Te Pāti Māori has launched a petition to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state and re-balance Aotearoa’s scales of power.
It follows their call on Waitangi Day to remove the British royal family as head of state.
“This is an opportunity to re-balance the scales of power in Aotearoa”, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said.
“To create an Aotearoa that respects the mana of papatūanuku and her descendants, and leaves no one behind.”
The petition calls on New Zealand’s Parliament to:
- Remove the British royal family as head of state
- Create a Te Tiriti Centric Aotearoa through constitutional transformation
“The Crown are intent on ‘settling’ Te Tiriti because they are unwilling to honour it. What we’ve had until now is a one-sided relationship, completely defined by the Crown, that looks more like a dictatorship than a partnership”, co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.
The Te Pāti Māori co-leader says it’s time for a “mature” conversation on constitutional transformation.
“The Crown has failed in their duty of care to tangata whenua and I think Aotearoa is more than ready to relieve them of that duty."
On Tuesday afternoon, Waititi told reporters it was time to have a “mature and adult conversation” on constitutional transformation in Aotearoa.
“To continuously live in a fairy tale, that somebody 1200 miles across the ocean is the sovereign of this country, you know we’ve gotta get ourselves and actually move tangata tiriti into their rightful place with tangata whenua, to start building a tiriti centric Aotearoa.
"The Aotearoa that our tīpuna consented to."
The party’s proposed Mana Motuhake plan would help set out how it would be achieved, including the establishment of a Māori Parliament and the implementation of all of the Matike Mai Aotearoa independent working group’s recommendations for constitutional transformation.
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