognise our duality of nationhood and honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
ends