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The fire is hitting the hāngī stones, and the Government begins to feel the burning.
Petitions with 11,000 signatures were submitted to Parliament to remove the laws, labeled “racist”, which make it almost impossible for Maori districts on councils.
Toni Boynton of Te Rōpū Tautoko Māori, one of the groups that organized the two petitions, said that Parliament was where the rules came from, but the councils were where “fire hits the hāngī stones.”
“Why not include the voice of the people who have lived on earth for a thousand years?”
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Toni Boynton of Te Rōpū Tautoko Māori delivers the 11,000-signature petition to Labor MP Tāmati Coffey, who seeks to change the law covering Maori districts in councils.
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The petitions call for changes to local government legislation that puts Maori districts at the mercy of a binding referendum. Once a council creates Maori districts, this decision can be overturned by referendum, provoked by 5% of the voters.
No other district, like the rural one, can be stopped by the public ballot box. The petitions called for Maori neighborhoods to be treated the same as other neighborhoods.
The new government has already signaled changes to the laws in effect this period, but petitioners were eager for swift action.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Toni Boynton delivers the petition to Labor MP Tāmati Coffey.
Local government minister Nanaia Mahuta said she supported the changes to the law, but did not give a timeline for those changes.
“We have just sat down again in Parliament and we have our new mandate. I will certainly raise the problem with the Cabinet, and when they make a decision you will know it. “
He said he understood that a bit of urgency was needed with the changes. It was a priority for her, she said.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
The crowd gathers for the delivery of the petition on the Maori districts in Parliament.
Mahuta said that he believed the time had come to see Maori faces in the nation’s councils. “I think it’s time to look and see our Maori faces on the horizons. “
Things She has found at least nine councils in New Zealand that have made decisions about Maori neighborhoods in recent months. These decisions could be overturned by referendums, if activated.
According to petitioners in Parliament, eight of the nine referendums held over the past two decades have annulled Maori districts.
Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
Minister of Local Government nanaia Mahuta.
Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said he wanted quick action from the government.
He said that if referendums were triggered on all councils that have decided to create council chambers, it could cost roughly $ 2 million.
“There is a better chance for the 2 million dollars. Let’s not waste taxpayer money. “
The petitions were handed over to Labor MP Tāmati Coffey, who said the rooms were discriminatory and racist.
“The fact that you can set up a rural neighborhood and a community board, but the second the word ‘Maori’ appears, the guards get up, and suddenly [it’s] – ‘launch the petition’ “.
He said there was “political will” to change the law and that it couldn’t happen soon enough.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
The audience celebrates the delivery of the petition to the Maori districts in the councils.
New Plymouth District Councilor Dinnie Moeahu was one of a group of about 50 who participated in delivering the petition.
Moeahu, who was one of 12 councilors who voted to establish a Maori ward for the New Plymouth District Council earlier in the year, said the event was “a beautiful occasion.”
“It wasn’t just Maori there, there were non-Maori there, tamariki there. There was a really diverse representation of our community, all in support.”
Supplied
Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon. (archive)
The society had come a long way since 2014, when the New Plymouth council voted in a Maori neighborhood that was later overruled by a binding citizen-initiated referendum, Moeahu said.
People were beginning to better understand the Maori neighborhood and the benefit to the community, he said.
“What we are finding is having a voice at the decision-making table, even if it is just a voice, it is still a voice.”
This was a step in the right direction, Moeahu said.
“There is a clear mandate for this to change the legislation. For me, this only reinforces the hope I have that our community will continue to build bridges, come together, to better understand our position in this world.”
Currently, at least three councils have some form of Maori neighborhoods, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils and the Wairoa District Council.
The other group that organized the petitions was ActionStation.
Tips that have recently made decisions about Maori neighborhoods
Taupō, Kaipara, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, New Plymouth, Northland Regional Council, Ruapehu, South Taranaki, Tauranga and Whangārei.
– Information compiled with the help of Local Government NZ.
