Winston Peters says Treaty of Waitangi has become the "trough of Waitangi"
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said the Treaty of Waitangi has become the "trough of Waitangi", in a wide-ranging interview with Mihingarangi Forbes for Mata with Mihingarangi. The interview took place with nine days to go before the election. RNZ's report covers the interview in full.
Peters said government resources should be allocated according to need, not race. He defended his opposition to race-based funding as opposition to separatist thinking.
Asked what was separatist about Te Aka Whaiora, the now-defunct Māori Health Authority set up by the previous government to address gaps between Māori and non-Māori health outcomes, Peters said: "because your plan does not close the gaps." He also said there were "a whole lot of elitist Māori at the trough", and argued that most Māori received nothing from that funding.
To illustrate his point, Peters pointed to funding allocated to the Waipareira Trust and an investigation into Manurewa Marae. He called these examples of "electoral corruption".
He insisted that needs-based funding had succeeded in closing the gaps between Māori and non-Māori in health, education and justice. Improving Māori achievement, he argued, began with getting children to attend school. He rejected the suggestion that poverty and lack of transport were contributing factors in truancy, or children missing school.
Peters argued that funding for Māori wardens and the Māori Women's Welfare League was based on need, not race. He said the work of the wardens was a matter of commonsense, not separatism.
Peters has also told New Zealand First supporters to vote for National's Chris Bishop in the Hutt South electorate, rather than the party's own candidate there. He said the arrangement was not a political deal. In the interview, he described his endorsement as a "statement of respect". Peters had publicly endorsed Bishop at a public meeting in Lower Hutt.
On other topics, Peters said he would still refuse a knighthood. He told the programme he did not support blanket pay equity for women's sport. He maintained that his iwi, Ngāti Wai, had ceded sovereignty.
He named the late Labour MP Kerry Burke, who served in Parliament from 1972 to 1990, as the best Speaker of the House. The Speaker presides over debate in Parliament. The interview also covered the cost of living.
