Politics, Perceptions and Principles
I was delighted to accept Carwyn’s invitation to spend some time with the people who will write the law, interpret the law, implement the law and then defend the law for our up and coming generations.
In thinking about the themes you are studying in your course, I thought about the number one theme that every politician is instructed in, the moment they walk in the rubber doors of Parliament.
That golden rule, is that ‘politics is all about perception’.
In other words, people only see what they are prepared to see, believing that the power of their perception is indeed the limit of all there is to perceive.
Adolf Huxley perhaps sums it up, ‘there are things known and things unknown, and inbetween are the doors of perception”.
To use an issue of the day, the classic example of this is the swirling perceptions being painted around New Zealand First.
It's a case of the things known - the various cheques from Sir Robert Jones, Owen Glenn, and the Vela family - and of course the things unknown being precisely what knowledge party leader, Winston Peters, had of these cheques.
The key test in this case will rest not so much on the legality of accepting party donations, but more on the ethics and morality of the disclosures in the court of public opinion.
For us, the doors of perception swung wildly in our face in the 2005 elections. In the last weeks of the campaign, Labour tried to create a perception that ‘a vote for the Mori Party was a vote for National’.
The things known were that there were a number of Bills that had gone through the previous term of Parliament in which the Mori Party had voted in a way which was similar to that of the National Party.
But the things unknown were many.
The first was the fact that our voting pattern can only be understood in the context of comparisons with other parties.
The analysis of our voting patterns derived from parliamentary library research concluded that in our votes on Bills we actually voted over twice as many times the same with the Greens as we did with National - and yet – not surprisingly - that point never saw the light of day in Labour's campaign.
Another thing unknown to us at that time, was the view of the Broadcasting Standards Authority that political advertising is inherently biased, and as such, the fact that the voting patterns were not a full and fair representation of our voting patterns, was actually within the law as it relates to the election programmes code.
At election time, the truth, it appears, can be partial, a half-truth, and the full facts are an unnecessary distraction.
But perhaps the greatest thing unknown, was exactly how our votes were decided in the first place. In reality, when we come to any legislation before the House, how another party will vote on a Bill doesn't come into our thinking.
The way we approach every Bill is the same: we examine it in terms of how the particular piece of legislation will advance the survival of tangata whenua in the best interests of Aotearoa. For example:
will it enable us to defend tangata whenua rights, and advance tangata whenua interests for the benefit of the nation?
What impact will it have on te pani me te rawa kore, the poor and the vulnerable?
Is it consistent with our tribal history?
Have those affected, including mana whenua, been consulted?
Is it consistent with kaupapa and tikanga?
This is where our positions in Parliament probably contrast the most dramatically with our parties.
Our positions are first and foremost based on principle - the values and aspirations that have been passed on from the generations before us.
I understand that you have had a chance to look through a paper I presented last year on operating Mori values in the legislature, where I talked about how these values permeate every aspect of our performance in the House - before and after the Code of Conduct the MMP parties have been petitioning the older parties to adopt.
Those same kaupapa will continue to influence us as we head into the election campaign, they will influence us in any post-election coalition negotiations, they will influence us in and out of the House.
We are not at all afraid of standing out on our own, in defence of principle.
Indeed, we have done that many times, in the term of this Parliament.
As you will know, we speak on every issue, every Bill, and bring our principles to bear in the kMrero in the House.
As a case in point, one Bill that one might not automatically associate with the Mori Party was the Geographical Indications (Wines and Spirits) Bill.
This is a Bill which seeks to denote that the wine from a particular region will be of high quality because of the fact of its geographical origin - very much like the French protect the label ‘champagne’ as specific to that region.
The question that we raised, was how the concept of pedigree related to the ownership and protection of cultural and intellectual property.
So we asked, how would the Bill actively protect the exercise by Ngati Kahungunu of tino rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga in the use of such names as Te Mata or Ngatarawa?
How would the names on wine labels like Kenepuru, Te Tai Tapu, Te Wairau, Awatere reflect the whakapapa of Ngati Koata, Ngati Rarua, Ngati Tama and Te Atiawa?
The answer was - it wouldn’t - and so consequently the votes on Hansard recorded 112 votes FOR; four against.
Voting on principle is not, however, just a matter of a for or an against vote.
We have consistently raised amendments and proposals through our contribution which seek to influence the final shape of the legislation in ways which reflect our kaupapa and tikanga.
A recent example was in attempting to improve New Zealand’s immigration policy by introducing initiatives for whnau, hapk and iwi to be involved in assisting immigrants and refuges to adjust to life in Aotearoa.
We put forward a Supplementary Order Paper to call for a cultural education programme for immigration advisers – including the Treaty and basic tikanga and te reo. We also proposed a Maori Immigration Education Council to oversee the programme.
Our motivation in doing so was that our traditional values, such as manaakitanga, require respect for the mana of all people, and as such, it would be expected that immigration policy would enable the diverse cultures of this land to be supported in their adjustment to living here.
The Government didn’t see it the same way as us - and so opposed our SOP - applying a veto proviso against it which meant it was effectively unable to be debated.
But for us the principle stood - that if are to welcome people to this land, we must do so in a way which demonstrates basic values of hospitality, generosity, mutual respect.
These few examples of the capacity of tikanga to be encompassed within legislation are in my mind, a key factor underpinning our success in standing as the independent Mori voice in Parliament.
Unlike Mori MPs in other parties - or indeed unlike the Mori MPs who have stood in Mori parliamentary seats before us - we are not answerable to the chief gate-holders in a mainstream party for permission to speak.
Our speeches don’t have to pass the vetting process of the 9th floor or go past the gauntlet of the media team before being allowed out.
We are free to stand and deliver on the aspirations of our constituency, and the application of kaupapa and tikanga is central to that. It is extremely liberating.
Professor Hirini Mead reminds us just how essential tikanga is in the dialogue between the past and the present, when he says:
“Tikanga are linked to the past and that is one of the reasons why they are so valued so highly by the people. They do link us to the ancestors, to their knowledge base and to their wisdom.
What we have today is a rich heritage that requires nurturing, awakening sometimes, adapting to our world and developing further for the next generations”.
We in the Mori Party are absolutely committed to the awakening and nurturing of this rich heritage, as a solid foundation for our future as a nation.
We will continue to be driven by principle rather than perception, to focus on tangata whenua values within the legislature, believing as we do, that kaupapa Mori speaks to us all of changes that can enhance all aspects of the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political life of this great country of ours.
We in the Mori Party believe we are the change that will benefit not only tangata whenua, but all those people who lay claim to this country as their homeland.
This year for the first time in the history of voting in Aotearoa, tangata whenua have a chance of deciding who forms the next government.
We are ready, we are enthusiastic, and we are principled.
And that’s one perception that we’re happy to endorse in every forum we can!