Motorists are being advised to prepare for disruptions across the country tomorrow as Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori plans protests against the newly-formed government’s policies.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori is calling on the community to join in taking a stand against what they say is an “assault on tangata whenua”.<\/p>\n
In a social media post on Monday, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori issued a nationwide call to action, scheduled for Tuesday, 5 December.<\/p>\n
The Nationwide Action Day aligns with the opening of the 54th term of Parliament, where all MPs are required to swear an oath of allegiance to the King of England.<\/p>\n
The action comes in response to a raft of co-governance related policies announced last week by the new National-led coalition.<\/p>\n
Some of the policies include scrapping Te Aka Whai Ora, the M\u0101ori Health Authority, just 16 months after its establishment, and the proposal of a Treaty Principles Bill. The bill promises a comprehensive review of all legislation, aside from the full and final Treaty Settlements Act, with the aim of removing existing references to “principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” from law.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, speaking at Monday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, said he encouraged everyone to be lawful, peaceful and respectful.<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s entitled to their right to protest … our government is deeply committed to improving outcomes for M\u0101ori and non-M\u0101ori. And if we’re really honest, the last six years, the outcomes have not been good for M\u0101ori under the Labour government.”<\/p>\n
He acknowledged the protests were also being organised by some iwi.<\/p>\n
“What I’d say to you is we’ve only been in government just on a week … we are deeply committed to improving outcomes for M\u0101ori, period.<\/p>\n
“The one word we have to focus on is delivery and actually getting things done for Kiwis.”<\/p>\n
According to Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori social media posts, the kaupapa of the action day is to demonstrate the “beginning of a unified Aotearoa approach to the government’s assault on Tangata Whenua and Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.<\/p>\n
“Demonstrating the might of Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti working together. The revolution of Gen-T (Generation Tiriti) standing up for and protecting the rights of all our mokopuna”, and “asserting the mana of Te Tiriti O Waitangi as enduring and everlasting”.<\/p>\n
The tikanga of the Action Day is peaceful, respectful, mokopuna focused, mokopuna friendly, and wairua pai, according to the Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori social media post.<\/p>\n
Plans for the day are already emerging with Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti Te Rangi Iwi trust, a Tauranga-based iwi, issuing a p\u0101nui to wh\u0101nau on Facebook calling them to take protest action.<\/p>\n
“This national protest is in direct response to the government changes that seek to rapidly dismantle three generations worth of work under an agenda that blatantly disregards the place of M\u0101ori in Aotearoa and looks to marginalise us as Tangata Whenua,” the p\u0101nui said.<\/p>\n
“We have worked too hard to revitalise our reo, educate our people, correct the injustices faced by M\u0101ori by offering equitable opportunities to be healthy, housed and employed, keep our people out of jail, whilst working towards ensuring that future generations of M\u0101ori do not bear the weight of the same injustices imposed upon us, to have these efforts reversed.”<\/p>\n
The action will be taking place across the country, starting at 7am Tuesday with more than 16 planned locations posted on Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori social media.<\/p>\n
Police preparing for disruptions across the North Island
\nIn a statement, police assistant commissioner Sandra Venables said they were preparing for the protests, which were likely to cause disruptions to traffic between 7.30am and 9am on motorways across T\u0101maki Makaurau, Waikato, Palmerston North, Hawera, New Plymouth, Tokoroa, Whanganui, Porirua, Whang\u0101rei, Tauranga, Rotorua, and Wellington.<\/p>\n
Police were working with organisers to provide advice on lawful protest, as well as any health and safety implications, Venables said.<\/p>\n
“Officers will be highly visible across the roading network throughout the morning and, in some locations, will put measures in place to prevent protesters putting themselves and motorists in harm’s way.<\/p>\n
“Unlawful behaviour will result in enforcement action, either at the time or following the event if safety issues prevent immediate action.”<\/p>\n
Motorists in affected areas were advised to plan ahead and anyone travelling to the airport or to any other time-sensitive commitment is advised to allow more time for their journey.<\/p>\n
RNZ has contacted Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori for comment.<\/p>\n
Labour spokesperson says protests ‘not a surprise’
\nLabour M\u0101ori development spokesperson Willie Jackson said he understood the anger at the new government.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know all the details but I hear that there’s going to be major protests around the Auckland area, so we’ll be watching and it’s not a surprise but there’s a lot of anger out there at the moment.<\/p>\n
“I understand it, I’ve heard about it for quite some time, I did make some warnings before about the type of response you’d get if a referendum was rolled out – and while they’re not rolling out a referendum, you’ve got attacks on te reo M\u0101ori, you’ve got attacks on the M\u0101ori Health Authority, there’s question marks about M\u0101ori funding going forward, and there’s a huge level of frustration.”<\/p>\n
“At the moment, I say good on them,” he said of the protesters.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori also plan to pledge an oath of allegiance to mokopuna, rather than the King. Jackson said he did not plan to do the same, but he understood it and there should be a choice offered.<\/p>\n
“I think our people should have an option, and I don’t have a problem supporting that. I’m thinking more about what we have to do right now in terms of responding to the attacks on us but if people want to make a statement and roll out a strategy there at the swearing-in, good on them.”<\/p>\n
VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motorists are being advised to prepare for disruptions across the country tomorrow as Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori plans protests against the newly-formed government’s policies. Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori is calling on the community to join in taking a stand against what they say is an “assault on tangata whenua”. In a social media post on Monday, Te […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,208,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-lifestyle","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8531,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8529\/revisions\/8531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}