mining company withdrew its fast-track application<\/a> to mine the Taranaki seabed. Ng\u0101ti Ruanui had opposed the application.<\/p>\nJones said it was important that the $1.4 billion sector be enabled to grow.<\/p>\n
“Whether it’s through the fast-track legislation … and I accept … that in some areas, the growth in intellect and the growth in intelligence will take a lot longer, and I fear that the longest period of time it will take will be around Ng\u0101ti Ruanui and Taranaki.”<\/p>\n
Ngarewa-Packer labelled Jones “insecure” because “that little iwi took you on and won” in their battle against mining the Taranaki seabed.<\/p>\n
After more back and forth between the pair, the Speaker Gerry Brownlee told Jones to “haere r\u0101 … off you go”, and he left the House.<\/p>\n
Te R\u016bnanga o Ng\u0101ti Ruanui Trust said on Friday it had lodged a formal complaint with Brownlee and wanted Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro to encourage the minister to apologise.<\/p>\n
Its tumu whakahaere, Haimona Maruera Jnr said Jones’ comments were “shameful” and “an attack on the mana of our entire iwi”.<\/p>\n
“This is not the first time the Minister has made disparaging comments referencing Ng\u0101ti Ruanui in the New Zealand Parliament,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When a minister of the crown uses the debating chamber to insult a Treaty Partner, and does so while hiding behind legal immunity, the relationship risks being fundamentally fractured.”<\/p>\n
Maruera Jnr said Jones had attacked the iwi because it holds a different view on mining, which showed “a shocking display of arrogance”.<\/p>\n
The comments were an affront to the Ng\u0101ti Ruanui Claims Settlement Act which was built on a foundation of mutual respect and a formal Crown apology, he said.<\/p>\n
Jones would not apologise, telling RNZ his comments were made “with a fair degree of humour and jest” – and that Ng\u0101ti Ruanui needed to stay out of Parliament business.<\/p>\n
“If they hop into the boxing ring with the Matua, then they will find that there’s no place for giddy parrots in politics,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Me challenging their intelligence is not shameful, because it’s never shameful to state a fact.”<\/p>\n
Jones said the iwi was not smart because it supported Ngarewa-Packer.<\/p>\n
“They consistently undermine the capacity of Taranaki to unite, and I rather fear that it’s to shore up Debbie’s fading Parliamentary fortunes … that is not intelligent.”<\/p>\n
Ngarewa-Packer said Jones was “bullish” and “misogynistic”.<\/p>\n
“Shane Jones is really comfortable throwing his weight around when w\u0101hine M\u0101ori stand in the way of his extractive politics, and I won’t be bullied out of defending what Ng\u0101ti Ruanui have successfully achieved,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a minister here, a very senior minister, who has normalised the belittling of w\u0101hine M\u0101ori simply because we are extremely informed, unapologetic and prepared to challenge his power and his opinions.”<\/p>\n
She and Ng\u0101ti Ruanui were experienced in understanding the environmental effects of seabed mining, she said.<\/p>\n
“[Jones] should back down and humble himself to Ng\u0101ti Ruanui, they are tangata whenua, and he has an obligation as a member of the Crown to his relationship, to honour that – they’re a settled iwi.”<\/p>\n
The iwi had “every right” to defend itself, Ngarewa-Packer said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Governor-General had no comment.<\/p>\n
The Speaker’s office has also been approached for comment.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Resources Minister Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii Resources Minister Shane Jones has rejected Ng\u0101ti Ruanui’s demand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-430830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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