Our Sovereignty is Not for Sale

23 July 2015

Six applications and nine interested parties are seeking an urgent hearing in the Waitangi Tribunal arguing that the TPPA would breach the Treaty of Waitangi. The Tribunal will decide today whether to give the claim urgency. The Crown says it is too late to stop it and refused to give an undertaking not to make final commitments until the claim is heard.

“We are here to seek urgency to protect our tino rangatiratanga, kaitaikitanga, and well being which the Crown is about to sign away in a secret negotiation that we have been shut out from.

We know enough from the media and leaks that this poses one of the most serious risks to our independence and rangatiratanga. Our sovereignty must not be sold for a few pounds of butter.

This is a treaty for foreign investors to continue the plunder of our resources at a time when the Crown is granting exploration and exploitation licenses on land and in the sea without our consent.

Offshore foreign investors are using these agreements and claiming hundreds of millions of our dollars when governments close down reckless mining operations, overturn court orders to clean up toxic waste dumps and challenge a moratorium on fracking.

This is 19th century colonisation revisited and we won’t stand for it happening again” says Angeline Greensill, one of the principal claimants attending the hearing today.

ENDS

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