In an email sent on Tuesday night, Te Pāti Māori MPs were informed that 20 bills will be debated under urgency from Wednesday to midnight Saturday this week.
“This is dangerous and reckless law-making” says Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
He is calling it a threat to Māori and democracy.
“We advocate for Tiriti based legislation and if this is missed in urgency it will be dangerous for Māori interests and rights”.
Te Pāti Māori is concerned that the process could have detrimental effects on Māori. The two MP party says the time afforded to provide robust debate and thoroughly source evidence is inequitable and doesn’t give Māori experts the appropriate time to respond to the proposed changes.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the government is exploiting their majority and disadvantaging the Māori voice.
“As Tangata whenua we are at the mercy of these major parties” she adds.
“It’s being pushed through because government hasn’t done what it was meant to do – make legislation”.
“They clearly haven’t managed their time or priorities” says Ngarewa-Packer.
The bills being discussed include the extension to the COVID-19 Response Act, Māori Purposes Bill, the highly politicised Water Services Entities Bill (Three Waters), and the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill.
Ngarewa-Packer says the party’s team are currently reviewing the legislation and putting Te Tiriti, people, whenua and moana at the forefront of their analysis.
Te Pāti Māori is appealing to all whānau to share their views and insights on the bills.
Once again the Maori seem surprised that Labour is abusing their trust .Why do they keep doing it ?
Surpidity is doing the same think time and again and expecting another result.
Trevor. If The Maori Party feel that way, imagine how the children whose commissioner is being abolished feel. There are quite a few strong Maori voices in Parliament, but a mute Minster of Children who I hope enjoyed his recent jaunt to the Chatham Islands and tucked into the crayfish ok.
Trev you mean the Maori party, and can you please stop talking a load of crap as usual and when you are saying doing the same and expecting something different, boot camps come to mind.
So you are happy with Labours dealings with Maori. Dispite their success with covid Maori leaders complained of the way they were looked after.Labour have record of over riding the rights of Maori hence the need to create the Maori Party that hooked up with the National government.
As regard to boot camps what are Labour offering and no one will go to them if they do not do a crime .
Trev you mean the Maori party, and can you please stop talking a load of crap as usual and when you are saying doing the same and expecting something different, boot camps come to mind.
““As Tangata whenua we are at the mercy of these major parties”
The usual hysteria from Ngarewa-Packer and Waititi.
How is it humanly possible to sit through 20 bills in three days? These things are serious fodder, what sort of governance can we expect from 120 brain dead zombies who have been burning the midnight oil and waking before dawn to process this much unintelligible information? Sure, we have helpful tech these days but isn’t this legislation aimed at solving people problems, not the number crunchers at IT?
Start at 9 am and finish at 12 pm A 15 hr day for 3 days vresult poor outcome
planet janet “.How is it humanly possible to sit through 20 bills in three days? “ Precisely. It isn’t. But this government has abandoned both dialogue and listening. This is why and how they are ruthlessly kneecapping the voice of vulnerable children, their Commissioner, against all advice.
This is how and why they simply turned the hoses on the Parliamentary protestors, and tormented them with loud music, pretending to be too scared to engage with them, thinking that they could flick them off like fleas.
This is how they developed their contentious He Puapua agenda, secretly, hidden not only from we the people, but from Ardern’s own deputy, Winston Peters.
Quantity, rather than quality, is how government departments measure their KPI’s, quick keyboarding skills. It’s a reckless way to run a country, but an effective way to foist pre-determined scenarios upon the unwitting.