National MP for Rangitata James Meager during his maiden speech in Parliament on December 6. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National MP for Rangitata James Meager during his maiden speech in Parliament on December 6. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Opinion
Thirty-three of Parliament’s 123 MPs are of Māori descent. The deputy prime minister, four of the seven other party leaders and co-leaders, and 30 per cent of the Cabinet are of Māori descent. And Māori MPs are leading the debate over the future of our parliamentary democracy.
Two maiden speechesgive very different views.
James Meager (National, Rangitata)
“It is the flaws that we see in everything that I think brings us to this House. Our purpose is to fix what we see is wrong in the world.
“My dad is Ngāi Tahu, a freezing worker most of his life, a little Māori kid who was kicked out of school at 14.
“Mum brought me, my younger brother and sister up on her own — a single mum in a state house on the benefit with three kids.
“I know what it’s like to have your very first memory be of the police trying to coax you to come out from under the bed, telling you that everything would be OK. But make no mistake, we had a great life. We never went without.
“Members opposite do not own Māori. Members opposite do not own the poor. Members opposite do not own the workers. No party and no ideology has a right to claim ownership over anything or anyone.
“There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be here today if it weren’t for my education. I would not have practised law. I would not have gone to Otago University. I would not have had the privilege of being head boy and dux at Timaru Boys’ High School. And that’s what brings me here. It’s why I’m in politics. It’s why I’m in this place. Because I know that in New Zealand today, not every child will have the same opportunity that I had 30 years ago.
“If we invest thousands in supporting the first thousand days of a child’s life, we can save millions in long-term costs that stem from poor health and poor education.
“Good programmes should be enriched, and bad ones should be cast aside.
“This is why we are all here: to debate freely; to have an open, robust contest of ideas ... We are here to represent the people who put us here. And some of us are here to disrupt and to challenge the status quo, and I get that — I really do. But in doing so, we must respect this institution.
“We are a Parliament of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris in the House during the swearing-in ceremony on December 5. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Tākuta Ferris (Te Pāti Māori, Te Tai Tonga)
“1835, 28 October, Māori declared their independence and sovereignty … the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, enacted by the authority of … the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand. The declaration was made and the country of New Zealand came into being.
“The declaration is the foremost constitutional document; Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the second.
“It is time for this country to mature and let the English text of Te Tiriti o Waitangi be laid to rest. The time has come.
“For the Māori people are a sovereign people, and we have never ceded our sovereignty, we have never abdicated our sovereign authority.
“I’ve not come here to speak about myself or the nature of how I arrive in this whare. I’ve come to talk about our people: the many independent nations, the hapū, the iwi, the tangata whenua of this land, the principal partner in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“Many politicians have quoted Apirana Ngata in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi … they failed to realise … The view of the day was … to assimilate … there has been no rewriting of history. There has been no reinterpretation of history. There has only been an unearthing of history.
[Note: Politicians cite Sir Apirana Ngata, scholar, lawyer, and deputy prime minister, because he knew Māori who knew chiefs who signed. Ngata had no doubt sovereignty was ceded. “The laws made by Parliament,” Ngata wrote, ”are made for the humble and the great, for the ignorant and for the chiefs, without discrimination.”]
Ferris: “I’m not here to service the needs of this House; I’m here to contest it and the manner in which it exercises authority over things it has no authority over. I am here to represent the 12,800 Māori in Te Tai Tonga who voted me into this position to represent their views, give voice to their aspirations, and be a light for them. Te Pāti Māori does not presume to speak for all Māori. We understand perfectly well there are many colonised Māori trapped out there. But we do speak from a purely Māori perspective, for and on behalf of a purely Māori constituency.
“We are continually called out as radical, racist, promoting apartheid — I must say the irony of it is not lost on me.”
Richard Prebble is a former leader of the Act Party and a former member of the Labour Party.
