Here is the great advantage Nanaia Mahuta has over most of the rest of us: we don’t care.
What she is doing in trying to change the law and prevent a democratic action in terms of Māori wards and the ability to have any sort of public say is racist.
She, along with the rest of the apologists on various councils around the country who favour separatist Māori wards, is that the bulk of the constituency don’t want them.
We know this because when we get the chance to directly vote on them, the no’s win and win by large margins.
Under current law, if a ward is voted for by council, that is the council going beyond their mandate because they know full well it’s not supported by the majority of people who elected them.
So by way of a safe guard, they can choose to put those sorts of decisions to a vote: when they have, they lose.
So now, they not only vote for separate race based wards, they then also vote not to have a vote.
Fortunately, the law allows the public, i.e. the people the council are supposed to be serving, to drum up a petition involving five percent of the local constituency at which point a referendum is forced.
This is where Mahuta comes in. She’s changing that law. She is taking away a democratic right, in order to propel a racist agenda.
They know that what they are doing is not publicly supported, so they’re taking the public out of the equation.
We should of course be outraged, but this is where they have the aforementioned advantage.
We don’t care.
We can barely turn up each three years for local body elections, so pathetic has it become it ranges from a third to a half of turnout.
It’s a chicken and egg situation. Has the representation become so tragic; i.e. Invercargill, Tauranga, Northland, Wellington, Canterbury, Auckland, pick your recent headline and shambles, so we’ve given up?
Or did because we gave up, it becomes the mess it has, i.e. any doofus can get elected and know they’re good for life because no one is going to do anything about it, hence the disintegration.
Either way, here are some simple facts; if Māori are underrepresented, then stand. Nothing stopping you.
If you want more Māori on council, vote for them. Nothing’s stopping you, the mechanisms are all there.
In a democracy, everyone gets a free shot. What Mahuta and her lot are looking to do is not democracy, its artificial, its racist, its stacking the deck, its making up the rules to suit your agenda.
They are shameless, overt and dangerous, so what now? That ball is in the court of those who currently by in large can’t be bothered, so guess who’s got the upper hand?
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
11 comments:
Positive discrimination is a dangerous thing. Both for the group benefiting (Maori) and the rest of us.
Initially, Maori are given unelected positions on councils and boards, or places at University, because it is the woke thing to do. This is detrimental to the majority, some of who missed out despite being better qualified, and breeds resentment of Maori as being unable to succeed on their own abilities and skills. Which then diminishes the genuinely appointed Maori who got there on merit.
New Zealand should be a country where equal opportunity is available to all, regardless of race or gender.
Building a society which favours one ethnic minority group is likely to divide society by race. Exactly the opposite outcome that this government endlessly bangs on about.
There are several ways that councils try to get around this and move for race-based wards. One is that they leave it late in the year when the task of getting 5% of the ratepayers to signa petition gets harder. Two they fail to even mention the subject, let alone their position on the subject when standing for office - so avoid the question on Maori wards at election meetings. Three they express great delight at having the local iwi at the 'tale' for council meetings when of course its NOT the local iwiw being elected. This means that if you are from a different tribe but live in the local area and are on the Maori roll then you are effectively disenfrachised.
Fourth- they label all opposition either racists of ignorant when in fact dividing people by race to vote is about as racists as it's possible in a voting sense anyway - to be.
Our local council here in Taupo have just voted to have two Maori wards and all of the above applies to them.
Now hopefully I can find enough like-minded people around to help collect enough signatures before Mahuta pulls the plug!
I thought I would never agree with Mike on anything but with this I am 100%
in agreement. I want to see specific examples of how a Maori ward would benefit decisions. Consultants and advisers yes; but not full council members for people for whom they have no mandate. Perhaps democracy does not translate
into Te Reo.
I am Ngati Wai and I think this practice of unelected Maori officials is abhorrent. Real Maori like me dont benefit from it, only the so called Maori elite get another shot at dighing into the public trough. I'm sick of it and the constant apologistic whites who feel they have assuaged the consciences of past genetations who knew no better. Mike C
We New Zealanders seem to be by nature pretty easy-going and forgiving so I suppose this outrageous imposition of racial supremacy -- retention of the Maori seats in Parliament long after their original need has expired and now Maori wards and unelected Maori councillors on local bodies -- will need to get totally out of hand before we explode and give the stupid politicians a kick where it hurts. In both Parliament and local bodies there are usually more Maori members legitimately elected than would equal their proportion of the community and I have no problem with that. But, like most of us, I am furious that Maori supremacists keep pushing for undemocratic privilege over everyone else; and I am particularly angry with politicians who kowtow to this tiny minority of racial nasties. Yes, those Maori supremacists are the racists in the room, not those who raise a voice against their outrage. Even in claiming to be "Maori" these racial supremacists are lying. There is not a full-blooded Maori among them but they do not have the honesty to say they are only part-Maori.
The reason we don't vote in local elections but do vote in national elections is the same. We want some expert to tell us what to do. Because local body candidates are one of us we don't think they have that ability so voting is irrelevant. On the other hand national representatives are all experts on running our lives so need our support and encouragement to do so.
I'm afraid my fellow countryman are pathetic pushovers and so am I. Occassionally I stir from my apathy to seek the truth or make a difference, but neither activity is in fact worth the effort. My advice to young people is to get the hell out of the place. Where you go may be worse but at least you will be spared the history of decline.
This process of unelected Maori gaining seats in local Councils is yet another step in the downhill path NZ is following now; into racial division! Mike is right! You want your voice heard more strongly? Stand foe election!
Now we see the ridiculous demands in Parliament by the 2 Maori members demanding to speak in a language that 95% of the population is not fluent in. All that can achieve is making processes twice as long, destroys people’s attention, and add costs to the operation of the House. All to make those two get an inflated ego.
Mike Hosking is one of the very few New Zealanders who has the gumption to speak out loudly on the issue of the progressive destruction of our democracy.
Which can be summarised as: "Governance of the people by the people, or, one man one vote." The intruding "racism" practiced by those who just happen to have a Maori ancestor, along with of course, other ancestors of various nationalities, is entirely contrary to the accepted concept of democracy. I fail to understand how and why our elected representatives can't or won't see that the majority of our population is against the promulgation of "non-elected Maori representatives" at every level of government.
Absolutely agree with Mike Hosking. This gerrymandering is beyond a joke.
What we're not being told is just how much this will cost. Do the unelected members get paid? Do they receive allowances of any type? Can they veto any council proposals? Do they have to be ratepayers? Many Maori land and housing areas and maraes and businesses are listed as charities, and as far as I know, they're exempted from taxes and council rates. If that's correct, do they pay for their water, drainage and roading etc?
The cause of NZ's abysmal governance both parliamentary and local is that the majority of its sheople have been brain-washed into mindless, bland, socialists - prey to the outright communists. They do not think, they are driven by emotion and cant. This instilled in them in school from an early age.
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