Partnership or separatism - negotiating the Treaty relationship

Friday, 14 May 2021

OPINION: Judith Collins has clearly struck a vein of public disquiet with her questions in parliament about the extent of the Government's programme to honour partnership responsibilities under the Treaty of Waitangi.

I doubt she would be pursuing accusations of a 'separatist agenda' if internal polls were not showing a certain amount of traction.

Collins maintains she wants Labour to have a conversation with all New Zealanders about how they are interpreting the Treaty and how far they intend to take co-governance.

Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also wants a conversation.

Speaking about the He Puapua report – essentially a think piece on how New Zealand can honour its obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – Ngarewa-Packer said the report's recommendations were about acknowledging current systems had favoured Pākehā over others.

'It is about shifting the balance, not being exclusive. For 181 years we have tried it this way and we know it has not worked for Māori. It is time for a mature national conversation about what that shift looks like.'

It's hard to know what this conversation would look like except to say it won't be pretty. One person's special provision for Māori to address disproportionate disadvantage is another person's separate system to advantage Māori from the public purse.

For instance, Tēnei Au, a prisoner rehabilitation programme for Māori men in high-security prisons that will use tikanga (custom) and kaupapa (Māori principles), could be seen as an enlightened step to address Māori recidivism or a precursor to separate prisons for Māori.

Separate systems for Māori are nothing new. Many more Māori council wards will soon join the seven Māori parliamentary seats. Whānau Ora, a $124 million programme under Te Puni Kōkiri to commission services to support Māori families, has been going since 2010. Oranga Tamariki is essentially devolving into two organisations, one of which is exclusively for Māori. Māori immersion schools have operated with government funding since 1995.

Society, of course, is quite capable of dealing with different strokes for different folks. Private healthcare and private education operate in their own separate spheres. Access is denied to those who don't have a ticket. Obviously race-based systems are more contentious, but the point is that separate systems don’t bring the sky down.

There is a range of different relationships within the Treaty context and some of those will be separate.

We already have a pretty good idea what partnership looks like at the level of government ministries and public institutions. The difference over the past couple of years is that the pace of change has quickened.

Perhaps one of the best illustrations of the newly alive partnership is the justice system. The use of te reo Māori has been encouraged in the courts' rituals for some time and there has been a drive to appoint more Māori judges.

Last year, Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu launched a new model for district courts called Te Ao Mārama, which takes practices from specialist courts and applies them to the mainstream criminal system.

The Te Ao Mārama model would operate 'in the spirit of partnership with local iwi and local communities to design a solution that works for multi-cultural Aotearoa New Zealand', he said.

It would include adopting plain language, and culture and processes that incorporate tikanga and te ao Māori.

A recent speech by Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta to the New Zealand China Council showed how her approach to foreign affairs will also be influenced by the partnership.

As New Zealand's first indigenous female foreign minister, she could bring forward a perspective founded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and our bicultural pillars, she said.

'The principles of partnership, active participation and protection can be called upon to enable equity and tino rangatiratanga,' she said.

Government departments are all recalibrating. This week ACC launched a strategy to engage with Māori to provide culturally and clinically suitable services with a 'by Māori for Māori' approach.

'We are also working to improve access to rongoā services that incorporate a holistic, kaupapa Māori approach to wellbeing that includes ā tinana (physical), ā wairua (spiritual), ā hinengaro (mental and emotional), ā whānau (family and social) wellbeing,' a spokeswoman said.

Collins has decided to take a stand on the blueprint for Labour's radical shake up of the health system under which a Māori Health Authority would be the lead commissioner of health services targeted at Māori and 'act as co-commissioner for other health services accessed by Māori'.

She claims the Government's proposal will divide New Zealand into 'Māori and everyone else' and worries it would lead to a separate justice and education system.

In a speech in March, Health Minister Andrew Little described the Māori Health Authority as the 'key to shaping how Māori exercise rangatiratanga over their own healthcare'.

'At the core of our reform is a by Māori, for Māori approach … Reinforcing partnership is the responsibility of all people in the system and will need to see active change in all organisations to further embed a Māori voice.'

Negotiating the partnership between the descendants of New Zealand’s indigenous people and the state will be an ongoing process with no fixed endpoint. We need to accept the issue will never be settled or finalised.

Going your own way in a partnership can be healthy but there comes a point, as in a marriage, where you do so many things separately it stops being a partnership.