Lillian
Hanly, Political reporter
Labour
leader Chris Hipkins says the government is anti-Treaty and
therefore anti-Māori, but the Prime Minister argues iwi
leaders have worked to find “common ground”.
Prime
Minister Christopher Luxon rejects Hipkins’ claims, calling
the Iwi
Chairs Forum on Wednesday a positive engagement and the
best forum he has participated in.
He said the six
different sub-regions had their say, and put questions to
him and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
Ngāti Wai
Chair Aperahama Edwards said the meeting with the government
was “beneficial”, but there was still a lot of pain among
Māori compared to the last time Luxon was present in
2024.
“Our people are hurting, and we’re mindful of
that, but there’s also a calm here as well, and an optimism
at the thought of what sort of change might be coming,”
Edwards said.
Luxon was in Waitangi with a contingent
of government ministers ahead of the political pōwhiri
taking place on Thursday, which he will
attend.
Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka
said the Iwi Chairs meeting was “robust” and
“interrogative”, and an “exchange”.
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“There needs to be
an exchange of ideas, an exchange of investigative queries,
but also a sense of optimism and progress, and that’s what
we’ve seen today.”
Luxon said the meeting was not
combative or contentious, but “direct”.
“We’re direct
too,” he said.
He said they discussed the work to lift
outcomes for Māori in the context of health, law and order,
the economy, infrastructure development and investment and
education.
“And lo and behold, iwi want to do exactly
the same thing to advance their people as well. So there’s
really good alignment.”
Earlier, Hipkins had called
the government “anti-Treaty”, referring to the Treaty
Principles Bill.
Asked for more examples Hipkins said
the pledge to remove Treaty references from some
legislation, the removal of Te Reo Māori from school and
the deprioritising of the Māori language on street signs
and government departments.
“They’re having passports
redesigned just so that they can reorder the words. All of
these things are just a big step backwards for New
Zealand.”
When asked if Labour would reverse changes
to the Marine and Coastal Area Act and the removal of
Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act, which have been
criticised by Māori, Hipkins said the party had not made
any final decisions.
He said he wanted to move the
country forward in a way that “brings people with
us”.
“Where any government moves too quickly and
doesn’t bring people with them, you run the risk of the
pendulum swinging back further in the other direction, on
the next political cycle.
“And I don’t want to see
that continue, so we will be focused on sustainable change
that brings people along.”
Hipkins said his
discussions with the Forum had been “constructive” but
acknowledged the iwi leaders would work with whoever the
government was.
When asked whether the government was
“anti-Māori” Luxon accepted “ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill
was incredibly challenging”.
But he had spoken openly
to iwi leaders through that period and afterward, and he
pointed to the meeting on Wednesday, saying “what we’ve got
to find is the common ground”.
“Let’s focus on the
common ground, the 70 percent that we can agree on, that we
can actually move and advance forward … let’s do
that.”
Willis said the most practical way the Crown
upholds the Treaty of Waitangi was through progressing
Treaty Settlements, which she said the government had made
“good progress on”.
Asked whether Māori could have
confidence Luxon would not agree to the likes of the Treaty
Principles Bill again, Luxon said that was “absolutely ruled
out”.
He said despite tensions through challenges like
the Treaty Principles Bill, the government had continued the
conversation with iwi leaders at the same time.
“The
conversation that we had today is no different from the
nature of the conversations that I’ve been having over the
last two years.”
Iwi leader Tukoroirangi Morgan echoed
that sentiment, calling the meeting “productive” and saying
iwi leaders were in a position where “we need to get stuff
done”.
Despite being election year, work needed to
continue, he said.
“And the government needs to be
conscious that actually working in a much more strategic way
to complete action plans, business plans, all of the stuff
that we’ve been talking to them for a long, long time should
get done.”
Morgan said Luxon was “very committed” to
the Treaty relationship.
“We have to try and find
creative ways of working with the government in the face of
tough economic times, there are still opportunities, and we
need to take those
opportunities.”
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