John Tamihere: Judith Collins, talk to Māori people, not about us

Let's be clear, Judith Collins is not making hate speech. But in my opinion she is emboldening it, says John Tamihere. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opinion

OPINION

Judith Collins has spent a lot of money and effort in defining a national debate.

A debate commenced while she was a senior Cabinet minister. A debate consented to while she was a high-ranking government minister in the John Key administration.

He Puapua is a paper discussing how Aotearoa may implement its agreement to the indigenous rights debate.

Let's be clear, Collins is not making hate speech. But in my opinion, she is emboldening it.

I have written this column because everything I have read on Collins' defining debate has been written by white people about brown people.

Police have just prosecuted a man from Tauranga on two separate charges of making an objectionable publication and inciting racial disharmony.

This is but one example.

The filth and the vitriol directed at Māori is naturalised and normalised by the actions of many white folk including Collins. You have to be subjected to it constantly to understand it.

Politics is about the use of words.

In my opinion, Collins' use of Politics 101 is emotion + passion = hate, known as raising the politics of fear.

What we as Māori talk about is a rights-based debate. Collins has, in my view, purposely turned it into a race-based debate.

This campaign around Māori matters appears to be justified by Collins because she is not politically correct, because she is a proud white New Zealander, because her entitled and privileged community are being denied a debate, that her rights are being stolen by conspiracy and stealth.

John Tamihere says everything he has read on Judith Collins' defining debate has been written by white people about brown people.

She is framing this conversation as if I, as a Māori, am taking something away from her, when what I'm actually deeply requesting is that we want some honesty, fairness and justice. We want rights at the table that were promised to us under the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

Where, in any debate or document, have Māori ever taken anything from a Collins or her privileged, white and entitled followers?

How have Māori discriminated against Pākehā in health, housing, education, employment or justice? All of the evidence is absolutely contrary to what seems to be a campaign of fear being unleashed by Collins.

How can getting one or two Māori around a table of 10 or 12 white councillors at a local council table be a takeover?

In my opinion, when Māori ask for the recognition of their rights, Collins makes it a debate on race — never about rights. White versus Brown, Stealthy Māori versus Honest White, White Victims versus Brown Villains.

Māori will continue asserting our rights as indigenous people and the fact we are Māori is beside the point.

Māori have persistently and relentlessly indicated that honouring the Treaty of Waitangi is the starting point of any conversation or debate.

We just need to find a few honourable white folk to have that debate with.

If that scares the likes of Judith Collins, then she's in the wrong country.

By all means, have a debate, but do not make Māori your bait.

So Judith, talk to Māori, not about us.

John Tamihere is a former Labour Cabinet Minister and is the chief executive of Urban Māori Authority Te Whānau o Waipareira.