"In contemporary New Zealand, Maori culture is part of our nationhood. But in a modern democracy, equality is the most fundamental value, ensuring that all citizens have equal treatment. Public occasions and public institutions should reflect this. If that requires the adjustment of protocol to enable the values of equality and hospitality to be expressed that should happen."
National MP Wayne Mapp
Maori MPs say the Corrections Department's move away from conducting powhiri so as not to offend women is political correctness gone mad. National MP Tau Henare says a whakatau is designed to settle visitors down and is part of the ceremony but he says using it instead of a powhiri is a watering down of the culture. He believes people need to accept that when they are in Rome, they should do as the Romans do.
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"Maori MPs say the Corrections Department's move away from conducting powhiri so as not to offend women is political correctness gone mad"
I don't think it is so much Corrections, but an overall government stance, as they have finally cottoned onto the idea that people are fed up with powhiri for every occasion bigger than a new swing in the local playground.
'Let's appease middle NZ by...'
Having lost the Maori seat, there is no need to apease those voters.
That's why certain blocks of the public service get a raw deal comared with other. Armed services, police, corrections- those at the coal-face, anyway- don't tend to vote for Labour...
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