Auckland, 2 February, 2025

In a letter to King Charles the Iwi requests that the sentiments of multiple United Nations resolutions, that affirm the rights of indigenous Aotearoa Māori communities, to their natural resources and cultural identity be upheld by political processes through the adherence of International Law.

The Ngāti Torehina Iwi cites numerous incidents of racial discrimination against Indigenous Māori rights to spiritual traditions attached to their lands and resources urging King Charles III to end racial discrimination in New Zealand’s Parliament akin to the abolishment of slavery by King William IV.

The Iwi calls out the perpetrators of the racial disharmony Winston Peters and David Seymour, Coalition Deputy Prime Ministers, citing a twenty-year trail of defeated discriminatory legislation that are repeatedly introduced as Bills into Parliament to incite racial discrimination in manner reminiscent of Apartheid Laws.

The newest discriminatory legislation before Parliament is David Seymour’s ‘Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill’. The Iwi describe the Bill as an abuse of Parliamentary processes to coerce polarising discussion to incite racial discrimination and disharmony against Māori in violation of International Law.

Winston Peters Coalition Agreement is conditional on the Government renouncing the United Nations Declaration’s on the ‘rights of indigenous people’ and annulling all Law on the Treaty of Waitangi. The Iwi accuse Winston Peters of revamping his ‘the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill 2005’, to further incite racial tensions against Aotearoa Māori for his own selfish political gain.

The Iwi are fearful of the harm done to race relations. Previous National governments have been involved in racially motivated activities. Now the extreme right wing Coalition Government are set to replicate the effect of the ‘Dawn Raids’ of 1974–76 on their 50-year anniversary. Dr Melani Anae, describes these raids as ‘the most blatantly racist attack on Pacific peoples by the New Zealand government’.

© Scoop Media