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

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