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Industry, emissions - Source: ONE News -
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As far as the public's concerned, Hone Harawira is the Maori
Party's biggest political management problem at the moment. But the
party's facing a bigger, more important decision at the moment than
whether the MP for Te Tai Tokerau should
stay or go. It's deciding whether it should vote
yes or no on the government's reforms to the emissions trading
scheme, and what we know of the negotiations so far raise questions
about the minor party's interests.
Blogger Claire Browning put it well on
Pundit: "The Maori Party's dilemma raises really
interesting questions about whether a party with such a discrete
constituency is justified in a blinkered focus on those interests,
or has some moral obligation to keep an eye on the wider public
interest."
The government's proposed changes to the emissions trading scheme
(ETS) are regressive and unfair. National wants to ram through
their reforms regardless of the fact that it moves the onus of
paying for greenhouse gas emissions from business and farmers onto
ordinary taxpayers and the household power bill. Big business
carries on with carbon, Kiwi battlers pay. Even with extra
concessions farmers lack the grace to say thank you and continue to
whine. Sadly, National MPs arent for turning. They can't get their
way, however, without the Maori Party's votes.
While negotiations have happened behind closed doors, there have
been reports of the Maori Party pushing for insulation for homes
owned by Maori - or in areas with high Maori populations - and
special iwi access to planting forests on marginal conservation
land. The government has been forced to put out fires, arguing they
will not sign off on race-based concessions.
Just as Labour has always pushed the interests of workers and
National has sided with business, it's right and proper for the
Maori Party to seek policy gains for its people in the normal push
and shove of coalition politics. They have a mandate for that. The
Emissions Trading Scheme, however, is bigger than the normal
politics.
As United Future's Peter Dunne has said, "Frankly, this issue is
bigger than party egos", so the Maori Party's approach thus far has
been disappointing.
Like Superannuation and ACC, the ETS is a hugely expensive,
inter-generational policy; it's intended to transform our economy,
preparing it for a post-carbon world and, in the big picture, save
lives. Worldwide, more than 60 million people live within a metre
of the sea, including thousands of our Pacific cousins, and
anything we do to combat climate change should be done with them
front of mind.
The best thing the Maori Party MPs can do is simply walk away. That
now seems unlikely, so the next best thing for them to do is to at
least argue for reforms that are in the interest of all New
Zealanders both today and in 2050. Negotiating "sweetheart deals"
on behalf of Treaty interests isn't enough this time.
Iwi too, must think beyond their own tribal interests when deciding
what they hope to extract from the government in this deal. Those
that negotiated early Treaty settlements, such as Ngai Tahu, are
suggesting they could go to court to seek compensation if the
impact of the ETS is to devalue their forestry interests. Under the
ETS, cutting down trees will impose a cost. Some iwi were given
forested land as part of their settlements even though they
indicated during negotiations that they wanted to cut down the
trees and convert the land to dairy farms. If they go ahead and cut
down the trees under the new law, they could now incur a cost that
wasn't part of the settlement. They say that's unfair.
In purely legal terms, they may have a case. But iwi aren't simply
big corporates, as they often remind us. They have manawhenua and
kaitiakitanga connections to the land; their focus is not purely on
profits. Demanding hundreds of millions of dollars or special
access to DoC land as compensation reeks of special treatment and
looks as if they're seeking to gain at the expense of other New
Zealanders.
They may argue that farmers and factory polluters have protected
their profits at the expense of you and me, so why shouldn't they?
My hope is that iwi are better corporate citizens.
Introducing a price on carbon is for the benefit of us all and our
children to come, but we all have to pay a price. Iwi should accept
their medicine for the greater good. We hardly need more dirty
dairy; what we need from this ETS is incentives for all New
Zelanders to plant more trees, not incentives that apply only to
iwi.
Treaty settlements - the means by which they came to own those
forests once again - were political deals and rest on the political
goodwill of both Maori and Pakeha New Zealanders. Here's hoping
they remember that in these negotiations. And here's hoping the
Maori Party are in there fighting for us all.
