Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi ‘will not recognize the queen alone’ in his oath

Originally Posted by Māori Television

Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi says he will not recognize the Queen only when she is sworn in in Parliament on Thursday.

“I don’t want to pledge allegiance to the Queen of England,” Waititi told Māori TV’s Oriini Kaipara on Tuesday.

“It is fine if Ngā Rangatira or ngā Hapū or Aotearoa and the Treaty of Waitangi are also added. I agree with that due to the burden carried by our ancestors … but it is a little problem if it is the Queen alone.”

Waititi, who wrested the Waiariki seat from Labor’s Tāmati Coffey in one of the biggest upsets of election night, said he would be “creative” when taking the oath: “Maybe I have found an alternative in my oath.”

Waititi also said he was disappointed that he and Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer did not have a chance to respond to the Crown on Thursday because they had not yet delivered their opening speeches.

“We have a problem with that because the Maori voice is silenced on the first day of Parliament.”

Waititi and Ngawera-Packer will give their opening speeches on December 3. “There we will give our hopes and aspirations for the next three years,” Waititi told Maori television.

Waititi also affirmed his support for the call by Commissioner for Children, Andrew Becroft, for an urgent transformation of the care and protection of Maori babies by Oranga Tamariki.

Becroft recommended that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her Cabinet commit to transferring government power and resources to allow for Maori and Maori approaches that keep Maori babies in the care of their whānau.

“What I will say is that a New Zealand is growing,” Waititi said. “It is a New Zealand that wants to see Maori with equal rights in their own land.”