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Sunday, November 6, 2022

Stuart Smith: Mana Whenua Rising to Power


Over the last few years, we have seen a series of policies creep in which seek to establish co-governance roles for iwi organisations, and just when you think you had heard it all Nanaia Mahuta releases the ‘Future for Local Government Report’ (FFLGR), which takes it to another level.

So then, what is the future for local government? In short, the dissolution of the principle of one person one vote: a world where locally elected representative roles in decision making will be much reduced, with mana whenua appointments taking decision making power away from the people.

There is nothing in the report that will deliver better infrastructure, housing or transport solutions.

You can be forgiven if you are unaware of these proposals – as the mainstream media focused on another proposal: to give 16-year-olds the right to vote in local body elections. They steered well clear of the mana whenua issue. Could the $55m Public Interest Journalism Fund have anything to do with their silence?

The 300-page FFLGR report is nothing short of a power grab for iwi elites led by Nanaia Mahuta and it will not be for your benefit.

Meanwhile the Three Waters legislation is about to come back from Select Committee, and I am surprised how little detail of this proposed legislation has reached the public square. The Select Committee hearings revealed more detail of how the Three Waters mega entities will work and it is far more antidemocratic than any of us imagined. Mana whenua can in effect control planning rules and regulations for water in their region: your local council will have no control over this.

It seems that the Labour government have turned a deaf ear to the clear majority of New Zealanders who are concerned about the loss of their communities’ Three Waters Assets. They would rather pursue their ideological reshaping of New Zealand into a tribal utopia, led by an elite who have inherited positions of power. Meritocracy will be replaced by nepotism.

So, what can you do about it? Being aware of the very real threat to our freedom is the first step.

Talk about it with your friends and family, and most importantly, don’t kowtow to these policies for fear of being labelled a racist. Those that use that term are the true racists.

I want to live in a country where people are judged by the content of their character and where the principle of one person one vote, with each vote having the same value, continues to underpin our democracy.

Wake up New Zealand, our democracy depends on your voice being heard.

Stuart Smith is a N Z National Party politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives for the Kaikōura electorate since 2014. This article was first published HERE

12 comments:

AlanG said...

That's great Stuart and I am so pleased to hear this from you. However, is this just your opinion, or party policy?

From the National Party website Our Priorities "National will take New Zealand forward when it comes to the things that matter to New Zealanders, like fixing the cost-of-living crisis, building a strong economy, making your community safer, and improving core services like health and education". Blah blah
blah....
Where is the public stand by your party and your leader against blatantly racist co-government policies? If you can't put this stuff on your website then how can we believe that you will actually change anything if you get into power.
On this site, you will find NZ'ers deeply and passionately concerned about the destruction of democracy, and ludicrous climate policies and the crazy wokeness. You can publish your blogs here and we will all applaud but until your party and your leader take a public stand and risk the ire of the MSM and cries of 'racism' and 'climate change deniers', I don't think you will get much respect or traction.

Doug Longmire said...

Well said Stuart,
This racist, apartheid by degrees, destruction of our nation, is well under way.
The vast majority of New Zealanders are apposed to it.

TELL your leader and your party officials that we (the voters) want to hear a definite statement that National would reverse these racist policies !!!

Anonymous said...

Hear hear, AlanG! Yes, very disappointing, and vote losing for your party to have such a weak, spineless party policy on all this undemocratic apatheid creating nonsense. So good on you Stuart, BUT (and you will have heard it many times before) tell your boss to get with the plan, or get off the pot and let someone else like you do the business. He patently needs to learn that invertebrates, leastwise at the top, don't last long in Parliament.

Anonymous said...

I have read the above comments deploring National’s silence about the divisive ethnostate Labour is imposing on NZ, and I’ve got to say their writers have not thought it through.
Critical in the election we are to have in a year’s time is the aggregate National / ACT party vote. If Labour is to be ousted that vote must win the coalition at least 61 seats.
So how to ensure that each of those 2 parties maximises its party vote? National’s strategists have it right. There will be 100’s of thousands of wavering voters in the middle, especially young people and women, for whom ACT will be too radical. National will be most attractive to them if it remains centrist, reasonable, a peace-maker distinct from ACT.
Don’t get me wrong, I applaud ACT’s outspokenness on the Maori takeover of our country and it has my party vote just because of that. But National knows there are many thousands of undecideds who might be scared off by that stance.
National and ACT have to play their cards right, win the next election, and then they will have 3 terms, hopefully, to undo the frightening mess Labour has made of it.

Anonymous said...

I am an older NZer, not been “into” politics before. I’ve never before been as angst ridden, angry, and appalled at what this government is FORCING on us all, even tho our voices are so loud how can they NOT HEAR US.. I am so afraid for MY country and the direction it is being alternately bulldozed, and mislead. The government talks of mis and dis information, yet does not even have the self-awareness that MOST of it comes from THEM! They dare to call others racist (including MPs of Māori ancestry), and yet it is THE GOVERNMENT that is making RACIST LEGISLATION! It is long past time for us to push back, and keep pushing.
Maxi

Mudbayripper said...

In reply to anonymous, I've heard this keep the powder dry argument before. I don't buy it. David Seymour has managed to articulate the issue without the sky falling.
I'm pretty sure most new Zealand voters are able to understand the meaning of the word apartheid, and just how close we are to a full take over of our democracy. If National and it's leader is unable to articulate the seriousness of this issue to the people. Then just maybe there in agreement with the current trajectory. We all have to understand the policies of the parties we vote for. I'm getting nothing from the National party.
They can't be trusted.

EP said...

Well I'll be voting ACT - and I'm a life-time Labour voter. I try to tell myself that Luxon is playing a subtle game, but I'm afraid that what you see is what you get. It is simply true that National has never reversed controversial labour changes, but there has never been one as outrageous as He Puapua.

Anonymous said...

We are now well past keeping the powder dry and playing our cards close to the chest. Luxon needs to grow a pair and call this racist divisiveness out, or get out himself. When you've had peope like Prebble, Brash, Hide jump ship and Michael Bassett and Chris Trotter all take issue, there's patently a problem. If Luxon thinks he can remain silent and cruise to a victory he's mistaken. Like many others have said, he's lost my vote.

Anonymous said...

What concerns me greatly about this is the dissension on the right. We all agree the disaster that is unfolding with Labour but the right fragments because the National Party leader will not show balls and any inclination to make a stand and call out what is happening by its true name. Hence small centrist parties are forming which will take votes away from the main parties, thus opening the door for the left block to walk through. The conservatives of this country MUST speak with a united voice to defeat the socialist Racist agenda we are having forced upon us.

Robert Arthur said...

The above spot on. See comments associated Heather DPA. A major problem is the general ignorance of the population of developments due the selective reporting by the bought off newspapers and maori controlled RNZ.

Kiwialan said...

Stuart, my wife and I are long term National voters so we will be voting for Matt Doocey because he is a hard working MP trying to do his best for the electorate BUT David Seymour will get our Party vote. Until your leader Luxon gets of the fence and grows a pair National will not receive our vote. I actually felt embarrassed when he collapsed under pressure and said he would learn te reo, a bloody stone age language. Transport is now Waka something or rather but they hadn't invented a wheel , all our libraries now have Maori names but they had no written language, thousands of years ago other peoples made cloth from flax and pottery from clay, our lot just killed heaps of species and when they were extinct started to eat each other. Now they are the saviours of our Country.... What a gianormous con job that will be continued under Luxon. Kiwialan.

Anonymous said...

I work for MBIE, a huge government ministry.
When I joined in John Key government times, it seemed politically neutral, as public service organisations should be.
Now we are absolutely bombarded with Labour Maori caucus ideology masquerading as 'values' and 'Te Tiriti partnership requirements'. I mean every single day in emails from the "Senior Leadership Team" and on the internal propaganda arm, the Te Taura internet.
It's horrifying how a faction of Maori and anti-colonial extremists and their white saviours have cowed the rest of us, but make no mistake, their numbers and power are entrenched and increasing every day, and doubtless in other government Ministries and Departments.
It's horrifying how extreme ideology is being redefined as desirable or normal and I'm fairly sure that Luxon doesn't realise and hasn't the bottle to address it.