Quick fix for Maori grievances—Bolger

Press, 25 July 1989, Page 1

Quick fix for Maori grievances—Bolger

By

NIGEL MALTHUS

A National Government would quickly settle Maoris’ “genuine grievances” then move on to a “less argumentative future,” the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, said yesterday. Mr Bolger, visiting Christchurch as part of a campaign tour of marginal electorates, said National was considering altering the Waitangi Tribunal’s brief. He denied that circumscribing its powers could lead to a Maori backlash.

“I believe that 99 per cent of Maoris want the issues that are genuine to be resolved and then want to get on, like every other New Zealander, to a less argumentative future,” he said.

The tribunal could be used as a body which gathered information, then presented it so that the Government, with the claimants, could make the decision on ap-

propriate compensation. The Government would ultimately have to make the decision on what constituted a “genuine” claim, but that would be little different to the present situation in which the tribunal only made recommendations to the Government, he said. “What we cannot have is the debilitating effects of having claims going on for eternity.” Maoris had the same aspirations as others — a decent job, a decent education for their children, and decent jobs for them when they left school, and a social welfare system which worked.

“They know there’s no future just endlessly regurgitating arguments around the Treaty. That doesn’t produce a future for this country.”

Mr Bolger targeted Yaidhurst as a marginal seat which National would hope to win in next year’s General Election.

His next stop will be Tasman. Other “marginal” electorates he had recently visited in the North Island included Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay, and South Auckland.

Mr Bolger said that the issues in the marginal seats — as elsewhere — were unemployment, violence, education, and the loss of social services. All were indicative of “a New Zealand in decline,” he said. Latest Statistics Department figures showed that the Government had managed to achieve negative growth last year at a time when the rest of the world economy was booming. New Zealand was the “odd country but,” said Mr Bolger. New Zealand had recently been doing well in its trade figures, but only because of record commodity prices, not only for traditional agricultural products, but also items such as aluminium and methanol.