Winston’s salary should be docked
It was a Friday night, the eve of the 1999 election. Jenny Shipley’s lame duck government was limping to defeat. Parliament was dark and deserted, as MPs returned to their families after a last desperate day of campaigning.
But the lights were on in one office – that of Treaty negotiations minister Sir Douglas Graham. In secrecy, two representatives of Taranaki’s deeply-riven Te Atiawa iwi had driven to Wellington. And with no announcement, no speeches and no waiata, the three men signed the iwi’s $34 million draft Treaty settlement. The deal did not offer compensation for the region’s petroleum resources or for the mountain itself, to the annoyance of dissident hapu.
I stood out on Parliament’s forecourt that quiet night, a junior reporter with The Dominion, looking up at the Beehive. Someone in Taranaki had spotted one of the negotiators in his car, heading south out of Waitara that morning, and had tipped me off. I knew what was going on but was unable to report it. In the next morning’s paper, Election Day, archaic laws prohibited us from reporting anything that might influence the election’s outcome.
The actions of the negotiators were, in my view, underhanded: the signing was against the will of three of the biggest hapu.
And Sir Douglas’ actions were quite arguably unconstitutional, with Helen Clark’s Labour Government poised to take power.
It was the latest in a long history of shameful Crown insults to the people of the eight Taranaki iwi, dating back to the sacking of the pacifist settlement of Parihaka.
It has taken 17 long years since that night to bring all the people of Te Atiawa and the Government back together and to acknowledge those past atrocities.
If there was one thing they deserved this week, it was to drive down to Parliament to stand in the public gallery, white feathers in their hair, and see their Treaty settlement passed into law – in front of this whole nation.
It was not to be. Once more, a few men’s egos got in the way of a historic resolution.
Te Atiawa and four other iwi were denied this moment by NZ First leader Winston Peters’ decision to indulge in a piece of grandstanding so self-indulgent it would put the most narcissist teenager to shame.
He suddenly spotted an opportunity in front of the TV cameras. ‘‘The Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill hands power to iwi by giving them six decision-making roles on a local authority,’’ he said. ‘‘This is electoral apartheid.’’
Let us be very clear: apartheid is denying people autonomy because of their skin colour. What this bill does is precisely the opposite, restoring some self-determination to the iwi of Taranaki.
Peters’ use of the word ‘‘apartheid’’ is reckless and incendiary. His actions in blocking the settlements were churlish.
The Government says the 400 kuia and kaumatua who travelled down for the historic moment won’t be left out of pocket.
For cynically perverting the course of democracy, Peters ought to be docked that money from his own generous salary.