Sharon Hawke spoke on behalf of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei during oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill. Photo: Screenshot
The Treaty Principles Bill will "whitewash" the Crown and Māori partnership, and "elevate the oppression of my people", says the daughter of Joe Hawke, who led the Bastion Point land occupation.
Oral submissions have continued on the Bill, with two sub-committees hearing hours of feedback throughout the day.
Sharon Hawke spoke on behalf of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei who she said see themselves as the "tangata whenua of the Auckland isthmus."
Hawke told the story of her ancestors who signed the Treaty on behalf of Ngāti Whātua, in order to "protect us" from what they saw as a settler government and population who did not see who "we were as Ngāti Whātua".
"We believe we have been a good Treaty partner since that signing."
She spoke of the interactions her iwi had had with the legislation process under the Waitangi Tribunal - the first was the 1978 Ōrakei Block Vesting and Use Act, when "Prime Minister Muldoon of the National Party was trying to get rid of my father Joe Hawke and his people off Bastion Point".
She also referenced the Ōrakei Act 1991 and the Ngāti Whātua Settlement Act of 2012.
"We've been down this road," Hawke said, "we are adept at knowing the principles of Te Tiriti."
Hawke said the Bill "proposes to whitewash" the many current principles for three that "abide my people no rights, afford my people no acknowledgement in the relationship we've had with the Crown, and strips the fabric of where we've been heading for in the last three decades at improving our people's ability to gain education, gain warm housing, gain good health".
She said the select committee process was not proper engagement when it comes to designing something that will impact "our future," and the Bill "pollutes" the idea of having a future together.
"When you oppress a people for so long, they rise, and we did."
Hawke said her iwi now had homes they had been able to develop for their people, and land they had bought back through the settlement process.
Regardless of the Bill, Hawke said the "enduring rights" that Māori have will remain, "because we will protect them".
"I come from good fighting stock, we will continue to show our opposition to this. Our children are our gold, we will do whatever it takes to protect their legacy in the same way our tipuna protected ours."
Sharon Hawke at Bastion Point in 2018. Photo:
'Significant concerns'
Other submitters included the Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau, who spoke on behalf of the Wellington City Council, and said they were there to "completely oppose" the Bill.
"We hold significant concern for what it means, which is to diminish the legal, political, and cultural fabric of Aotearoa."
"This bill represents the very thing this government is supposedly against - an unnecessary and costly ideology-pandering vanity project that does not deliver tangible outcomes for public good."
Pākehā lawyer Max Harris said the Bill had become "an ugly attempt" to deceive people in New Zealand about what Te Tiriti meant.
His concerns with the Bill included that it attempted to "erase Māori rights" and "distort a fundamental constitutional context". He also said it made "privatisation and environmental degradation easier".
Harris also pointed to "process-based problems", such as what he called an evasion of "engagement with individuals possessing expertise" and that the Bill failed its own "internal quality assurance assessment".
Indigenous rights advocate Tina Ngata, from Ngāti Porou, appealed to those on the select committee, and the "privilege" they had to carry "power in this land" and "direct resource on behalf of the nation".
Ngata said the Bill showed a "clear lack of regard to democracy and good governance by your own Western governance standards".
She called it a "monumental waste" of time, energy and "the nation's resource".
"This Bill demonstrates a disdain and a disregard for the judicial pathway that Te Tiriti has been on to this point."
She called that disdain and disregard "grossly undemocratic".
"The separation of power is a fundamental dimension of a functional democracy because it provides for a healthy tension. Democracy by its very nature opposes a concentration of power."
'Our people on the ground suffer'
The Manukau Urban Māori Authority also spoke against the Bill. Chief executive Tania Rangiheuea said she wanted to address the "myths" created around the "Treaty rhetoric." She said these were "most unfortunate".
"Particularly at a time in the governance of this country when we most need clarity around partnerships and relationships between Māori and the Crown."
She referenced the need to keep talking in a "respectful and constructive" way about "our Treaty partnerships" and the rights of Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Wayne Knox, from the National Māori Housing advocate group Te Matapihi, told the committee it was a "luxury" to have an ideological debate about the "equality of rights" and "race-based" policies.
He said the majority of people who were unhoused are Māori.
"Our people on the ground suffer, and they are suffering under some of the current policies of this government."
Knox said discussions around race-based policies were unhelpful.
"We need a bit of common sense, instead of a polarised debate around ideology."
Steve Ellis, a resident from Christchurch, indicated he supported the Bill in order to provide clarity in future legislation.
"Since 1975 and the passing of the leg Treaty of Waitangi Act, this nation New Zealand has been undermined through attempts by judicial interpretation to concoct concepts of Crown/ iwi partnership."
Ellis said this led to "insidious embedding" within recent legislation of "protections of supposed superior rights of Māori over other New Zealanders".
"In my view there is no partnership."
He requested a modification to the proposed principle 2, which provides protection for iwi and hapū rights when specified in Treaty settlements.
Such protection, he said, "would only continue to give the Waitangi Tribunal, with its taxpayer funded open wallet, the green light to continue to demarcate in favour of the minority interests at the expense and to the detriment of a significant majority interests - all other New Zealanders".
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