Te Ururoa Flavell's claim of 'racism' regarding the Te Arawa vote is unfair, says Kim Gillespie.
Te Ururoa Flavell's claim of 'racism' regarding the Te Arawa vote is unfair, says Kim Gillespie.
Te Ururoa Flavell's response to this week's Te Arawa partnership vote was a curious one.
"Racism has been defeated by fairness, justice and reason today," the Waiariki MP and Maori Party co-leader said on Tuesday.
"During the submission hearings, the people of Te Arawa have had to stare at, and sit next to, the ugly face of racism, but today it was booted out the door, and rightfully so."
While it's likely there may have been an element of racism in the opposition camp, and that is abhorrent, it's an incredibly damaging accusation to level at the many hundreds of locals who openly disagreed with parts, or the whole, of the proposal.
It's perfectly reasonable to have questioned the preferred partnership model, which would have seen unelected people sitting on and voting with key committees.
In fact, the Rotorua Lakes Council made a last-minute change to the model which sought to deal with those concerns. One democracy lobby group called Mr Flavell's remarks "outrageous".
"We call on Mr Flavell to withdraw his offensive remarks. Bullying and intimidation have no place in democratic debate," said the Democracy Action group. Councillor and Pro-Democracy Society chairwoman Glenys Searancke told the Rotorua Daily Post the society had been misconstrued.
"I think that some of the debate was a bit vicious because this has never been a racism thing - it's the democratic process we stand for. It's the appointment that has always been our concern."
While Mr Flavell is not wrong in saying racism has been defeated - for this to be his first and key response to Tuesday's huge news is to give undue weighting and acknowledgment to a racist minority.
There are other reasons to have disagreed with the initial proposal - including concerns over voting rights and the ongoing cost of the model.
The main issue with Mr Flavell's comments now is that they could silence those who would be afraid to voice opposition to such issues, for fear of being unfairly labelled racist.
