By Rob Paterson
Many people are making valid protests about Waitangi claimants with very slight Maori bloodlines (ethnicity) and are looking for a formula on how to address this anomaly. Well here’s the solution; it’s called the Ethnicity Equalisation Scheme (EES).
For openers, we must address the quixotic definition of Maori in S.2 Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1974 which most sensible people consider to be farcical because this legal fiction seeks to create a statutory Maori race. If claimants are going to use any level of Maori ethnicity for Waitangi claims etc., then a scheme should be required to have authenticated certified documents to ensure whakapapas are accurate, with Birth Certificates, Driver’s Licences and Passports, etc. endorsed, showing the degree of ethnicity attributed to claimants and this must be the minimum prerequisite requirement for obtaining any payments from Waitangi claims, etc. In addition, DNA testing would be mandatory.
All this evidence to be actioned at the cost of the claimant.
It follows that when looking at a tribe of say 2,000 ‘members’, there must be supporting documentation and evidence for each and every tribal member with lists made available for public inspection and then the ethnicity of the whole tribe must be averaged out.
In a worked example, should the perceived grievance claim or any other claim (hard to take seriously) for some reason be successful and for example assessed at say $32 million, then if the average Maori ethnicity of the tribe is 1/8th,, the payment out would be only $4 million and the $28 million balance would be withheld along the same lines as the ‘contributory negligence doctrine’ to the extent of 7/8th representing the ethnicity percentage other than Maori and these funds should be returned to the NZ taxpayer via the Government, i.e, not paid out.
That would be a fair and equitable outcome because taxpayers are entitled to know that all those who are claiming to be statutory Maori are really what they claim to be. They must provide accurate documentary proof because word of mouth mumbo jumbo is not good enough. If part-Maori don’t want such endorsement as to their ethnicity, they need not apply. The choice is theirs. Current assessments indicate that no one can claim to have 50% Maori ethnicity; therefore the so-called Maori race exists only by statute that can be revoked by a 51% vote in Parliament. Other than by virtue of the statutory definition everyone in New Zealand must therefore currently be classified as non- Maori.