Council fails to back march

Press, 10 December 1983, Page 15

Council fails to back march

PA Wellington The Maori Council does not support a planned protest march to Waitangi next year. The council’s chairman, Sir Graham Latimer, said he felt Maori people should use “the system,” and particularly the Waitangi Tribunal, instead of demonstrations to get their views heard. He said the council would not condemn individuals who did march as it felt this was their democratic right. The proposed march, announced in October after a big meeting of Waikato Maoris, is expected by its organisers to attract 50,000. However, the four Maori members of Parliament have expressed reservations and some Maori leaders have publicly opposed it. Sir Graham said that the Maori Council had always

been concerned about contravention of the Treaty of Waitangi by Acts of Parliament and in 1970 had presented the Government with a list of 26 Acts which breached treaty principles. This had resulted in the setting up of the Waitangi Tribunal, of which Sir Graham is a member, as a mechanism for dealing with treaty breaches. The council had always believed that too little use was made of the tribunal. He said the council had also made its view on the treaty known in the guidelines for the new Maori Affairs Bill which is now being drafted and should be introduced in Parliament this year. The Maori Council is the most powerful statutory Maori body in New Zealand and is responsible for Maori input into legislation.