Labour MP Peeni Henare at the national Iwi Chair Forum in Waitangi. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
Iwi leaders have been laying out their goals for the year at Te Tii Marae as part of Waitangi commemorations, where they say kotahitanga, or unity, has been high on the agenda.
Ngāti Kahungunu iwi chair Bayden Barber told morning report there were a lot of other topics on the table.
"The political situation is simply one of the big topics, especially being up here at Waitangi.
"The rest of the day was talking about issues such as political winds, housing, the environment, water - another big issue that maori are dealing with - and the economy, and how we can get the Māori economy really pumping over the next couple of years."
Barber said there were also strong feelings towards the government.
"I think with the treaty principles bill in the current phase, yeah, there's still a lot of angst and frustration with the current government.
"It's a pity that the Prime Minister isn't coming up to Waitangi this year so he could actually hear that directly from iwi.
But he said there was also a lot of optimism aswell.
"We have to keep moving forward, you talked about kotahitanga, that is always a topic of discussion, how we can unite, how we can strengthen each other, how we can help each other to move forward.
"Kotahitanga is a hard thing to actually achieve within iwi, within any nation really. Hopefully this year we can see some progress on that this year," he said.
Back in December iwi leaders wrote an open letter to King Charles about the treaty principles bill. They have not received a formal response.
"It's probably a good time to follow up and see if he got the letter and what he thinks," Barber said.
It was the first Iwi Chairs Forum since August, when leaders from Ngāpuhi walked out in protest over government policies related to Maori.
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