Waatea News Update

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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Turia takes on Newman over fringe racism

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia and former parliamentary colleague Muriel Newman are going head to head about who is running a racist organisation.

Mrs Turia says the former ACT MP's Coastal Coalition, which is leading opposition to the Marine and Coastal Area Takutai Moana Act, is a fringe organisation on par with the Right Wing Resistance Movement, which is attacking Asian immigration.

She says Mrs Newman wants to rip up the Treaty of Waitangi.

“This is the founding document of our country and we should behave honourably towards one another, be respectful towards one another, and putting out billboards with iwi versus kiwi on them and all the other negative things they were doing is simply outrageous because that’s what breeds anger, that’s what breeds resentment,” Mrs Turia says.

She says people like Muriel Newman and ACT's new leader Don Brash need to get their heads around the fact one in two children born in New Zealand is brown.

TAI TOKERAU ELECTORS WARNED TO CHECK ROLLS

Te Tai Tokerau electors are being urged to make sure they're enrolled in time to vote in the June 25 by-election.

Stephen Hansen, the Registrar of Electors, says people need to be enrolled at their current address by the time the writs close on May 25 to be on the printed roll.

People who sign up after that date would need to cast a special declaration vote on election day.

All eligible electors enrolled by May 25 will receive a voting information pack in the mail a week before the June 25 by-election.

Turn-out in the electorate in the 2008 general election was 63 percent.

WATER POLICY STATEMENT TOOTHLESS AND UNENFORCEABLE

A Massey University ecology lecturer says the Government's national policy statement on fresh water won't help local authorities clean up rivers and lakes.

The Maori Council has attacked the statement for failing to recognise the right of Maori to assist in water management.

Dr Mike Joy agrees, and says the lack of teeth in the statement is like having road rules without enforcement.

“So we'll have these laws but we won’t have any way to police them. We’ve seen what happens with the road toll. It would be really high if we didn’t have an police out there and people were being fined and having their licences taken off them and all that kind of thing. If you don’t have tough rules, if you don’t have any way of enforcing the rules, then nothing will change,” Dr Joy says.

At the same time as releasing the national policy statement the government announced it was putting million of dollars into irrigation schemes, which will mean extra cows polluting the rivers and the air.

POTENTIAL CANDIDATE CONFIDENT VOTES ARE STILL THERE

The front-runner to represent the Maori Party in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election says people are under-estimating the support the party still has in the electorate.

Veteran broadcaster and language expert Waihoroi Shortland, who chairs the Ngati Hine runanga, says his nomination is going in today.

He says incumbent Hone Harawira alienated many Maori Party members with his actions even before quitting the party in February, and there's more than enough support to make a credible showing.

“When I hear people say to me it’s winnable, when I hear that there is a much larger silent majority in the north than people give it credit for, when I consider that the people you’re hearing a lot of are people who see to draw attention to their cause, I think people forget, not everybody are soapbox preachers,” Mr Shortland says.

HORIZON POLL RESULT NOT RELEVANT TO MAORI PARTY AIMS

Meanwhile, Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is dismissing a Horizon Research poll putting her roopu behind Hone Harawira's new Mana Party.

The survey of 1845 people ranked support for Mana at 2.3 percent compared with 2.1 percent for the Maori Party, with a 2.3 percent margin of error.

Mrs Turia says the poll covers all voters nationwide, rather than just those in the seven Maori electorates.

“It's taken right across so those who are on the general roll, those who are on the Maori roll, the questions are asked of them so whether that is valid for the Maori Party given that the only vote that counts for us is those on the Maori roll, probably not,” she says.

ARDIJAH SPECIAL FOR ARAWA MATARIKI CELEBRATION

Ardijah singer Betty-Ann Monga is looking forward to celebrating Matariki with the women of Te Arawa.

A tribute to the long-lasting poly-funk-soul band is the centrepiece of a midwinter event in Rotorua next month which aims to honour the contributions te Arawa wahine are making locally and nationally.

Monga says the band has always got a great reception in the region, and she’s looking forwards to celebrating the gifts of Te Arawa women.

The gala event at the Distinction hotel will include one-off performances by Ardijah & Te Arawa friends, including singer Maisey Rika, kapa haka experts and singers Ria Hall and Miriama Hare, artist Regan Balzer, poet Chanz Mikaere & hip hop group Unit-Y.

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