Treaty remit passes

Press, 14 August 1989, Page 1

Treaty remit passes

A plea for understanding, tolerance and peace got a Treaty of Waitangi remit passed by the National Party’s annual conference — but not before several anti-Maori speeches had been made.

The remit called for “the Treaty of Waitangi to be acknowledged as the founding document of New Zealand.” Mr Garth Hamilton (Otago) said “the appeasement in this remit will inevitably lead to racial conflict” and added that Maori radicals should be sent to live in Moscow as it was Moscow’s work they were doing. There was no applause for this, but there was some for Mr Ken

Copeland (Otago) who said land claims to the Waitangi Tribunal were a cheek and that people were sick of the growing apartheid in New Zealand with special privileges for Maoris. Other speakers who urged delegates not to succumb to ignorance and bias were much more warmly applauded. National’s Maori vice-presi-dent, Sir Graham Latimer, asked that if the Treaty was not New Zealand’s founding document what was?

Mr Winston Peters would have had a warmer reception for what he said if his leader, Mr Bolger, had not sat on the stage above

and behind him pulling faces. The remit was a waste of time, Mr Peters said, and was another example of national “trying to sleep-walk its way to election victory next year.”

National had to direct its attention to solving the real racial problems, like Maori unemployment and education underachievement, rather than acknowledging or trying to deny history.

Delegates were unsure about entering an area Labour had entered and was now trying to back out of, but most supported what was seen as a positive move towards racial harmony.