Godfery says Labour failing Maori on every important issue

Morgan Godfery writes in The Guardian:

On almost every major issue important to Māori this government is stalling. Even in reverse. No one can agree on what to do with the child welfare agency Oranga Tamariki. The government favours reform. Māori leaders prefer straight up abolition.

The last remaining “big” Treaty settlements, where the government negotiates redress and an apology for its historic wrongs against Māori tribes, are going nowhere. And the occupation at Ihumātao, the headland a little north of Auckland Airport, is still going strong.

Morgan is a former Labour Party staffer, so him saying this is significant.

Taking this all together I regret one thing from 2017: campaigning against the Māori Party. Like Labour and the Greens the party were dealt a bad hand in government. Five seats and decreasing every election from 2008.

But with that hand they managed to implement revolutionary welfare reforms (Whānau Ora, now standard across more and more government departments), re-orientate the country’s foreign policy (signing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), and remove the worst part of the last Labour government’s legacy – the appalling Foreshore and Seabed Act.

It’s a bit late now, but only in their absence can I best appreciate their impact. On the issues that were important to them they went for system change.

The Maori Party need a co-leader. Maybe Morgan should apply!