“I think it’s important for people like me who have done our time to move aside.”
That today from outgoing Labour MP Andrew Little, who called time on his political career yesterday after 11 years.
He decided to make way for the next generation of politicians as Labour moves into opposition following the elections last Saturday night.
First entering Parliament in 2011, Little would go on to lead the Labour Party into the 2017 election, then step aside for Jacinda Ardern, who would lead the party to victory that same year.
The former lawyer and union official has held many portfolios while in office, including the Treaty Negotiations minister which he calls the “most special” during his career to reach conclusions for iwi and hapū.
“I think [it’s] challenging too, and it probably is for Pākehā ministers, because it is about coming up against that ugly part of our history, that history of colonisation, the harm that it caused, what it did, then having to front up to current generations about how we provide redress for that harm.
“When I stand there on the marae ready to give the Crown apology, you just feel that sense of historical responsibility to make the acknowledgement meaningful for the people who are there,” he says.
‘Sheer and utter ignorance’
As the ACT Party moves into Parliament, their stance on the Treaty of Waitangi has been very vocal, calling for a referendum on it during their election campaign.
Little calls it “sheer and utter ignorance”, hoping once the coalition is formed that it doesn’t go down that path.
“This idea that somehow now that the Treaty and its principles are subject to a referendum - the legal state of the Treaty isnow well understood and entrenched. That is decades of law, case law, and what have you, as high as the Privy Council and Supreme Court.
“It’s not a question of popularity; it’s what they are. The idea that that was subject to the whim of a popularity contest is so contrary to what the Treaty is about and the foundation of our nation.
“It is wrong in every respect.”
Although he hopes he’s wrong about his concerns, Little says iwi who are in the process of Treaty settlements or yet to go through with them should be cautious about who the next government will put into the Treaty Negotiations ministerial role.
“The reality is that there is a climate being generated by senior politicians in the incoming government that, in my view, won’t be constructive when it comes to the treaty relationship.”
