Tama Potaka plans to speak more Māori in Parliament to help preserve te reo

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka with fellow National MPs Dan Bidois (right) and Rima Nakhle at Rātana Pā. Photo / Adam Pearse

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka will speak te reo more in parliament to help preserve the language.

Potaka said, as the Māori Development Minister, part of his role is to ensure the language is not a consequence of the Coalition Government’s agreement, and he is dedicated to the protection of te reo.

“The first thing I’m going to do is to speak Māori more and more often … particularly in the Whare Paremata [House of Parliament],” Potaka said.

The Te Aute old boy was the Government’s representative at the hui in Ngāruawāhia last week called for by Kingi Tuheitia. Around 12,000 people turned up.

As one of the senior Māori National MPs, Potaka was with Prime Minister Christoper Luxon when the Government was welcomed onto Ratana Pā, near Whanganui yesterday.

Last week, Ministry of Justice documents were leaked about a proposed bill by the Coalition Government, which includes three new principles based on the articles of the Treaty. The documents were leaked on the same day of Kīngi Tuheitia’s nationwide hui-ā-motu which was held over concerns about the new Government’s policies on indigenous rights.

Potaka, who is also Minister for Māori Crown relations, says the document is just a draft and is something he has yet to see.

With the proposed bill criticised as posing a threat to rangatiratanga or Māori chieftainship, Potaka says rangatiratanga does not come from a document.

“What our tīpuna signed was actually just an affirmation of what already existed, which was rangatiratanga. Our rangatiratanga does not come from a document, it does not come from the government. It comes from our tīpuna, it comes from our maunga and our awa.”