A bill for an MP to pick up
Graeme Edgeler blogs:
I’ve got a simple idea. We should repeal New Zealand’s most racist law.
Sections 30-36 of the Maori Community Development Act 1962(originally the Maori Welfare Act) are laughably offensive.
Early last year there was a rash of instances of tourists having their car keys taken off them by people who had decided they were unsafe to drive. It stopped after a few instances, with police (and even the Prime Minister) warning against it.
What few of the people quite rightly objecting to the mild vigilantism probably realised is that the law actually specifically provides for circumstances when people can have their car keys taken away from them.
Or if the driver is non-Māori, but is in charge of a vehicle near a meeting place, or a lawful gathering of Māori.
It is also illegal to serve alcohol at a gathering of Māori. A Māori Committee can grant a licence to serve alcohol at a gathering of Māori, but only if that gathering is not for the purposes of a dance.
Māori wardens are empowered to enter hotels and to order quarrelsome Māori to leave.
This reads like it comes from one of those lists of ridiculous laws that are still in force, when New Zealand usually seems to be represented by a claim that it’s illegal to fly with a rooster in a hot air balloon (which I’m pretty sure isn’t true).
But it’s worse than a ridiculous law. It’s a racist law.
It has no place in New Zealand. It should never have been the law. And it certainly shouldn’t be law now.
There are a bunch of MPs who do not currently have a bill in the members’ ballot. Well, here’s an idea for you: propose the repeal of sections 30-36 of the Maori Community Development Act. I’ve even drafted a bill for whichever MP wants to take this up.
There’s 20 or so MPswho don’t have a bill in the ballot. I hope one of them picks this one up.