'Time to stop paying lip service to Treaty' – Gareth Morgan

Outspoken economist and millionaire philanthropist Gareth Morgan has thrown down the gauntlet to the government and fellow Pakeha to actually honour the Treaty of Waitangi and not just to continue to “make partial amends – a few cents in the dollar – for some of the most gross violations of it. We're paying it lip service”.

Mr Morgan was speaking at the Ratana Pa Church near Whanganui yesterday as part of annual celebrations marking the birthday of its late founder.

In his speech, he talked about researching his new book, Are we there yet? The future of the Treaty of Waitangi, for the past five years and how its title is a reference to “the strong perception by Pakeha that once the claims are done we can get back to normal – whatever normal is”.

Instead, Mr Morgan said the Treaty needs to be at the centre of the debate about NZ’s constitution and that the Treaty should be used as part of the constitutional review to define what it is to be a New Zealander and a citizen of a bicultural and multi-cultural society, in order to build a constitution that allows all New Zealanders to “stand tall in our shared land”.

“If it is to be legitimate, constitutional change in particular needs the full and informed participation of the public-at-large,” he said, and not as an initiative of a coterie of lawyers and hired hands, closeted in meeting rooms cooking up detailed but “reader unfriendly” reports.

The ultimate aim of constitutional reform should be true co-governance as laid out in the Treaty, whereas the current political structure only offers Maori “trinkets of political office”.

Mr Morgan dubbed anyone who thinks the settlement process is in any way full compensation for past grievances and an honouring of the Treaty as “obviously uneducated, or just wilfully ignorant”.

“When I point this out in public, I get a flood of objections via letters and emails from this group – sadly, many of them abusive,” Mr Morgan said. “That tells me, ignorance levels are high.”

Mr Morgan also said that learning Te Reo should be compulsory in schools and that the Maori seats should eventually be abolished, although he acknowledges the seats remain essential while the Treaty continues to be ignored.

He has also advocated rebranding NZ.

“I actually think the name of the country should be changed to Aotearoa New Zealand,” Mr Morgan said. “What's it going to cost Pakeha to do this? Nothing.”

Jwalls@nbr.co.nz

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