WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Refusal to settle over ceding sovereignty beneath the Crown
The decision by Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith to refuse signing the East Coast iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanu settlement because of an agree to disagree clause on ceding sovereignty is petty politics by the Government.
So afraid of the anti-Treaty and anti-Māori rhetoric that National, ACT and NZF have used to inflame their reactionary voting base, the Government fear agreeing to the clause will open them to criticism from the very voters they have rarked up.
Andrew Little, the Minister who inserted the clause when he was negotiating the settlement points out that removing the clause wasn’t actually required, “It’s disappointing because it is unnecessary. The Treaty settlement process is about getting the relationships back on foot and no one loses anything by including the agree-to-disagree clause the minister wants to remove.
Exactly.
No one is arguing that the Crown isn’t sovereign, (which is Minister Goldsmith’s justification for not signing), what the settlement is saying is that Ngāpuhi didn’t cede sovereignty.
Including the clause to agree to disagree recognises this difference without having to define it.
The settlement could be signed, but the Government fears acknowledging this will generate a backlash amongst the most reactionary voter their rhetoric has generated.
Once again, Māori have to wait for a settlement from the Crown that is acceptable to the worst prejudices of those who have benefited from colonialism and breaching the Treaty.
Such political games are beneath the mana of those who have sought redress.
The bottom line is the racist coalition does not want to give them a cent .End of story .
Time to deport Goldsmith.
They (respect claimants) should just tell them to stick their settlement up their asshole full stop. And who are these settlements really benefitting??? Not the poor Maori struggling to put a roof over their head! The Westminster system already provides a lot of poor Maori with accommodation and food it’s called the Correction Department. Maori are beggars in their own country and seem to be going nowhere with this Westminster system from both political parties and a white dominated society and its going to get worse before its going anywhere near to getting better
Free Aotearoa
It is about time some people excepted that pakeha are here and are not going away so instead of fighting for a past that was not that great for some eg the slaves and the eaten ones use your skills to progress in the here and now.
you need to study up a bit bro .As we see right here and now the moves to squash Maori continue .Hell we are even trying to prevent them from enrolling to vote because they might not vote for the COC .
They are using their skills .The biggest part of growth in the NZ is the Maori economy which is now 25% of GDP hence why your masters are doing their best to rub them out .Pakeha know that Maori will never let the big corporates take any thing they own so ACT have been funded to undermine anything Maori in government .But they will overcome and continue to march foward .
im right is that all you have the same old dribble of divide and conquer and who is benefitting mostly from the current COC policies mostly the white elite and foreigners.
Are you talking about the 50 thousand people that marched on parliament pompous pope not exactly a brigade
The so called bigger tribe ,PAKEHA is continuing the tribalisim by continuing to kick and eat everything Maori .NZ has not improved over the last 200 years has it .