Speech to Te Pourewa Arotahi

· Mihi

Introduction

· I would like to congratulate Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, on the establishment of the Institute for Post Treaty Settlement Futures and thank you for inviting me to speak today. 

· I also want to thank Professor Smith, Sir Wira and all the staff and governors at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa for having the foresight to establish this Institute. 

· I think the Institute has arrived at a critical time in the Crown-Māori relationship and I am sure it will be to the forefront in shaping thinking and scholarship around issues pertinent to the Crown-Māori relationship.

· I’d like to offer my congratulations to the Chair of the Institute on his appointment. I am happy that my Ministry has been able to contribute to getting the Institute up and running. I know that Te Puni Kōkiri is pleased to be working with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi and looks forward to building a shared knowledge base and thought leadership on post Treaty-settlement issues. 

Rangatiratanga

Me tīmata taku kauhau ki te kōrero mō te rangatiratanga. 

Mai rā anō i te wā i ō tātou tīpuna, ko te rangatiratanga te tikanga arahi i tēnā iwi, i tēnā iwi. 

Nā te rangatiratanga o te iwi i pūmau ai tōna mana motuhake, i heke mai i ngā atua, i te whenua, i ngā tīpuna. Nā te rangatiratanga ōna taonga i puritia ai hei oranga mō ngā uri whakatipu. Nā te whakaaro rangatira i ora mai ai te iwi i ōna herenga whakapapa ki ētahi atu iwi.  

Ko ō tātou tīpuna, he iwi ora, he mātau, he kaha. E kore e tuohu, e kore e mataku. He iwi manaāki. He kakama ki te ako i te mātauranga hou, hei painga mō rātou. He iwi whai i te pae tawhiti.  

Ka kite ō tātou tīpuna, he rangatiratanga i te whakakotahitanga o ngā iwi i te taha o te kāwanatanga i runga anō i te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

Nō te taenga mai o te kāwanatanga, ka uru mai tētahi kaupapa hou, ko te mana motuhake o ia tangata tōna mātāpono, he taukumekume tōna tikanga, he hokohoko rawa tōna hua.  

Ka tīmata ngā mahi i roto i ngā whare o te kāwanatanga – te Whare Pāremata, te whare Kooti, te whare kura – ki te turaki i te rangatiratanga o te tangata whenua. Nāwai ra, ka heke ngā iwi, ngā hapū.  

Tae rawa mai ki tēnei wā, kua kahakore ō tātou reo, kua marara ō tātou iwi, kua tautohe tēnā ki tēnā i runga anō i ngā tikanga tauhou, kua iti haere tō tātou mana i ō tātou ake whenua.  

Engari ka tohe tonu ō tātou tīpuna kia noho rangatira rātou, ahakoa i te pakanga, i te ture, i ngā mahi ōhanga, i ngā mahi tōrangapū.  

Ko te whakatau i ngā take i runga anō i ngā mātāpono o te Tiriti o Waitangi, tētahi huarahi e whāia ai te rangatiratanga o ō tātou hapū, iwi. Ko te kaupapa kōrero mō tātou i tēnei rā, ka pēhea tērā? Ka pēhea tō tātou rangatiratanga i te ao hou?  

Waihoki rā, kia hoki mai tō tātou rangatiratanga, me pēhea kē te kāwanatanga ki te whakatika i a ia hei hoa mō tātou? Kia hoki mai ō tātou tikanga ki a tātou, me pēhea te kāwanatanga ki te rapu tikanga mōna?  

Treaty settlements

· The Crown-Māori relationship in recent decades has been dominated by the airing and resolving of historic Treaty claims. It has been 35 years since the land march, and when the Waitangi Tribunal was established. It has been 25 years since the Tribunal was given its retrospective jurisdiction and the Treaty settlement process as we know it all began. 

· The Crown-Māori relationship has really changed over that time, and I’m not sure that participants on both sides of that relationship have adapted to the environment we now operate in.

· Since those days when the Tribunal was established:

o the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act and changes in how the Public Works Act and the Māori Trustee operate have virtually brought a halt to the alienation of Māori land;

o the Fisheries settlement has transferred rights and resources to iwi on a large scale;

o some Māori groups are involved in social service provision in a way unimaginable 25 years ago; 

o some iwi have made major advances in establishing a commercial base for their tribes; and

o the Resource Management Act, in theory, provides for iwi input into the decision making process on how wai, whenua and other resources are managed. 

· In the post-settlement environment, we look forward to a restored Crown-Māori relationship as Treaty partners. Through the settlement of historical claims, we can focus on developing ways of working together to reach our aspirations for the future. 

· We look forward to Crown and Māori working together on shared goals. The challenge is to establish effective and constructive relationships that can best ensure the health, prosperity and wellbeing of our people and our whenua. 

Inter-iwi relationships

· In relationships amongst iwi, I have seen the impact of the settlement process on longstanding iwi relationships. I have seen our regard for each other diminish in the pressure cooker environment of achieving a settlement, and iwi allies turn into iwi adversaries. 

· It is heartening that some settlements, such as the CNI, and recent agreements between post-settlement iwi are premised on working together and pooling resources. 

· However, I worry that arguments over overlapping-claims, and questions of manawhenua, shared redress, and relativities, will hinder us in a post-settlement environment if they are not quickly resolved.

· The Crown still needs to take more care to manage these issues during the course of settlements, so they do not harm our prospects for post-settlement prosperity and wellbeing. 

Relationship conduct

· Our expert bodies have developed a body of Treaty-based jurisprudence which establishes a code of conduct of the Treaty relationship.

· Treaty principles span honour, good faith, co-operation, reciprocity, consultation requirements and redress. To me, these principles are the minimum standards that we must observe in Crown-Māori interactions.

· Beyond these, our relationships need to be conducted in a way that is consistent with our relationship objectives. And they need to be based on our shared interests – the things that we wish to progress with each other.

· It is important that we find a way to develop our shared set of priorities, so that we can focus our efforts on achieving those things. 

Relationship instruments

· Persistent disparities between Māori and non-Māori, and the failure of government to deliver services in ways that resonate with Māori communities, are ongoing. And they seem to require claimant groups to spend valuable negotiations effort and funding on getting an assurance that government will do the basic job that taxpayers fund it to do.

· So I am extremely concerned about the development of social and environmental accords in Treaty settlements. The need for these accords shows the failure of successive governments to provide for the basic needs and rights of iwi and Māori. 

· I have a similar view about accords that are focused on local government and natural resource management.

· The law provides opportunities for Māori involvement in decision-making over natural resources, right through to the transfer of powers from local government. But these provisions, and therefore the intent of Parliament, are consistently not given effect to.

· If the government did more to ensure its own effectiveness, then settlement negotiations and post settlement relationships could focus on development opportunities, and not on what should already be provided to iwi and Māori. 

· In establishing Crown-Māori relationships, we need to ensure that small iwi, the various groups that Māori organise themselves into, and all segments of the Māori population have a voice. 

· The Crown doesn’t necessarily know how this is best done at this stage. We are seeking the views of all of Māoridom on how the differing interests of the many players in the Māori world can be recognised and acted on. And I am keen to see how the Institute, as a tertiary sector expert, can inform the government’s views on this.

· Recently there has been criticism of the role of the so called Iwi Leaders Group in developing the new Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. The criticism, whether justified or not, has raised concerns for me. 

· The Government has to find mechanisms to engage with iwi, effectively and efficiently. However, it simply cannot handpick particular representatives or favourites to deal with. 

· Rather, we need to foster expert input at the political level, and to test broad policy frameworks, while ensuring a wider range of iwi and Māori interests has the opportunity for dialogue.

· The Crown has a long history of not allowing Māori to speak through their own voice. In a post-settlement environment, we need mechanisms that will enable Māori to do so in their engagement with the Crown. I’m not convinced we have those mechanisms yet. 

· This is a key aspect of rangatiratanga – it begins with a culture of accountability and leadership within, and between, our hapū and iwi. When our communities are strong and united, we can exercise great authority in our relations with the Crown, or with anyone else. 

· When our tīpuna signed the Treaty of Waitangi, Crown agents didn’t question their mandate or authority. If they had dared to doubt the mana of our tīpuna, the deal would have been off – and the doubter’s head, too, probably. 

· We have to assert our own tikanga, as we work through the Crown’s complex mandating and representation processes, to get back to the point where our rangatiratanga is self-evident. 

· At that point, when we ourselves practice our tikanga, and our Treaty partners are familiar with it, we are in a position to restore the Treaty relationship to what our tīpuna always imagined it would be. 

· In conclusion, I’d like to note the relevance of all this to the forthcoming review of the constitution. 

· While I am not in a position to talk about the details of government decisions, I can explain the reasons why the Māori Party sought a review of the constitution. 

· The review is intended to establish a tika foundation, with the Treaty of Waitangi as a cornerstone, on which the nation of Aotearoa can build political, legal, social and cultural institutions to protect our plural, multi-cultural future. 

· Just as a tikanga-based process will achieve a tikanga-based outcome, I believe that a constitutional review process that is based on mutual recognition and respect, co-operation and the utmost good faith can create a society based on those same principles – the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. 

Kia ora tātou katoa.