Shane Te Pou and David Seymour: He Puapua and Maori co-governance thrust back into spotlight

Opposition parties have come out strongly against the He Puapua report that makes recommendations for co-governance between the Crown and Māori.
Bridges told TVNZ's Q+A the party was not walking back on the previous National-led government's decision to sign up to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Undrip), on which the controversial report He Puapua was based, but was "concerned" about the Government's signalled implementation.
It comes after Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson this week outlined the next steps for the country to realise its international obligations to indigenous peoples under the Declaration.
Jackson said the Government was not ruling anything out ahead of consultation, first with Māori followed by the general population, sparking further speculation constitutional changes suggested in He Puapua could be on the table.
Act leader David Seymour has called on Parliament to renounce the Declaration completely, meanwhile Te Paati Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi says He Puapua does not go far enough and calls for a completely independent Māori Parliament.
Jackson said a plan to enact the Declaration would be in place by the end of next year, preceded by consultation first with Māori then the general population about what it should include.
It comes after a heated few months in Parliament after opposition parties leaked Government-commissioned document He Puapua, produced in 2019 to advise how New Zealand could realise its commitments under the Declaration.
He Puapua included a roadmap to 2040 by which time it envisages various co-governance and Māori-run arrangements, such as a separate Upper House of Parliament for Māori, to address the huge inequities currently facing Māori.
During the announcement Jackson took pains to state He Puapua was "not the plan".
But while the Government had made clear its dislike of some aspects, such as a separate Upper House of Parliament, they were not ruling anything out.
"It is about the opportunity to have a kōrero," Jackson said.
The Declaration was not binding and any policies that came out of it would need to be consistent with New Zealand's current laws, he said.
Simon Bridges, National's Māori-Crown spokesman, told Q+A broadcaster Jack Tame that Jackson's comments National should be supportive given it had signed New Zealand up to the Declaration was a "fig leaf of an excuse".
"Any government has complete discretion on how to implement it," Bridges said.
The party was concerned the Government was heading towards "50/50" arrangements between Māori and the Crown, something that was "inconsistent with a multicultural, modern liberal democracy," he said.
Rather, Bridges said targeted instead of "top down" approaches were needed to address the inequities facing Māori.
He said he accepted He Puapua was not Government policy, but believed it was still driving some of the ministers in Government.
"There is something a bit religious about this. A sense that 'if we haven't said Aotearoa 18 times by lunchtime, if we haven't referenced the Treaty and tried to do some things in that area, we'll have to go home in the evening and say a few Hail Marys'."
Seymour said Parliament never voted for New Zealand to sign up to the Declaration, beyond a Ministerial Statement that Act spoke against in 2010.
"Act is calling on all parties in Parliament to renounce the Declaration that Government Ministers signed up to without full democratic consent.
"Either New Zealand is to be a liberal democracy where all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, or a kind of ethno-state where some are born more equal than others."
Waititi told Newshub's The Nation the current Parliamentary system was not working for Māori.
"Our people have tried to manipulate and work in the system for a long, long time. But I think it's time for us to start...

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