The Treaty has to take centre stage
Is the Treaty of Waitangi done and dusted when the last iwi claim is settled? – not according to Gareth Morgan. Today at
Ratana Pa Gareth explained that despite the historic settlements, New Zealand has yet to honour the Treaty. Gareth says
Pakeha are “blissfully ignorant” of the commitments enshrined in the Treaty. He is of the view the Treaty must be
embedded in a formal constitution and its essential that Pakeha in particular, be brought up to speed on why. He said
for too long governments of all persuasions have sidelined the Treaty, misleading the wider public as to its ongoing
importance.
Rather than pointing the finger at the Labour party, with whom Ratana have had a relationship for more than 80 years,
and the current government, Dr Morgan said the House of Representatives as a whole must step up. He laid an across-party
challenge:
“So today I challenge the House of Representatives to… stop honoring the Treaty in part only, and build a constitution
that makes Maori and Pakeha and all New Zealanders able to stand tall in our shared land…
Sadly, it is the benign neglect by the House of Representatives to endorse and promote the Treaty and its principles as
the core of our (yet unwritten) constitution, that has underpinned a persistently shallow appreciation by Pakeha in
particular, of the ongoing implications of the Treaty.”
See Gareth’s full speech at Ratana here: