At least a month before water rights consensus - Maori Party
Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell believes it will not be till the end of September that there is any clarity about a possible Maori consensus on water rights.
Mr Flavell, speaking today on TV3’s “The Nation” is the first Maori Party MP to react to the publication late yesterday of the Waitangi Tribunal finding on the Maori Council case for water rights for Maori in connection with the proposed sell off of Government owned power companies.
Mr Flavell said the Iwi Leaders Forum was set to have some discussions in the next couple of weeks or so.
“The Maori Party from our perspective see our role as trying to bring the parties together and will be looking to draw all of the claimants and the Iwi Leaders Group together in the next short space in time,” he said.
“So there's a little bit of work to be done yet.”
But Mr Flavell said he didn’t know whether this would mean that the Government would be able to make any assets this year.
“There’s a little bit of work to be done yet,” he said
However he was pleased with the Tribunal Report.
“Congratulations to the Waitangi Tribunal for having in a short space of time been able to clarify that there are issues with respect to proprietary interest and rights, and customary rights in water,” he said.
Asked about the Prime Minister’s statement last month that no-one owned water, and whether this meant the Government would now have to change that view he said: “I think the Waitangi Tribunal has done the job of clarifying that there are issues of customary interests in water, and the government would probably need to take that seriously, but that’s in their court, and the Waitangi Tribunal has simply set the platform for further discussion on those issues.”
Asked what would happen if the Government ignored the tribunal finding he that wouldn’t probably be anything new, because a number of recommendations from the Waitangi Tribunal have been snubbed by the previous governments across the board.
“So look it's a little bit early on that discussion,” he said.
“I think far better to let the discussion go.
“That’s what we're on about, we want to get some solutions and I think we need to allow the parties to have their debate in their own forums and then come together in time, and that’s what we'll be driving towards as the Maori Party to facilitate that discussion.”
Watch the full interview here.
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Comments and questions9
Time to kick the Maori party and the treaty into touch. New Zealand for New Zealanders. No more racial segregation.
Yep!
I too have had a gutsful, there just doesn't seem to be an end to it!
They have been paid many millions of dollars in cash and property, yet the ordinary working maori sees none of it. Witness the Maori politicians bemoaning that maori children live in poverty. Aren't these children part owners to those "many millions in money and property"?
Of course that begs the question, should not these part owners be asset/income tested before they receive a benefit?
John Morrison
Why don't the dole bludgers request rights to the wind, the sunshine and oxygen?
Watch these columns. AS soon as they have gouged an income from the wate, they will be back for the Sky. They can see the Billions to be made from charging airlines the right to fly through the sky, burning Oxygen, another many Billions and using the tailwinds to advantage, another many Billions
A snap election must be around the corner. We cannot continue in this way?
Proprietary rights, customary rights, intellectual property rights, ownership rights, I am sick of this.
If, and it's probably not even a big if, the asset sales are delayed it is possible that the world equity markets have had to face up to the fact that what goes up must come down. In that sense National will be able to hold off the partial sell down till 2013.
So we have to borrow (bridging finance in housing terms) to fill the gap for a year or two, the majority will understand this and give National a clear mandate at the next general election to manage the economy for another 3 years.
Then we need legislation to ensure that "Full and Final Settlement" is Full and Final. The Waitangi gravy train must be halted, the country can not afford to continually re-litigate hand outs (wealth transfers from the country as a whole to a select minority).
Maori have lost my sympathy, I once believed that NZ needed to address the disaffected minority because without unity the country would be destined for disenchantment and envy politics. Now I can see it would not have mattered what the respective Governments gave by way of Treaty settlements, Maori would never be satisfied. And that is always the way with those who rely on others charity to survive, its never enough, the hand is always out, always wanting more, never contemplating how they can contribute more themselves.
What a sad state of affairs, at least I have the financial means to buy a plane ticket for my entire family and up sticks, those who want a free lunch at my expense will go hungry.
Wonder who or what is getting the benefits of the THIRTY SIX BILLION DOLLARS the claimants hold in assets.
(1). Maori are NOT the indigenous peoples of NZ. They arrived and cannibalised the tribes already here. (2) On water rights...No one owns the water. Rain is an act of God (like flooding of water). River water comes from rain and is an act of God so Maori say they want to replace God. The treaty is the greatest scam the world has ever seen.
Is their any like prospectives of the people who signed the treaty ?