Willie Jackson’s preparing for a frank conversation with the authors of a draft United Nations’ Declaration Plan, who are now four months behind Cabinet’s schedule
The Māori Development Minister is hopeful the authors of a draft United Nations’ Declaration Plan will have a proposal he can take to Cabinet when he meets with them on Friday.
In June a first draft was delivered to Jackson, but the minister never took it to Cabinet for consideration because he knew his colleagues wouldn’t support it.
At the time he told Newsroom he wasn’t comfortable with about 20 percent of what had been proposed and had asked the governance group set up to consult and draw up the plan to go back and try again.
He had hoped they’d return with a more palatable version by late July, but he is yet to receive anything.
“We’re a little bit off schedule and a little bit out of date. I’m meeting with them on Friday and there will be some decisions made about where we’re going,” Jackson told Newsroom.
“They’ve put a lot of work in, I’ll give them a fair bit of credit, it’s been a tough process ... but we’re in October. My officials have been working with them in terms of trying to get this kaupapa online, but we won’t make any decisions on where we’re going until the end of the week.”
It’s also possible the Government has already run out of time to make any real progress before next year’s election. “It’s getting late and if we’re going to put it out to all New Zealanders we’re at a point where we need to be doing that straight away.”
Jackson said there’s only about six weeks of available consultation time left this year, and he doesn’t believe that’s enough “given the type of critique of Māori issues that is going on by some parties at the moment”.
It’s still possible he will be presented with a plan on Friday that he can take to Cabinet but is quick to point out that he won’t do that unless he knows it is a proposal his colleagues will accept.
The draft plan, if approved in full, would be the Government’s response to the UN commitment the National Party signed New Zealand up to in 2010 under then-Prime Minister John Key.
In 2019, the Labour government commissioned an independent report, He Puapua, to consider how New Zealand might meet the requirements of the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Once the draft plan is approved by Cabinet it will go out to the rest of New Zealand for consultation. Māori were consulted first and the feedback received from the 70 hui across the country was used to inform the proposal.
Jackson told Newsroom on Tuesday it would have been preferable if Cabinet had been able to assess and sign off the draft three or four months ago so consultation with the rest of the country could already be underway.
“They have since then made some significant changes – you’ll recall last time I said they were a bit off the base.”
Jackson says he’s less concerned about the timeline of this work running up against the general election campaign, and more worried about wanting New Zealanders to feel comfortable with it.
