Nothing to be scared of : Labour MP rules out separate Māori House of Parliament, court system Newshub 4 hrs ago Dan Satherley
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A senior Labour MP says there s nothing to be scared of in how the Government plans to live up to a UN declaration the National Party signed New Zealand up to.
In 2010, the National-led Government - in coalition with the Māori Party - said New Zealand would support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The previous Government, led by Labour under Helen Clark, refused to sign it, then-Māori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia saying it was fundamentally incompatible with New Zealand s constitutional and legal arrangements and established Treaty settlement policy .
UNDRIP response to get urban Maori lens waateanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from waateanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Haere ra He Puapua.
Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson today thanked the independent group which came up with the controversial report on how New Zealand could deliver on its commitment to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - and announced a two stage plan to develop the Government s own plan.
For the next six months there will be engagement with Maori individuals, organisations and iwi, followed by wider community consultation next year on a draft Declaration plan.
Mr Jackson says the work builds on the previous National Government s decision to sign the declaration and will enhance the partnership with Māori.
National leader Judith Collins accused the Government of a separatism by stealth agenda, after plans were set in motion for a Māori Health Authority as well as Māori wards in local councils, both of which were recommended in the report.
Collins vowed to keep probing Labour s Māori co-governance plans despite Newshub polling in May showing 44.5 percent of Kiwis thought National was being divisive and the Māori Party accusing her of racism.
Paradoxically, the report was commissioned as a response to the former National-led Government signing New Zealand up in 2010 to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.