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28 October 2005
Democracy re-engineered in Manukau City
The Manukau City
Council last night decided to reject a controversial proposal to
create Maori Wards in Manukau City, but has instead chosen to
establish a race-based Maori standing committee.
Howick Councillor
Jami-Lee Ross is one of a long list of Manukau City Councillors
who oppose the creation of a Maori ward or Maori standing
committee.
“The issue of Maori
representation is one of fairness and equality which all Councils
should be striving to uphold” says Mr Ross
“As elected
representatives we have a responsibility to give everybody equal
opportunity to participate in the decision making process in our
city. With the recent decision to create a Maori standing
committee the Manukau City Council has decided to introduce 21st
century apartheid into the city.
“New Zealanders no
longer live in a bi-cultural country where only Maori and Pakeha
faces can be seen. New Zealanders live in a multi-cultural society
and Manukau is a very diverse city where over 165 different ethnic
groups call this place home.”
Mr Ross believes that
as community leaders, Councillors should be celebrating diversity
by allowing all Manukau residents to have the same opportunities
by creating an equal playing field for all.
“The Manukau City
Council has decided to re-engineer democracy based purely on race,
and that is wrong. What’s worse is that the decision was squeezed
through by the slimmest of margins after Manukau Mayor Sir Barry
Curtis chose to exercise his casting vote.
“While Sir Barry is
no doubt respected by a lot of people throughout the city, his
decision to support race-based democracy will inevitably be seen
as an endorsement of Deputy Mayor Anne Candy’s words when she said
on nationwide television,
‘Maori are the hosts in this country and everybody else is a
visitor’.
“Those words
disturbed a lot of people at the time and I am sure that many
Manukau residents will have difficulty accepting this view from
the leadership of their Council.”
Mr Ross considers
supporters of the Maori standing committee to have forgotten about
the third article of the Treaty of Waitangi. “Article three of the
Treaty specifically refers to both Maori and non-Maori having the
same rights and duties of citizenship as one another. The Manukau
City Councillors who voted to give Maori more rights and
privileges as others have completely ignored Article Three of the
Treaty that they claim to uphold.
“What they have done
instead is they’ve chosen to send a message to every non-Maori in
the city that they are now second class citizens. From that
message it is clear to see that the Manukau City Council’s
decision to push through the creation of a Maori standing
committee will have long term negative effects for the city.
Manukau residents no longer enjoy equal citizenship, and small
minority of 16% have more rights and privileges than everybody
else.”
Mr Ross believes the
root of the problem for Manukau City and other local authorities
lies with the Local Government Act. “The legislation that
Council’s work under was modified in 2001 to allow Maori wards to
be established. The sooner a common sense government reverses the
troublesome race-based clauses in local government legislation the
better.
“They would also
learn a lot from the words of Governor William Hobson at the
signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840: ‘He Iwi Tahi Tatou –
We are one people’”
ENDS
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