Davis launches into ‘privileged’ Opposition
WELLINGTON: Labour deputy leader Kelvin Davis has launched a stinging attack on Parliament’s Opposition parties, saying their privilege had been built on the misery of others, including his own hapu.
He talked about an ancestor who had signed the Treaty of Waitangi in the belief his possessions and resources would be his forever.
‘‘But that was a lie.
‘‘The Opposition fail to acknowledge that their prosperity was made off the back of my whanau’s misery.’’
Mr Davis is also Minister of MaoriCrown Relations, Children and Corrections, and the MP for the northern Maori seat of Te Tai Tokerau.
His speech appeared to be a response to comments by Act New Zealand leader David Seymour saying his party would abolish Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development, MaoriCrown RelationsTe Arawhiti, the Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
Act and National have also opposed a raft of Government proposals expanding models of cogovernance between Crown agencies and Maori, saying it would give Maori more rights than other citizens.
‘‘Equality means we should start on the same playing field and that we should all have the same shot,’’ Mr Davis said.
‘‘There is neither equality or equity in Aotearoa and the Opposition’s goal to slash and burn the Ministry of Maori Development, the office of Maori Crown Relations, the office of Women’s Affairs, the Human Rights Commission, the winter energy payment and the feesfree scheme are all examples of agencies or policies designed to create equity for those who haven’t benefited by a system historically designed and propped up by and for the benefit of predominantly privileged Pakeha men.’’
The Opposition wanted to protect the status quo because it was their system that looked after their needs and they liked to think that if only more people were like them, then all the world’s problems would fade away, Mr Davis said.
‘‘They conveniently overlook the fact that their wealth, their privilege and their authority was built off the backs of other people’s misery and the entrenched inequality across generations.’’
His tupuna four great grandfathers back was a rangatira who signed He Whakaputanga [the declaration of independence] and the Treaty of Waitangi.
He had been the owneroperator of two alehouses, had marketsized gardens, and had collected customs duties off trading and whaling ships in the Bay of Islands.
‘‘He was setting his hapu, my hapu, up to be productive and successful both socially and in commerce.’’
He had signed the treaty in the belief his possessions and resources would be his forever, ‘‘but that was a lie’’.
‘‘He was a chief who was made destitute by the system that created intergenerational poverty and inequity.
‘‘His descendants who could have had lives of prosperity if Te Tiriti o Waitangi had been honoured now number in the tens of thousands and I would estimate that 80% of them live on the breadline.’’
‘‘‘‘They could have done with a Ministry of Maori Development to help them get back on their feet. They could have done with Te Arawhiti, the Office for Maori Crown Relations.
‘‘They could have done with the winter energy payment because they were made homeless when their pa was razed to the ground . . . at the start of winter.
‘‘They could have done with the Human Rights Commission because their human rights were horribly violated and, as most of us are a product of our upbringing, the lack of equality through the generations has led to gross inequity,’’ Mr Davis said. — The