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Māori Party president John Tamihere says New Zealand needs to avoid becoming entangled in other nations’ conflicts with China which could see Aotearoa being dragged into other countries issues.
Te Pāti Māori has a platform of military neutrality, including staying out of the new Aukus (Australia, United Kingdom and United States) alliance and Australia’s nuclear submarine programme.
Tamihere says this endorses the call by Sir Robert Bom Gillies, the last surviving member of 28 Māori Battalion, that he does not want to send his mokopuna to war.
Sir Robert Gillies with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro. Photo / Samuel Rillstone, RNZ
Tamihere says China’s military conflicts have been about securing its borders rather than attacking other countries.
“I don’t get this hate on China when it’s our largest trading partner and our so-called trading partners block and place large tariffs on our exports to them, and in doing that they’re not mates but they make out we’re all mates,” Tamihere told Waatea.News.Com.
He says the Defence Force should be a peacekeeping force, not an attack force, and its military spending should be on things that serve the mana motuhake of the population here in Aotearoa.
Te Pati Maori co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
In February, Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer announced the party’s transformative defence and foreign affairs policy which asserts the Mana Māori Motuhake and Tino Rangatiratanga of tangata whenua in Aotearoa.
“In 1987, Aotearoa declared that we were nuclear free. Te Pāti Māori now declares that Aotearoa must be militarily neutral, a Switzerland of the South Pacific,” Waititi said.
“We must assert our Rangatiratanga and Mana Māori Motuhake. In doing that, we must assert our own foreign policy and military requirements. We will no longer have our sovereignty determined by others, whether it is in Canberra, London, Washington, Beijing or Moscow.
“We will no longer be a political football in the wars of imperial powers. We will no longer act as a Pacific spy base for the Five-Eyes Alliance.
“We will continue to fund a defence force but this must be a support force for the Pacific, for our Polynesian world. With the extreme weather events of the last few weeks, we’ve seen just how important it is that our defence force is focused on responding to threats to our own people,” Waititi said.
Ngarewa-Packer added: “The time for war, killing and imperialism is over. Now is the time for peace and sovereignty for tangata whenua and indigenous peoples around the world. Aotearoa must be friends to everybody and enemies to nobody.”
Additional Reporting Waatea.News.Com
Joseph Los’e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for 12 years for Te Whānau o Waipareira.
