1 February 2012

Iwi leader says treaty references “a handbrake” to progress

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin has insisted that references to the Treaty of Waitangi be removed from any legislation around the Government’s partial privatisation policy.

“It is getting to the point that the Treaty principles are become a handbrake to our development as a nation,” he says. “By imposing these principles on privatised assets, their value could lower and all taxpayers will be worse off as a result”.

Mr Rankin rejects the suggestion of Professor Rawiri Taonui that iwi take the matter to court: “Rawiri has no idea about the economy or business. His main skill is self-promotion and he seems happy to wreck this chance at economic rescue for purely ideological purposes.”

Mr Rankin reserves his biggest criticism for the Maori Party: “Not only is the Maori party putting the stability of the Government at risk, but they are clearly doing it for political purposes – to gain attention in the lead-up to Waitangi Day and to try to recover votes they lost in the last election to the Mana Party.”

“It is a shame”, he says, “that the economic well-being of the country can be hijacked by a group of aging protesters who have little or no knowledge of how to generate prosperity.”

ENDS

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