Worried Labour cabinet minister Kelvin Davis has warned ‘everything’s at stake’ in the upcoming election, particularly for Māori.
Davis said that if a National-led coalition were elected, it would probably remove references to the Treaty of Waitangi from legislation, which would be a major setback for Māori rights.
Davis made the comments in an interview with TeAoNews.co.nz. He warned of devastating consequences for Māori if National’s coalition partner ACT, were successful in redefining Te Tiriti and putting it to a referendum.
“If they do away with rangatiratanga, two things happen,” Davis said. “They lump Māori in with every other minority in the country. They say, ‘you know, there’s nothing special about tangata whenua, you’re just the same as everyone else.’”
“But the other thing is, what they do is they emphasise the kawanatanga. So it’s really back to the 1800s where the government was the be-all and end-all. And rangatiratanga is in jeopardy.”
Davis warned the removal of references to the Treaty from legislation would have a number of other negative consequences, such as weakening the government’s obligations to engage with Māori ropū on issues such as conservation and climate change.
Lamenting time in Wellington
“All that will be removed, all references to te Tiriti will be removed,” he said. “And where do we stand then? We just go, we’ll just be spiralling backwards and downwards.”
Davis’ comments come as Labour trails National in the polls. However, Davis says he will be out and about campaigning in his Te Tai Tokerau electorate until the very last day.
“You’d like to think that across the electorate people will see the changes and the benefits that you have brought as a minister,” Davis says.
Lamenting the time needed for his ministerial roles in Wellington, overseeing five portfolios, he’s optimistic his electorate sees concrete on-the-ground changes.
“I mean, you just need to take the Kaitaia airport for example where, from Wellington, I was able to be involved in making sure the Kaitaia airport stayed open, even though I’m not going to be on the ground up there for much of the time.”
Davis firmly rejects the notion of a ‘safe seat’ in Te Tai Tokerau, despite getting almost double the votes of his closest rival in the 2020 election.
When pressed about the Labour’s chances, Davis acknowledged the fluidity of polls but expressed confidence in an energetic campaign. He highlighted a perceived trustworthiness of Labour’s Chris Hipkins compared to National’s Chris Luxon.
“We know the polls will fluctuate,” Davis said. “And obviously, it’s better to be on the top side of the polls rather than underneath the opposition. But I think it’s going to be very tight.”
Asked if he held the most challenging portfolios, given that law and order was a big topic of contention for both the election and for Māori, Davis responded: “I don’t think so. I think everybody’s portfolios have difficult roles.”
Notably, as the Minister for Corrections and Oranga Tamariki (Ministry for Children), he added “I think National has only asked me two oral questions this year on Corrections. If things were going hideously wrong, I’d be getting questions every day.”
Davis said he had asked for the portfolios of Corrections, Children, Māori-Crown relations, Māori education and Oranga Tamariki.
He pointed to the fact that there are now about 1000 fewer Māori in prison than when he became the minister, and that the number of young people in care in Oranga Tamariki was at its lowest since 2010, with the fewest number coming into care since 2004.
“I asked for them [the portolios], because it’s the reason I got into Parliament, because I wanted to make a difference for our people,” Davis said.
A National-led coalition is ahead of the Labour party in the polls, with a lead of about 10 points. This means, if the election were held today, National would probably be able to form a government with its coalition partner, ACT, and potentially NZ First.
In response to the question of whether Labour can still win, Davis unequivocally replied:“Yes!”