Turia Tariana: General Debate 
Turia Tariana: General Debate 
[Volume:649;Page:18020] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe. Tena tatou katoa. On 8 November 1918 Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana received a vision to gather signatures for a petition to take to Parliament to convince the Government to make Te Tiriti o Waitangi part of the law of this land. It is a vision that is still waiting to be realised. The mission of Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana was to bring to Parliament the evidence about land confiscation. He went further—as far afield as England in fact—to seek an audience with King George V to present his petition which was a petition that contained the names of two-thirds of all Maori. It was a journey I know well as my own grandfather father and two aunts accompanied Ratana to London on his historic trip seeking the commitment of the Crown to honour the Treaty. That same petition was finally laid in this House in 1932 tabled by Sir Eruera Tirikatene and by then containing 45000 signatures. It is time for the petition of Ratana to be honoured. It has been delayed for too long. 
The petition petition No. 239 which is archived in the parliamentary papers of 1932 requested that the Treaty of Waitangi should be entered into the statute book in an effort—and listen to this everybody—to “preserve the ties of brotherhood between Maori and Pakeha for all time”. But alas the petition was carried over year after year. Eventually in 1945 it was revised into a recommendation to Cabinet that the Treaty of Waitangi should be published and copies hung in schools and Maori meeting places—a promise unfulfilled a commitment dishonoured. 
As we approach the 90th anniversary celebration of Ratana’s original prophesy we in the Maori Party are looking forward to the day when Labour—as it has been saying it will do—tables in the House a bill to entrench Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the constitution of New Zealand. So we have been extremely pleased to hear the rumour circulating around Maori networks that Labour will soon be introducing a bill to entrench the Treaty into our constitution. The ratification of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the ideal that has come through the words and actions of generations of Maori leaders. It was written into the Kohimarama covenant attended by some 200 chiefs in 1860. Indeed every iwi has its leaders and its legacy bound up in the commitment to enshrining the Treaty in law. We believe the time is right to entrench the Treaty in all legislation so that decision making on matters concerning Maori and Maori and Crown together is shared with all. As an example the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act would be redrafted to ensure that articles 1 and 2 guarantee our mana and rangatiratanga—the ability to exercise power sharing on all issues that affect us as tangata whenua. 
It is time to pay homage to Ratana. It is time to front up to the fundamental challenge of our nationhood to entrench Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We remember the call from Ratana in 1936: “May you never forget your responsibilities to the Maori people for when you forget this your Government will fall.” We pledge today that the Maori Party will do all it can to make good on commitments given over the passage of time to ensure that no stone is left unturned in upholding the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Kia ora.