Māori have a right to feel "ripped off", writes Brian Rankin. Photo / Getty Images
Māori have a right to feel "ripped off", writes Brian Rankin. Photo / Getty Images
THREE KEY FACTS
In 1840, at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Māori population was 80,000.
The average life expectancy for Māori in 1840 was 30.
There were an estimated 2050 non-Māori in New Zealand in 1840.
Brian Rankin (Ngāti Porou) had a career in law, finance, banking, corporate property management and consulting. He is a descendant of Hone Heke of Ngapuhi through his father and is a great-grandson of Sir Apirana Ngata through his mother.
OPINION
Have you ever been disappointed because you bought something only to find out, post-purchase, that the product did not deliver on the salesperson’s promise. And it made you feel stink? It’s called “buyer’s remorse”.
You feel ripped off, so you go back to the shop and ask for your money back. The salesperson refuses. You explain that you thought you were buying on a sale-or-return basis. The salesperson doesn’t see it that way. Is that your fault? Is it right if there is inequality in a relationship? Where one party knows more than the other and can therefore use that knowledge to greater advantage. One party knows how it’s going to unfold and the other doesn’t?
Imagine you are Michael J Fox in “Back to the Future” and have journeyed back in time to share critical information with the Chiefs before they signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. Photo / Supplied
Imagine you are Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future and have journeyed back in time to share critical information with the chiefs before they signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840. What might you say? Here’s how that kōrero might go:
“Right now, Māori represent 99.9% of the population in this land. Your people will very quickly become a minority in this land. By the year 2024, Māori will be no more than 17% of the population.
“Thousands of your tāne and wāhine will be locked up in a place called “prison”. That’s where Pākehā send people who do bad things. Māori will become 52% of the prison population.
“Once proud and hard-working, most of your people will have no meaningful mahi. Which means they will have no money or mana. Instead, they will get putea from the Kāwanatanga. For taking that putea, Pākehā will call Māori unemployed dole-bludging social-welfare beneficiaries.
Auckland Prison at Paremoremo. File photo / NZME
“Most of your whānau and whanaunga will live in a situation called poverty. The vast majority will live in constant financial peril, always just one shock (like a tangi) away from financial strife.
“Right now, you won’t be able to understand what “poverty” means so you’ll have to trust me when I say it will have a terrible impact on the ability of Māori mothers and fathers to live with hope and aspiration for themselves and their children. In some cases, they will be forced to do horrible things driven by need, not choice.
“There will be substances far worse than Pākehā booze that will have a devastating effect on your people. The worst consequence is that the rangatahi of wāhine and tāne afflicted by these “things” will become very sick. These rangatahi will have life-long difficulties with learning, listening and understanding. They will have wild mood swings. The saddest thing is Māori will be the main distributors of these substances operating in a dark underworld called “gangs”.
“Sadly, in 2024, Māori health statistics will be abysmal. Life expectancy for Māori males will be 73 years and 77 years for Māori females. For non-Māori males, life expectancy will be 81 years (2920 days longer than tāne Māori), and 84 years for non-Māori females (2550 days longer than wāhine Māori).
“The result of all of these things is that the principle of ‘whanaungatanga’ as you know it will be in decay. Self-interest will become more important than the greater good.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee is led into the Debating Chamber by the Serjeant-At-Arms, Steve Streefkerk, during the State Opening of Parliament in Wellington in December 2023. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“More importantly, I need to share with you the system of Kāwanatanga that will be in place from the day you sign this treaty. The Pākehā had this system long before coming to Aotearoa. It’s called the Westminster System. Did they explain how it works to you?
“They have this thing called Parliament. It’s a numbers game. They give voters the right to vote for ‘parliamentarians’ who belong to different parties with different beliefs about what’s best for the country. The party that wins the most votes makes the rules. That’s the objective of the game to make the rules.
“Parliament makes the laws. So quite simply once there are more Pākehā than Māori, and if there is no Māori in Parliament you are going to get laws that are favourable to Pākehā.
“In 1863, the Pākehā-dominant Parliament passed the New Zealand Settlements Act and Suppression of Rebellions Act to enable the Crown to confiscate your whenua. In other words, you will forfeit the right to the possession of the lands guaranteed to you by the Treaty of Waitangi of any iwi “engaged in rebellion” against the Government. The purpose of this act was to achieve “permanent protection and security”. But for who?
“The Suppression of Rebellions Act will allow for the summary execution or sentencing to prison those convicted by courts martial of assisting the rebellion or maliciously attacking persons or property of Her Majesty’s loyal subjects. There will be no right of appeal. And there will continue to be more challenges by the legislature to the standing and status of The Treaty of Waitangi.”
“Knowing all of this, do you still want to sign the Treaty of Waitangi?”
“B***ered if I would.”
Sir Apirana Ngata leads a haka in front of Te Whare Rūnanga in 1940. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
The inescapable fact is that there is an urgent need to do something positive to arrest the social, economic, cultural and spiritual decline of Māori. Since the days of Sir Apirana Ngata, the battles for a fair shake have been upward. Very little has trickled back down.
Where I hope all New Zealanders land is this: “What’s good for Māori is great for all New Zealanders.”
The prison population is currently about 10,000. At a cost of about $150,000 that’s $1.5 billion a year. No need to build that prison extension in Waikato for a mere $1.9b. That’s before stuff-ups and cost overruns.
More Māori in employment and no longer beneficiaries.
That’s a double win. The taxpayer stops paying benefits and the beneficiary becomes a taxpayer. Māori health stats improve. No longer needing to clog our public hospitals. Truancy declines as more Māori attend school, pay attention, learn and dream about what we may become. Crime goes way down. I can’t even begin to quantify the savings and gains socially and economically.
That’s why I say: Leave the Treaty alone.
Brian Rankin.
Let’s all have the courage to work together as genuine Treaty partners. Let’s hold hands and fulfil the hopes, dreams and aspirations of those who signed the Treaty in the belief they were creating a better future for a unified nation. That would be genuine kotahitanga in action.
Let’s no longer allow the politicians to manipulate us. Let’s demand an end to political gamesmanship. None of us is perfect. As bitter as it may seem to some, we all need to realise: what’s good for Māori is great for us all.
