{"id":953221,"date":"2023-01-10T22:33:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T22:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=82776"},"modified":"2023-01-10T22:33:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T22:33:53","slug":"ardern-wont-back-down-on-maori-advance-if-co-governance-made-key-election-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/10\/ardern-wont-back-down-on-maori-advance-if-co-governance-made-key-election-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Ardern won\u2019t back down on M\u0101ori advance if co-governance made key election issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Whakaata M\u0101ori<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says her Aotearoa New Zealand government will not back down on advancing M\u0101ori issues, even if National frames co-governance as central to the 2023 general election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to sleep at night, knowing that you\u2019ve done your best and you\u2019ve done what you\u2019ve believed is right,\u201d Ardern told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teaomaori.news\/\">TeAoMaori.news<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The M\u0101ori Health Authority, Three Waters and M\u0101ori seats on councils were achievements Ardern said the government was proud of.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Co-governance\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Other NZ co-governance reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_74701\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74701\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-74701 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1-300x224.png\" alt=\"NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at Harvard\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1-80x60.png 80w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1-265x198.png 265w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1-563x420.png 563w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jacinda-Ardern-RNZ-680wide-1.png 680w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-74701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking at Harvard University in Boston. &#8230; a standing ovation. Image: RNZ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ardern said she was \u201ccomfortable\u201d the government was doing its best to fulfil obligations under the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t been perfect. But I am comfortable with what we\u2019ve tried to do to make sure that we are fulfilling our obligations as the Crown, that we\u2019re fulfilling our Treaty obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ardern said the Government was proud of the 6.8 per cent M\u0101oriunemployment rate,although she conceded homeless families living in motels still needed tackling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone living in a motel. I want someone in a warm, dry, safe environment. But I also don\u2019t want people living in cars. And so this has been a transition for us while we build more public housing, and we are,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mandate protests<\/strong><br \/>\nReflecting on 2022, Ardern conceded it was another tough year, singling out the vaccination mandate protests on Parliament grounds as her biggest challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Ardern said the protests were upsetting for many in Aotearoa who saw vaccination as key to reopening the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor New Zealand, I think it deeply affected people,\u201d Ardern said.<\/p>\n<p>There were moments she thought about talking to the protesters but a previous attempt during a government walkabout with vaccinators that was scuppered by protesters prevented that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did stop and try and have a conversation with the people there. And what became clear to me is that the starting point for that conversation was so different for me, and then that was very hard to cut through,\u201d Ardern said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a practice in the past of talking to protesters in fact. I remember very early on the DPS [the PM security team] having to learn, that was part of the way that I was going to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>UN declaration<\/strong><br \/>\nArdern was asked about comments from M\u0101ori Development Minister Willie Jackson that he would be pumping the brakes on co-governance initiatives set out by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous people (UNDRIP), signed by the National government in 2010, because several recommendations would not fly with certain Cabinet members.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why is it someone in Cabinet is \u2018not comfortable\u2019 with co-governance? And should someone be in the Cabinet if they\u2019re not comfortable with co-governance?&#8221; Ardern was asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat he\u2019s talking about are some of the thoughts and debate around the UN declaration, the next stages of ensuring that we are doing our bit, as yes, the National government signed us up and then did nothing, and left us to figure out \u2018how do we fulfil our obligations?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat he\u2019s [Jackson] talking about is through that process, there\u2019s been a lot of ideas. Some of them, we can confidently say, New Zealand already does, othersare challenging. So he\u2019s broadly discussing the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ardern said that as she looked ahead to this year\u2019s election, she had no interest in fighting it on race, saying she would campaign on the government\u2019s record.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen there\u2019s change\u2026 people will sometimes be confronted by that, and it\u2019s our job to try and bring people with us, but that will sometimes be challenging,\u201d Ardern said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur record is growing M\u0101ori housing. Our record is growing M\u0101ori employment opportunities. Now our record is growing the M\u0101ori economy. I will happily campaign on our record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Republished from Whakaata M\u0101ori. First published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/kahu\/jacinda-ardern-wont-back-down-on-maori-issues\/NSVB6NBQVVEE3JELQORV2U7WTM\/\">The New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whakaata M\u0101ori Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says her Aotearoa New Zealand government will not back down on advancing M\u0101ori issues, even if National frames co-governance as central to the 2023 general election. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to sleep at night, knowing that you\u2019ve done your best and you\u2019ve done what you\u2019ve believed is right,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[605,49965,250,432,433,5,6,7,8342,5627,23077,255,55996,56024,12,14,15,5863,56031,1,3135,111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":953770,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953221\/revisions\/953770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}