He was asked what tino rangatiratanga meant to him in the context of The Treaty. After saying that he wasn’t an expert on The Treaty and almost prostrating himself in front of Jack Tame, who he said was “far more culturally fluent and literate” than he was, he stated that “it means partnership”.
That will likely be a disappointment to a great deal of readers on this website who will doubtless have read many articles clearly demonstrating the absence of the term or notion of partnership in the Treaty and the legal impossibility of a partnership between a sovereign and his/her subjects.
Chris also stated that “Maori have authority over their taonga, their treasure and their land”
Seems reasonable at first but Maori activists don’t know the meaning of reason and as we’ve already seen they can justify any argument to fit Chris’s statement above.
As only one example, plants and animals, both native and exotic, can be declared taonga, along with all the intellectual property from all the research on them, resulting in ownership rights to new inventions or products across a whole raft of economic sectors that Maori contributed absolutely nothing to develop.
As for land, it really doesn’t matter whether Maori have a Certificate of Title anymore. They just declare tikanga and, after a hearing in front of a culturally appropriate judge, the land belongs to them again.
He went on to say “Maori for Maori solutions, that’s great” and that he was “incredibly open-minded” to that style of governance. Jack eagerly suggested that the only way Maori problems could be fixed was if Maori fixed them themselves but be funded by everyone else to do it.
He then gave the vaccination rollout as a perfect example of that. Chris couldn’t agree more with him, despite the fact that Maori are still lagging behind in pretty much every area of the country on vax rates.
Jack then pressed Chris on the Maori Health Authority and asked him if he thought it was racist. Chris said he thought it was “separatist” but refused to answer the racism question.
He believed in needs-based services rather than race-based and that we should “always come through the lens of need rather than ethnicity”
So, a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand he recognised a partnership between Maori and non-Maori but rejected co-governance and stated “I want to see us work as one country…. equal”
Chris has tried for the middle ground. He wants to appease the Maori radicals, the woke establishment and the left-wing media by making all the right noises about Maori rights as the indigenous people of New Zealand (as many know a good argument can be made to negate that claim) and yet he wants us all to be equal and live in harmony under one system that’s needs-based.
Chris has got a huge challenge on his hands with a position like that. Appeasing the woke brigade DOES NOT WORK!! We’ve seen that over the last decade or so. Give in to them and they simply want more.
Before Chris was made National leader I had concerns about his “wokeness”. Corporate high flyer and leader of Air New Zealand who made all the right cultural noises.
The Q & A interview has not allayed my fears and I suspect that National may carry on trying to pretend that we can all be equal whilst saying that one racial group is much more special than the rest.
Good luck with that!
Derek Mackie is a geologist with a keen interest in current affairs.
6 comments:
I absolutely agree Derek. " Appeasing the woke" doesn't work with ex - National voters like myself. Some people say he is feeling his way but isn't that what all the previous National opposition leaders have done? It didn't appear to work for them in the polls.
I think it's time for a complete reset in the direction this country is heading. Maori are just one ethnicity in New Zealand these days and should be treated the same as all the rest.
Maybe David Seymour can take advantage if Luxon goes too far down the woke track.
Huge disappointment that he grovelled to Jack Tame, graduate of the Pravda school of woke propaganda and never done a productive day's work in his life. Being afraid of the racist tag from this bunch of main media won't cut it from us National voters. Unless he hardens up and calls a spade a spade Seymour will get our vote. Kiwialan.
The jury is not still out. It's already in. He is pandering to the woke mob so will not succeed.
I think we need to consider the bigger picture rather than focus on Chris Luxon's wokeness. We have the least transparent Government in living memory. A Government that is prepared to take a wrecking ball to democratic convention, is fast implementing a separatist agenda. A Government that has corrupted and bought off the media. A Government that allies itself with criminal gangs. A Government that is fast restructuring society and stripping away the human rights of people who don't want a vaccination. This is a Government that introduced extreme abortion agenda which included voting against a ban on sex selection and legalised a cruel and slow death for any aborted babies that survive the abortion process. A Government that is in the process of legalising a process of changing your sex on your birth certificate on the basis of a simple online declaration. There is a lot more. Just think what they will do if we don't get them out at the next election.
Phil. I think most of us agree we need a change of government. However, many of us don't want more of the same old agenda. Many National MPs agree with some of Labours policies such as the abortion one. I suspect there are many more of the other issues you have put forth above, that they agree with also. We need to ensure we actually know what our electorate candidates believe in. You might be surprised. I asked Judith Collins if they would defund the media. No answer. I wrote to Erica Stanford regarding the removal of Churchills portrait( very symbolic to many). She was pretty ambivalent.
Todd Muller was an extreme disappointment in Tauranga and now I believe he is reconsidering and possibly standing again. He will not get my vote or others I know of. I vote on principle.
At least ACT seem to see us as " one people".
Oh No! Not another National wet.
Another good reason to keep voting ACT
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