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DE RUEHWL #0797/01 3091903
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R 051903Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON
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INFO RUEHNZ/AMCONSUL AUCKLAND 1523
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 5014
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0592
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 WELLINGTON 000797 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR STATE FOR EAP/ANP 
PACOM FOR J01E/J2/J233/J5/SJFHQ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM NZ
SUBJECT:  WHO SPEAKS FOR MAORI IN NEW ZEALAND? 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Race relations in politically correct New Zealand 
remain a sensitive issue.  Two different viewpoints on the rights of 
the indigenous Maori were on display over the weekend of October 
27-28 as two minor parties, the Maori Party and the New Zealand 
First Party held their respective annual conferences.  As part of a 
wider plan to siphon off residual Maori support for the ruling 
Labour Party ahead of the 2008 election, the Maori Party accused 
Labour's Maori MPs of ignoring the needs of Maori.  At his party's 
annual conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters accused 
the Maori Party of equating Maori autonomy aspirations with 
apartheid and race-based separatism in New Zealand.  Labour's Maori 
Affairs Minister accused the Maori Party of political opportunism in 
light Maori anger following the recent police terror raids; PM Clark 
addressed the Labour Party convention in Auckland on November 2 and 
called for Labour supporters to suspend judgment on the raids and to 
move ahead in a spirit of reconciliation.  End Summary. 
 
Maori Party Accuses Labour of Forgetting Maori 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶2. (SBU)  At its annual conference over the weekend the Maori Party 
vigorously attacked Maori MPs within the ruling Labour Party 
accusing them of abandoning the indigenous Maori population.  Maori 
Party MPs also demanded the resignation of Maori Affairs Minister 
Parekura Horomia. In the wake of the police terror raids two weeks 
ago, the Maori Party accused Horomia of "abandoning his people in 
their time of need."  Given that the majority of those arrested in 
the raids were Maori led some in the Maori community to believe that 
the arrests were racially motivated.  Horomia, who represents one of 
New Zealand's seven electorate seats specially allocated to Maori, 
stated that he has no intention of resigning.  He accused the Maori 
Party, vocal critics of the raids, of using the resulting anger felt 
by some Maori for political advantage in an attempt to siphon Maori 
support from the ruling Labour Party. (Note:  The Labour Party has 
historically enjoyed loyal political support from Maori and has held 
a virtual monopoly on the Maori seats since Labour first came to 
power in 1935.  However, at the 2005 election the newly formed Maori 
Party won four of the seven existing Maori seats, with Labour only 
able to hold onto the remaining three.  End Note). 
¶3. (SBU) The Maori Party's conference attack on Labour's Maori MPs 
is part of a broader strategy to portray itself as the only 
political party capable of faithfully representing the needs of 
Maori. Post expects more broadsides to follow as the Maori Party 
seeks to claim for itself the entire complement of Maori seats at 
next year's election.  Maori Party MPs have already accused Labour's 
Maori MPs of opposing its proposals on educational issues and voting 
down an inquiry into treaty claims despite United Nations 
condemnation of the process. Party co-leader, Dr. Pita Sharples, has 
argued that Labour's Maori electorate MPs are "Labour first and then 
Maori." 
Party Wants Political Clout; Unsure How To Use It 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶4. (SBU) If the Maori Party succeeds in capturing all seven Maori 
seats, it will enter into the next parliament with expanded 
political leverage and a greater ability to influence the shape of 
the next government.  In what is expected to be tight election, even 
if the Maori Party failed to improve on its 2005 results, it could 
conceivably still end up in a king-making position as the main 
parties contest for its support.  However, should the Maori Party 
find itself in such a position, it remains unclear whether the Party 
will take advantage.  At the annual conference, Maori Party MPs 
could not reach a consensus on whether the Party should retain its 
ability to speak independently by staying outside of future 
governments or formally join one and advance Maori interests from 
within.  (Note:  The Maori Party was formed in July 2004 by former 
Labour Cabinet Minister Tariana Turia after she left the  Labour 
Party in protest over the Government's decision to enact the highly 
contentious foreshore and seabed law, which refused the Maori claim 
to ownership of part or all of New Zealand's foreshore and seabed. 
Turia, a vocal and often controversial advocate of Maori rights, 
shares the leadership with noted Maori academic Pita Sharples. 
Critics have challenged the Maori Party's claim to be the political 
voice of all Maori by pointing to the lack of uniform positions 
within the Maori community.  End Note.) 
New Zealand First Attacks Maori Apologists 
------------------------------------------ 
¶5. (SBU)  The New Zealand First Party, led by Foreign Minister 
Winston Peters, also held its annual conference over the same 
weekend as the Maori Party and offered a stark contrast to the Maori 
Party's position.  In a speech to delegates clearly aimed at New 
Zealand First's voter base, Peters launched into a scathing attack 
on racial separatism where he likened those who protested against 
the terror raids and arrests as supporting an apartheid philosophy. 
Peters asserted that the hundreds of people protesting against the 
raids were doing so purely on the basis of race and not an assertion 
of innocence.  In a thinly veiled reference to the Maori Party, 
Peters asked why a political party based on race was held up as "the 
 
WELLINGTON 00000797  002 OF 002 
 
 
moral compass" for New Zealand. (Note:  Although Peters is from 
Maori descent, he rarely refers to his heritage in political 
discourse.  End Note). 
¶6. (SBU)  Peters, whose party needs a boost in the polls, also 
criticized his colleagues in the ruling Labour Party and the 
opposition National Party by accusing both parties of co-enabling 
Maori separatism over the last 20 years by being too timid in 
response to Maori demands for special treatment.  Although he 
allowed that the main parties only tolerated Maori separatism for 
fear that any stand against it would be deemed politically 
incorrect, Peters was reluctant to further explain how they actively 
encouraged separatism in New Zealand. 
¶7. (SBU) The Maori Party and the Green Party immediately condemned 
Peters for his statements and the logic behind them.  Peters' 
reasoning was also criticized by a leading New Zealand legal 
scholar, who argued that Peters' claim that self-determination by 
any minority entity within a modern democratic nation simply could 
not work was ill-conceived.  Dr. David Williams, a professor of law 
at the University of Auckland, argued that there are existing legal 
frameworks that allow for successful indigenous peoples' autonomy 
which do not degrade the state, as Peters infers any such move 
inevitably would do.  Williams cited the indigenous self-determined 
nations of the Nunanvet and Nishgaa nations of Canada, the Sami in 
Norway and even the Scots in the United Kingdom, as examples of 
indigenous peoples exercising self-determination and autonomy in 
their own representative institutions at no harm to the greater 
state in which they reside. (Note:  At the center of the police 
raids were members of the Maori Tuhoe tribes who have who have long 
sought the right to self-determination.  End Note).  Williams urged 
New Zealand politicians to find a rational balance between the 
operation of the state and the rights of indigenous peoples to 
self-determination. 
Labour and the Maori Community 
------------------------------ 
¶8. (SBU) Labour has a difficult task of unseating the incumbent 
Maori Party MPs from their seats at the next election.  Labour will 
fully contest these seats, but it is wary that all four Maori Party 
MPs are popular within their respective electorates.  Nonetheless, 
Labour is confident of holding on to its three existing Maori seats. 
 This confidence is probably justified for just two of these seats. 
Maori Labour MPs Horomia and Nanaia Mahuta are highly respected 
within the Maori community --  Horomia for his position as Minister 
of Maori Affairs and his front bench status; Mahuta for her own 
political status - as Minister of both Customs and Youth Affairs - 
and her ancestry (she is of Maori aristocratic lineage).  In the 
deeply hierarchical and tribal Maori society, such familial status 
counts for much.  Therefore, both MPs are likely to keep their 
seats.  Labour will, however, be concerned that the Maori Party 
could pick up a fifth Maori seat at the expense of Labour incumbent 
Mahara Okeroa, who does not share the same sort of status and 
popularity that his colleagues enjoy. 
Comment 
------- 
¶9. (SBU) Labour has a difficult tightrope to walk with respect to 
the Maori vote.  Labour considers itself to be the most inclusive of 
the New Zealand political parties, and cannot afford to be seen as 
insensitive to Maori voters.  However, Labour may also need New 
Zealand First as a partner in government again in 2008, so will have 
to put up with a certain level of rhetoric from Winston Peters, who 
will increasingly distance himself from the government as the 
election period moves ahead.  In addressing Labour party members at 
the party convention in Auckland on November 3, PM Clark urged 
Labour rank and file to suspend judgment of police action in the 
terror raids while the legal process continues, and to move ahead in 
a spirit of reconciliation - a clear signal that she recognizes some 
Labour vulnerability within the Maori community as a result of the 
arrests. 
McCormick