Sharples Pita: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Sharples Pita: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6777] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 The Maori Party comes to the Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill—indeed to every bill—mindful that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the founding document of Aotearoa. Interwoven throughout the Treaty is the significance of tino rangatiratanga—the political authority to be self-determining—which Maori share alongside indigenous peoples around the globe. The presence of tino rangatiratanga affirms our ongoing ability to be self-determining which is essential for our survival dignity and well-being. That is the promise articulated in the Treaty in that parties to the Treaty are entitled to representation in the organs of kawanatanga governance. 
This House should be well aware of the critical timing of the issue of representation as we watch from afar the progress of the most significant international human rights instrument being negotiated across the globe the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. To our everlasting shame the New Zealand Government is refusing to support this declaration. In so doing it is misrepresenting tangata whenua and casting further doubt on New Zealand’s already tarnished human rights record. 
Against that context we come here tonight to debate another attack against Treaty justice and the representation of tangata whenua but this time the attack comes from the Opposition side of the House. Mr Ryall has applied the hostility of Labour and New Zealand First’s retreat from the international support for indigenous people to our own domestic situation—namely local authorities. But the fatal flaw in Mr Ryall’s logic is that he has mistaken representation of tangata whenua as representation based on race rather than as a Treaty right and a representation on the basis of sovereign nations. No doubt the people of Tuhoe Ngati Awa and Te-Whanau-a-Apanui would see themselves as such. This is an ongoing mistake that falls into the context recently described by District Court and Waitangi Tribunal judge Richard Kearney who said: “New Zealanders generally had a staggering almost criminal lack of understanding of Treaty issues”. 
Section 19 of the Local Electoral Act 2001 which relates to the ability of the councils to establish Maori wards or constituencies is an important model of the Treaty in action in our contemporary times. But an equally important section of that Act is section 4 which describes the principles of public confidence in and understanding of local electoral processes. Perhaps the member might have been better served putting his energy into that area and developing strategies to address the “almost criminal” lack of knowledge about the implications of Te Tiriti o Waitangi rather than getting misled into talking about matters of race. The confusion and blurring over racial matters was something that Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen observed last November when he investigated the state of Aotearoa. He described the ethnic and cultural diversity as a fact of life that should not be ignored when it came to policy. However he warned against a narrow-minded focus on race. 
I have to wonder why the constitutional significance of tangata whenua which was recognised in the provision for Maori wards and constituencies has been relegated to being about the race card. Whose special interests are being protected when the member and indeed all National members stand in this Parliament to exert power and make policy decisions that diminish the value of Te Tiriti o Waitangi? 
The Maori Party believes that population-based Maori seats in local body councils represent the absolute minimum in terms of meeting Treaty obligations. I commend the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for being the first council to make such seats a reality. We believe that the Treaty partners—Maori and the Crown—should be pursuing opportunities to debate new forms of governance and other means by which we may share political power. Democracy is more than one person one vote. Democracy is to be actively involved in the matters of one’s nation and community. Thank you.