July 02, 2015
Maori Party wary of TPPA secrets
Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says the party can't support the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement without knowing what is in it.
United States officials say agreement on the deal is close.
New Zealand intends to endorse the deal at executive level, without asking parliament to vote on it.
Ms Fox says the text of the deal is still secret, and she was unhappy with the answers to a series of questions in parliament yesterday.
"We want to know what's in the deal. We want to know is it going to compromise the treaty. We want to know is it going to compromise some of those cases like the native flora and fauna, WAI 262. We want to know what we are signing up to. Why should we be putting our future of our country in jeopardy with something we have no knowledge of," she says.
Marama Fox says people who complain that the TPPA will take away New Zealand's sovereignty may now have a sense of what Maori feel about losing their rangatiratanga.
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