Opinion: The 2024 budget does not meet Tiriti’s commitments

By Julia Whaipoti*

As the full, radical impact of the latest budget begins to come to fruition, it is important to remember that it is the cornerstone of our founding laws and constitutional document, te Tiriti o Waitangi. At the moment, Māori are responding to rhetoric that does not seem to acknowledge our existence. And the budget seems to reflect that.

Before te Tiriti o Waitangi there was no annual budget.

Iwi, hapū and whānau across the country engaged in highly productive trade – with each other and with the foreign travelers who increasingly came to their homes. The relative wealth of Māori at this time is well documented.

It was with this wealth and the strengthening of their tino rangatiratanga through the Declaration of Independence in 1835, He Whakaputanga, that Māori subsequently partnered with the British Crown in the signing of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

However, after 1840 the situation changed for the worse. As Queen Elizabeth II euphemistically put it in 1990: “Today we are strong enough and honest enough to learn from the lessons of the last 150 years and admit that the Treaty has been imperfectly followed.”

In Papa Moana Jackson’s more direct words: “To honor the Treaty, we must first end colonization.”

The wealth that Maori had was systematically stolen from us. The Whenua on which we lived was taken over by the Crown, what we traded became Crown property, and what we spoke became the language of the Crown.

So when we look at the budget set by the government for 2024, we see it through the prism of memory. Remembering that 94 per cent of Aotearoa is no longer Māori land, that as a result Māori are overrepresented in terms of homelessness today, that Māori face discrimination and longer waits for health care, and that our taonga, te reo Māori, is an endangered language.

Recent research shows that the public is more knowledgeable about te Tiriti and the impact of colonization on Māori than heated political rhetoric would have us believe. And while there are differing views on te Tiriti, in a survey commissioned by the Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission in 2023, we found that the majority of people in Aotearoa want us all to move forward by listening more often and making sure that decisions about te Tiriti will be undertaken on a truly equal basis between Māori and the Crown.

We must remember this context when analyzing the government budget. Does the way the government spends its pūtea (money) move us forward as a nation? Does it increase our ability to listen to each other? Does it meet the Crown te Tiriti’s obligation to actively protect Māori from harm and protect Māori rights as an indigenous people? And does it get us any closer to truly honoring te Tiriti o Waitangi?

The short answer to these questions is “no”. The 2024 Budget includes almost no additional funding for Māori development. In fact, as Te Ao Māori News reports: “A working couple earning the Māori median income ($50,238 for the year ended June 2023), with no children and no pension, will receive $70.13 a fortnight and $1,823.50 annually returned in the form of tax cuts. However, a couple earning the median Pākehā (New Zealand) income ($60,790 for the year ending June 2023) would, under the same parameters, receive $101.50 per fortnight, or roughly 1.4 times the tax cut for the median working Maori.

How can we strive for equality when our starting point is so radically different?

When I look for the positives, I see an outstanding commitment of almost $50 million over the three years of Te Matatini funding. But the cynic in me also thinks that there are funds for our culture to function, but not for living it. As it happens, Te Matatini pumped at least $22 million into the Auckland economy in 2023.

The strike action carried out by thousands of people across the motu on Thursday was intended as a show of economic strength – to show our government that, despite our unequal situation, Māori are workers, taxpayers and voters who make a significant contribution to society. I call on our decision-makers to recognize that Māori success will lead to the success of all the people who call Aotearoa home. The Tiriti Union is the backbone of Aotearoa and has yet to be honoured.

Either way, the Māori right to perform tino rangatiratanga remains as immutable as the moko kauae on my face. This right is embedded in our whakapapa and is recognized this Tiriti o Waitangi. It is not determined by any state budget.

*Julia Whaipooti is tatau urutahi/joint leader of the Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission.