We were watching a CNN news item about President Biden.
Shocked, I asked “Why do you say that?”
“Is the President of America white?” he said. “White people are racist”.
I explained President Biden is white but he is not a racist. Our discussion revealed my grandson has no idea what is a racist. Perhaps he heard Mr. Tuku Morgan of the Iwi Leaders Forum on TV saying “the attack dogs of the National party and Act as they fan the flames of racism and anti-Māori sentiments”.
The Prime Minister had the opportunity to distance himself from Mr. Morgan’s statement. Instead Chris Hipkins said:
"People can form their own judgments about that but I certainly think the opposition, National and Act have, as they've done in the past, they've used uncertainty to try and stoke fear."
The selection of Mr. Tama Potaka for Hamilton West is evidence of Mr. Luxon’s desire for National to represent all New Zealanders.
David Seymour is proud of his whakapapa. He leads a caucus with three Maori MPs.
Chris Hipkins knows that neither Christopher Luxon nor David Seymour is a racist.
Where Chris Hipkins is right is when he says there is considerable confusion over co-governance. Government delegates powers all the time, not just to Maori. Government should do more de-centralizing of decision making. In this form of “co-governance” the government retains the ultimate power.
What is concerning is co-government, the idea that government itself is a partnership.
Co-government arises from Labour’s decision to put a radical revisionist version of the treaty at the heart of all its decisions. The revisionists claim the treaty is an agreement between Queen Victoria and 500 or so native chiefs to govern in partnership forever.
To meet this revisionist treaty Labour is establishing co-government with unelected, unaccountable, self- selected, hereditary tribal elites. It is the opposite of everything Labour use to stand for.
Kate MacNamara had an excellent article in the NZ Herald on Three Waters. She writes, “All iwi and hapū in the area covered by each of the WSEs [Water Services Entities] will have the right to formulate directives…There are hundreds of iwi and hapū in each of the water services areas…there may be hundreds of such directives, possibly conflicting one with another or with Wellington’s Government Policy.”
Co-government is unworkable. It is the ratepayers who will be liable for a “toxic combination of debt and dictates and directives”.
Mr. Tuku Morgan has been appointed chair of the entity set to oversee Auckland and Northland's water. Who appointed Mr. Morgan? Who is he accountable to? The Auditor-General has expressed his concern there is little accountability.
Here is the heart of the issue. New Zealand has been since 1853 a Westminster parliamentary democracy. Those who rule us are under the rule of law and accountable to us, the electorate.
Parliamentary democracy is fundamentally at odds with being governed in partnership by hereditary tribal leaders. It does not matter whether the Prime Minister calls it a partnership, co-governance or mahi tahi,(working together); it is incompatible with democracy.
New Zealand is not a democracy when one partner is accountable to the electorate and the other partner is not.
Even if the revisionists are right and some chiefs misunderstood the treaty they were signing, it is not a reason to abandon 170 years of parliamentary democracy.
The treaty granted rights not just to the chiefs but to all Maori. Article three of the treaty grants Maori full citizenship rights. Maori have had voting rights from the first election in 1853. To reinterpret the treaty as a partnership is to reduce everyone’s citizenship rights, including the citizenship rights granted to Maori.
No doubt it was galling to some chiefs to discover that the treaty means every Maori has an equal vote. The treaty is why no New Zealand court has ever upheld slavery. While it did not happen immediately, the treaty freed Maori who were slaves and gave them full citizenship including the right to vote.
Many Maori value their Article three citizenship rights. They do not want to be co-governed by Mr. Tuku Morgan and his fellow Iwi leaders.
Good on Chris Hipkins for holding a review of Labour’s policies. A top priority must be to decide whether Labour stands for democracy.
Here is my thought. No wonder my seven year old moko thinks white people are racist when our government judges him on his race.
Why not a New Zealand where what is most important about my moko and I is not our different tribes, which is no business of the government, but us as individuals?
It is a powerful message to send to all seven year olds. One person, one vote, values us all equally.
The Honourable Richard Prebble CBE is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004. This article was first published HERE.
6 comments:
Mr. Prebble, you are absolutely correct.
I for one cannot fathom why we as a country have come to this point.
It can only be driven by certain individuals using CRT, Identity politics and narcissim to get to an end point where they, themselves soley are the beneficiaries of wealth (through power).
In other words they become the new Tribal Chiefs.
The fact that a 7 year old can say that prooves how far the brainwashing has gone. I was hearing the radio news today and the leader of ukraine made a gushing speech thanking the incredible people of britain and boris, and saying that without the oeople of these fabulous islands in the uk that his country woild be in absolute turmoil. Hang on, I thought, aren't these the racist white colonists that we are all told about over here? Of course not. Sadly nz is changing into a country more akin to ww2 germany than great britain, a country that defends democracy and believes in eqality for all.
Those who repeat history are condemned to repeat it. In ww2 germany, youth were taught that there waa a superior race and that one ethnic race was to be feared and hated. Hmm...fast forward to nz 2023.
Maori tribal elites and Maori left / communist radicals are the most racist and divisive groups of people in New Zealand. Kiwialan.
Agreed, Co governance is incompatible with Democracy, it's the reason why Ardern choked on her answers as to whether she believed in one person one vote. And at the heart of Labour is a heart that is twisted with power hungry individuals who see the Labour Govt as a chance to grab large chunks of NZ for themselves.
A system of power within a democratic system but paid for by the Taxpayer. Responsible to no one, unaccountable.
We the public aren't idiots, it's why we oppose Three Waters and Co Governance.
And, finally my prediction.
There will be Civil unrest in NZ if Three Waters and Co Governance isn't scrapped. Sounds mad but many people on this website have indicated opinions affirming that view and now we have the NZ Herald political reporter waking upto this same conclusion that we have all realized many moons ago.
It's a powder keg of grievance that needs to be dealt with and finished once and for all or NZ will never progress.
As with Michael Basset's article above, it is a joy to read something which all makes immediate sense in a single reading. Presumably influenced by modern make work tertiary social sciences eduction, this is not the case with so much else today. Sinister agenda are deliberately hidden in seas of words and fashionable woolly expressions.
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