OPINION
Marching forward into 2025 I see a year of movement and action. Kia kōkiri ngātahi tātou mō He Whakaputanga me Tiriti o Waitangi, mō te mana Māori motuhake.
Reflecting on my first full year as a Member of Parliament but more broadly a kaimahi in hapū and iwi I can see ongoing momentum of the call for Kotahitanga made by Kiingi Tuuheitia in January 2024.
‘Kia taakiri tuu te kotahitanga’
‘Kia taakiri tuu te mana motuhake’
Ngā whakapātaritari o te wā
Ahakoa te hamahama o te Kāwanatanga ki runga i te iwi Māori, ahakoa ngā taumahatanga ki runga i a mātou, otirā tātou katoa. Ka ū tonu tātou mō te mana Māori motuhake. Koia te kaupapa matua, koia tonu taku kaupapa mō tēnei tau tonu.
Our summer holidays should be a time for whānau to gather, reflect and enjoy time together. We did that for sure! But te iwi Māori and our supportive, surrounding communities harnessed the holidays for submission writing against Te Pire mō Ngā Mātāpono o Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty Principles Bill).
On the original final day of submissions, 7 Jan 2025 the Justice Select Committee portal was overwhelmed. We broke the internet! It’s estimated some 300,000 submissions came in by the deadline! Due to the technical errors of the website an extension was granted, which became 1pm Tues 14 Jan 2025. Let’s see what the outcome is in numbers.
E ai ki te kōrero, kua tū ngā pihi o te iwi Māori, o te motu whānui nā ngā mahi pōhehe o tēnei Kāwanatanga. Horekau te iwi Māori e whakaae kia tūrakina ngā kupu o Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The maintenance of action and kotahitanga needs to be upheld at all levels-hapū, iwi, community, tangata whenua, tangata tiriti. Mahi tahi is our secret weapon.
The assaults of this Government will continue to come in legislation and spill out onto our streets and in our communities. No starker was the example of the poorly considered move of the New Zealand Police to take a 12-year-old boy into the local police station on Christmas Day for wearing his boxing club t-shirt in his neighbourhood.
Fast Track Legislation passed through parliament in late December 2024. My Green Party colleagues and I, along with other members of the Opposition, fought in the house for 2.5 days to oppose this legislation which will see 149 projects (and more) roll out across the country with no public notification, limited consideration and protection of iwi Māori rights and interests, and few protections for te taiao.
2025 and the year ahead
2025 will be a year of mahi tahi – eyes wide open in communities across the motu. Pēnei i a mātou ki Whangārei mō ēnei kaupapa Fast Track, e mahi tahi ana te iwi kāinga ki te hapori ki te whakahē te maina onepū ki ngā whenua o Ruakākā puta noa, mō te aha? Mō te taiao, mō te mana takutai moana, mō ngā rawa o Tangaroa.
The risks of the Fast-Track law are shown by the sand-mining case of the McCallum Bros. The McCallum Brothers lost an Environment Court case, stopping their sandmining at Pākiri[1] in April 2024 following years of challenge from the haukāinga and community. They have now turned their attention to Ruakākā, Waipu and Langs Beach, made possible by Fast Track.
This will see 9 million cubic metres of sand dredged from a 17km area of the moana over 35 years, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day. The McCallum Bros track record in Pākiri is horrific and now the communities and hapū of the north must fight this and many other fast track projects due to come into effect in the next year. We are alert, we are mobilised, we will activate for te taiao me Te Tiriti o Waitangi!
My priorities for 2025 are simple. Work with our communities and iwi kāinga to push forward on local issues, tautoko the ongoing work for national kotahitanga, and as members of the Opposition keep pressing forward together in Whare Paremata kia kaupare te hoariri, kia tū kotahi tonu mō te mana Māori motuhake.
I reflect in positivity on the kupu of my tūpuna Kawiti who shared in his poropiti following the battle of Te Ruapekapeka in January 1846 at Pukepoto in Whangārei.
Titiro atu ki ngā taumata o te moana, ka hua mai i reira he ao hou ‘Look to the horizons and beyond the sea, there you will find a fruitfulness in the new world and the transfiguration of the future.’
