February 09, 2016
Far north horrified at Waitangi circus
MP turned diplomat Shane Jones says the trustees of Te Tii Marae need to redeem themselves or lose the honour of welcoming the Prime Minister and other manuhiri to Waitangi.
He says if the Waitangi National Trust is unable to offer a welcome at the Whare Runanga on the Treaty Grounds, there are other houses that are suitable, such as Rangatiratanga at Te Tii or Tumatauenga at Otiria.
Mr Jones says Ngati Rahiri and Ngati Kawa did themselves and Ngapuhi no credit with events over the past week that led to the Prime Minister John Key refusing to come to Waitangi to celebrate New Zealand's national day.
"The treaty wasn't just signed at Waitangi. It was signed at Kaitaia, Hokianga, Waimate North, so the notion that 52 people, many whom don't even belong to the north and from what i saw of them could have been deportees from Christmas Island, that those 52 people believed and were given the notion that they could decide on behalf of everyone else, the tribes of the far north were horrified," he says.
He says the problems at Te Tii are far bigger than just the relations between the marae and the Prime Minister's office.
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