Natonal’s Maori and Treaty Policy

National also released yesterday its policies on Maori Affairs and Treaty Negotiations.

• Include Kohanga Reo in the 20 hours early childhood education subsidy funding regime.
• Expand the Te Kotahitanga professional development program.
• Provide delegated funding to enable Māori health providers to deliver a wider range of services closer to home.
• Expand Papakainga housing. This will involve working with Māori collectives and councils to remove planning restrictions on the development of housing on communal land and multiply-owned Māori land.
• Ensure Māori receive their aquaculture settlement entitlement, and reform the Resource Management Act to facilitate growth and development in the aquaculture industry.
• Move the Office of Treaty Settlements from the Ministry of Justice to another central agency such
  as the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
• Appoint independent settlement facilitators to chair negotiations, keep the process moving forward, and ensure both parties act in good faith.
• Empower the independent settlement facilitators to advise claimant groups on pre-negotiation and mandate issues so they can move forward to settlement negotiations more quickly.
• Provide sufficient support to allow the Waitangi Tribunal to sit full-time, including reviewing the remuneration and support offered to members.

There seems to be a lot there that the Maori Party would support.

I especially like the commitment to speeding up the Treaty settlements by shifting the office to DPMC, having independent facilitators and greater resourcing for the Waitangi Tribunal. Now every historic claim has been filed, it is simply a matter of how long it will take to settle them.