News Release
for immediate release
August 25, 2009
E nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga rangatira, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
National - Act Party Out of Touch with Modern Auckland
Iwi Have Influence (IHI) Action Group today are calling the decision by National and the Act Party to reject the call
for Maori Seats in the Super City as typical of a party that is out of touch with modern metropolitan Auckland.
"Thousands of people from across the Auckland region marched in the Hikoi for Maori seats, ninety percent of oral and
written submissions to the select committe confirmed suppport for a new way of working with tangata whenua by including
Maori seats at the Governance level of the new supercity" says a spokesperson for IHI, Helen Te Hira.
"At the end of the day the decision to ignore the recommendations of the Royal Commission and the confidence
cosmopolitan Auckland has in Maori potential is a sign that Don Brash's neo-colonial attitudes have not left the
National Party"
IHI Action Group believe the task at hand now is to regroup and acknowledge the pledges of support that have come in
over the last 24 hours from Iwi and New Zealanders across Auckland and the country. This issue is one of democracy and a
maturing nation.
"We will not allow the antiquated attitudes of a business elite to hold back our progress, our voice and democracy."
ENDS