The TPPA is a death sentence for Indigenous Rights – Te Wharepora Hou
Tangata whenua are strongly opposed to the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement which will be held in Auckland in February.
The TPPA represents a significant and disruptive challenge to Maori.
The New Zealand government has by-passed indigenous involvement at every level. This complete lack of consultation also contravenes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and this government has no right to sign this trade deal without our free,prior and informed consent.
Similar free trade agreements have had a devastating impact on the rights & lives of Indigenous peoples around the world. Indigenous peoples have been criminalised and rights to their lands and resource have been ignored.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is colonisation by corporation.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is part of the neoliberal structural adjustment programme to diminish and extinguish Indigenous rights forever. The TPPA will intensify and increase negative economic impacts in our communities. Already Maori are extensively over-represented in all negative indices.
The TPPA is a direct denial of the rights of Maori as stated in the 1835 Declaration of Independence and as reaffirmed in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous peoples.
The Waitangi tribunal last year confirmed that Tangata Whenua did not cede their sovereignty when they signed the Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Tangata Whenua have long and deeply-held traditional values and understandings of collectivity, of manakitanga , of kaitiakitanga (Caring for Earth Mother), for Tangaroa (god of the sea) and for their children .This is in direct opposition to what is being proposed in the TPPA. The New Zealand government does no have the right to negotiate away our rights under Te Tiriti and our rights as Indigenous peoples.
We oppose corporate Maori like FOMA (Federation of Maori Authorities) who have come out in support of this agreement. These neotribal capitalists are transparent in their greed and their neoliberal modus operandi.
Their bottom line and profit at any cost mentality puts the interests of the dairy industry and the tribal capitalists ahead of a duty of care for our environment and our survival as Indigenous peoples. We will not let our grassroots who are struggling to survive be sold out again.
The TPPA is a “death sentence” for Maori . “It is a gift to the rich that will deepen the divide between narrowly concentrated wealth and mass misery, and destroy what remains of the indigenous society.” This is not the world our tupuna envisioned for us when they signed Te Tiriti.
“Our communities, our whānau, hapū, have the mana for the land. Let us not give that right to big businesses.”
Unfortunately John Key does not understand NZ History, as he is not a New Zealander he is an agent of Corporate America. Apart from his childhood in Christchurch he has lived in the Corporate Finance Bubble where everything is related to the $ and $ values, social values do not count, he is walking to the tune of Wall St and New World Order dictated by the Monte Perelin Society and the Bilderberg Group.
Maori and Indigenous peoples do not come into the financial equation, they are merely an irritant to the New World Order controlled by the 1% percenters.
What corporate wants, corporate gets.
Mining, medication, cold seam gas.
The only trickle down effect are the court fees when we say no to their corporate advances when fracking spoils our water ways and medication becomes too expensive and when this government loses, we the tax payer lose big time just like all other dumb decisions made on our behalf.
Why enter a contract where your rights as a nation/one people has a possibility of being discarded.
We allow you the privilege of trading in NZ i.e sharing in our goodwill and trusting in reciprocation from all involved only to be told by lawyers that thats whats written in the contract and now I want to bulldoze your flora and fauna to make way for my gold mine, I’ll employ your whanau only if this continues to make the business money.
Business first, shareholders second, locals last.
Do we honestly need this or do we need to change our outdated business strategies to include a more self sufficient structure to combat the living conditions of those that are battling everyday.
Build business here that compliment a community that can feed from it and build from it and supported by you, us we the true governors of this land thus creating a model to measure all others from.
Lose the greed, kick them out we only want people people in business here not neoliberal garbage who smile to you face but really its because of their bank balance that climbs exponentially and the word tax does not exist in their vocab.
If you want to come way down under to share, trade, talk or whatever, your first priority is to us…if you don’t like it then leave.
It appears that TPPA’s trade and corporate investment in New Zealand may benefit all races in New Zealand as a whole and then the fruits of this trade deal and considerable investment will help everyone achieve a brighter, wealthier future.
It also seems that Tangata whenua have embraced national corporatisation, as seen by Ngai Tahu and its considerable investments and resources. TPPA international global trade and investment will bring wider markets for selling resources and lead to a wealthier, brighter future for Tangata Whenua. Tainui have looked to invest in the digital future in the middle of 2015 to help create a brighter and wealthier future for Maori. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/8746719/Tainui-eyes-digital-future-with-Dotcom).
Change is a modern and inevitable concept, embraced by the Maori Party in coalition with National. The Maori Party has been democratically elected to act on behalf of Tangata Whenua’s interests through its coalition with National. The National-led coalition is working towards a brighter, wealthier future and the profits of the TPPA global trade deal will trickle down to all New Zealanders, including Maori.
So, it would seem that there is nothing to see here, time to move on and sign the TPPA deal on the 4th February with all the other countries and celebrate Waitangi Day on Saturday 6th.
Then in March 2016, celebrate our new New Zealand flag.
Fundamentally iwi entities have more in commen with the crown than the underclass.
Ngai Tahu was the first to settle, no where was it written that the settlement money received would be used for jobs growth or take on the great inequalities that colonisation forced on South Island Maori.
Subsidies seems to be a trend amongst settlement recipients. Both iwi’s you point out have in its regions major employers closing mines and power stations. When Huntly power station closes, Tainui plan to help its people is to give them rent subsidies and moving and employment consultants, last time I checked they had ear marked 2 million for these subsidies.
We have had one case that I an aware of where a small Marae not far from Taumaranui, built a micro dam to power its buildings and farm. It’s a great project, environmentally friendly, no power bills, sustainable, and they have a school. It’s a great example of economic security.
But when you get sucked into a failed trade policy that has shipped jobs offshore, squeezing the middle class into property speculation. And building assets that half your people won’t be able to use like shopping centres. You get the situation now where Maori capital demand share of the pie leaves no room for labour.
The Maori party for all that it does right, let’s a lot of issues go past to the keeper. While they have been in power, a lot of shysters have gone unpunished and continue to miss management funds. Something the media love to blab about, and you your self like to point out.
So any Maori that reads see more butts comments about how TPP effects Maori should know that he hasn’t a clue what he is talking about.
Sam
Well Sam and the other idiot David that blabbling speech is indicative of a typical redneck response that Maori people are accustom to when we here pakeha people talk candidly about my culture as if we are objects to manipulate so no surprises their.
I may not be a economic genius but if contemporary and historical actions of past trade agreements are anything to go by then my people have not really or if ever gained any real economic benefits from FTA. And as for the example of individual maori doing amazing things with their resources is not a good example of prospering from FTA it just another example of why we call people like you rednecks!!!!!
What is the penalty a nation faces if it leaves the TPPA once ratified?
Freedom from slavery and foreign dictatorship, so what could be better to fight for?
No body has ever eon reasonable concessions from Corporations as they are without a human element and just a money making scheme.
Exxon, BP, Big tobacco, Bopal – ect’ remember?