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Politics | TPPA

Delamere believes TPPA adequately protects Treaty of Waitangi

Former MP Tuariki Delamere fears scaremongering by individuals are putting Māori off the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).  Delamere believes the trade agreement gives adequate protection of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Tuariki Delamere is no stranger to politics, and he says the politics around the TPP is getting ugly.

He says, "In there is The Treaty of Waitangi and what it says in there is that people out there are lying, and they are lying to Māori."

The former NZ First MP believes the TPP, under article 29.6, gives adequate protection of the Treaty of Waitangi, and Māori should not be intimidated by people who say it doesn't.

"I'll read it to you, I look at it on my screen, it says nothing in this Agreement shall preclude the adoption by New Zealand of measures it deems necessary to accord more favourable treatment to Māori," says Delamere.

Delamere says despite opposition from Labour Leader Andrew Little, there are those in Labour that still support the agreement, "Phil Goff, Helen Clark, Mike Moore, David Shearer the leaders of the Labour party that have actually done something with their lives unlike Andrew Little all support it."

Meanwhile FOMA head Traci Houpapa said New Zealand was the only TPP partner amongst the 12countries to have recognised its indigenous peoples by enshrining Te Tiriti O Waitangi and welcomed wider public consultation.

Delamere says, "Someone stands up and shouts out a few slogans and they run off after them and find out later it wasn't true anyway.  This is what I say to Māori for gods sake, check things out before you scream the Treaty.  They say this is going to cost us our sovereignty, but I thought we lost that in 1840, that's when we lost our sovereignty."

Like Houpapa, Delamere is encouraging the public to make an informed decision on the TPP in the coming months.

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