Shane Jones on the Treaty, Toilets, and Teeth

Shane Jones outlines NZ First's campaign to re enter parliament - their policies and priorities, including their controversial transgender toilet policy. Then we hear from commentators Tau Henare and Bernie O'Donnell

Watch the video version of the episode here.

Shane Jones outlines NZ First's campaign to re enter parliament - their policies and priorities, including their controversial transgender toilet policy. Then we hear from commentators Tau Henare and Bernie O'Donnell.

New Zealand First's campaign slogan 'Take back our country' is focused on five key issues: Taking a stand against racist separatism; fighting Australian owned banks and a supermarket duopoly; investing in health, social services and crime prevention; tax reform; and taking on the gangs.

NZ First is also promising to ban trans women from women's toilets and to make English an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Jones was part of a group which petitioned the government to "give effect to the aspirations" of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1978.

Jones said a lot of what they set out to achieve in terms of the Treaty had been delivered upon.

"Where I've ended up parting company is the way in which the Treaty has been, I feel unhinged from its moorings... and now it's used as a justification for every inequity that befalls us as a people."

It was impossible to deal with issues such as higher Māori mortality rates, truancy and prison rates simply by invoking the Treaty, he said.

"I genuinely feel that with the ideological fervour driving for co-governance, it has the capacity to weaken our status as a nation."

New Zealand had some big internal challenges and there was the potential for Sino-American conflict in the Pacific, he said.

"I'm very worried about internal bickering undermining our capacity and our robustness as a nation."

The best way to deal with inequities for Māori was by providing diverse delivery of services on the front line, he said.

"If you judge the quality of the service based on the outcome that's positive, but if you pretend by invoking the name of the Treaty and dredging up yet more tribunal reports, you're going to improve the quality of front-line service - I thoroughly disagree with that."

On the banning of trans women from women's toilets, Jones said there had been "no shortage of people" that had told the party it was an issue that needed to be addressed.

Jones said he believed attaching Māori names to organisations was tokenism in that doing so did not provide any corresponding improvement in services for Māori...

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details