But I have today advised the publisher that I do not want to renew my subscription when it expires shortly.
Why? Yesterday they published an article by Dita De Boni entitled “Right wing try dog-whistles to excite the wet and whiny ones”. The first lines of the article read:
“Dog-whistling, race baiting – call it what you will, but National and Act’s premeditated, strategic, and specific targeting of anxious white voters in the lead-up to election 2023 suggests these parties will do anything to win, even [if] it means stoking an unstoppable race war.
“In the past few weeks alone, three issues with a racial element to them have been beaten up beyond all recognition by the NZ Herald and seized on by National and Act in a way that suggests these parties have barely moved on from the Robert Muldoon years when it comes to race relations. The only difference is that, because of the times, Muldoon didn’t have to get into bed with the country’s lunatic fringe to find vocal support for his ideas, like the current lot.”
The article then goes on to dismiss as a “bogeyman” the Government’s plans to introduce co-governance across much of the public sector; to dismiss as trivial concerns about including te reo Maori on road signs; to criticize those who expressed dismay at allowing gangs the run of Opotiki recently; and to deplore those who strongly objected to adding ethnicity as a criterion in allocating places on the surgical waitlist.
I suppose I could not have objected to the article if the author had been explicitly identified as an advocate for the Labour Government, or for the Green or Maori parties. But she purported to be an objective journalist, writing a regular column for a business news-sheet.
I object most strongly to the statement that those who oppose the division of the country into those who have some Maori ancestry – now always with ancestors of other ethnicities as well – and those who do not are racist or “dog-whistling”.
What we are seeing is the Government aggressively promoting the view that the Treaty of Waitangi requires those with some Maori ancestry be given 50% of the authority in the ten regional Water Entities, with a Maori body having the authority to lay down the rules under which those Entities will operate; that those with some Maori ancestry have specific powers in the legislation advanced to replace the Resource Management Act; that local councils should likewise be obliged to gain consent from local tribes before taking almost any significant decision; that those with Maori or Pasifika ethnicity should be given a measure of priority on surgical waiting lists; and so on, through most dimensions of the public sector.
None of these policies are remotely consistent with a democracy where all citizens have equal political rights. They stem from an interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi summarised in the infamous He Puapua report, prepared at the instruction of the Government in 2019, though kept under wraps until after the 2020 election.
Ironically, that report was arguing for more Maori involvement in the governance of the country at a time when the Leader and Deputy Leader of the National Party were Maori, as were the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the New Zealand First Party, the Co-Leader of the Green Party, and the Leader of the ACT Party. To pretend that Maori were insufficiently represented in the halls of power was demonstrably nonsense.
Dita De Boni’s article made much of the widespread public resentment at the NZ Transport Agency’s adding te reo Maori to road signs. Yes, whether road signs are in English only or are in both English and te reo Maori is not the most important issue facing the country, but I suspect the public irritation over this reflects the widespread anger at the renaming of our major cities, and indeed the country itself.
When John Key’s Government suggested it was time to change the country’s flag, he had the decency to put the issue to a referendum, and accepted the result of that referendum when the majority made it clear that they did not favour any change. But this Government routinely uses Aotearoa or Aotearoa New Zealand as the name of our country despite polls showing a clear majority of the country favour the retention of the name which has been the name of our country since 1642, with Aotearoa being a late nineteenth century invention. (In 1840, the Maori words used for New Zealand were Nu Tirani.)
Likewise, many New Zealanders resent the fact that taxpayer-funded media persist in using Maori names for our major cities, even though none of those cities were in any meaningful sense Maori creations.
The cumulative effect of the superficial changes – Maori names for our major cities, the use of Aotearoa as the name of our country, Maori words on road signs – added to the really major constitutional changes which the Government has been aggressively promoting means that political parties which adhere to basic democratic principles are getting real traction.
That isn’t dog-whistling and it certainly isn’t racism. It is a demand that all citizens should have equal political rights, regardless of ethnicity – as the Treaty of Waitangi promised and any concept of democracy demands.
Dr Don Brash, Former Governor of the Reserve Bank and Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2003 to 2006 and ACT in 2011.
10 comments:
Agree absolutely. If this government wanted to divide this country alone racial lines, it couldn’t be doing a better job of it. Insults like dog-whistling or race baiting have no place in serous political debate.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act begat the Waitangi Tribunal.
Since then that tribunal has morphed into a grotesque entity wrecking havoc on NZ history, rational TOW thought and perpetuated the victim bank rolling philosphy seen today.
How is it that Shane Jones can write an article in the NZ Herald that lucidly sums up, as he puts the "parallel universe of tangata whenua tokenism" and yet New Zealand still puts up with the signalling of virtue that covers the fundamental constitutional issues at hand?
If the media are not a major part of the solution they are major part of the problem and the NBR article is just more of the same as we have been gaslit since He Puapua became a 'thing'.
We were even told it was not Labour policy as it has been quite clearly rolled out while the media either ignored it or printed articles like the NBR one here should anyone have the temerity to raise a red flag.
Citizens of New Zealand both Maori and non have become very wary of the machinations of this regime, their activist academics, their treatyist elites and their complicit media.
When push becomes shove, shove back is likely to occur and the good rational hardworking New Zealanders have been mentally shoved, lied to and ignored for just a little too long.
Again wouldn't it be wonderful to see anything like Don's article in the msm, especailly the still read legacy msm. Perhaps when the polls more clearly show a trend away from the maori driven parties, such articles might appear.
Even at work you cannot escape the feeling of being an inferior member of staff because of your ethnicity.. One staff membet who is always off sick and is very average at her job has recently been put forward for a maori cadetship, whixh involves my employer providing special training and mentoring for a leadership opportunity, whereas those of us from inferior races, do not get a chance. It will interrsting how that will go, given that she is hardly there. People are just getting sick of this nonsense. We should all be equal.
It should be noted that those who find fault with the rational calling out the introduction of racial preference are either corrupt, paid so called journalists or troughers and bottom feeders who are donkey deep in the introduction of apartheid into all of the public services.
Don, if Luxon had the guts to get off the fence and declare that National will hold a binding referendum on whether we want to be New Zealanders or Aotearoans his popularity will shoot up. The surreptitious Maorification of our Country is horrendous, libraries full of Maori signs when they had no written language, hadn't invented a simple wheel or pottery but Maori " science " being force fed into the stuffed up education system. The sheeple who voted for this insanity should be ashamed of betraying our democracy. Kiwialan.
A classic example of msm bias was presented recently by the Herald. On June 12 it published an article by one (Dr) Jarrod Gilbert advocating for the regular interspersion of te reo. All standard stuff such as any Maori Studies first year student or articulate activist, or just brainwashed modern product of the education system could recite in their sleep. As is common two supportive Letters to Editor promptly appeared, also as usual over European names. Subsequently two more. But no hint of the contrary view, despite that being the private opinion of probably at least half of the adult population. (As distinct from the public view they feign to avoid cancellation and to preserve job and career). No hint of the Herald approach being labelled dog whistling.
When you push an issue too hard then it eventually meets unintended consequences. The unasked for roll out of Maori words is making people resentful. In my experience this is especially true among non-whites like Indian Kiwis.
The same is happening with the push on transgenderism. Polls show that approval of gay marriage in the US is now going down.
Not only am I racist, a science denier,an anti gender activist,a disinformation pro-claimer, an anti -vaxxer but now also part of the lunatic fringe according to the writer in NBR.
I'm glad as a Christian I have scripture that tells me that 'the world will hate you', which sort of makes me into a martyr as well standing up against terrible evils.
Thanks, Don. I have been thinking the same for a while. You article prompted me to act. My response to the request for reason: "This is no longer the objective, pro-democracy, journal which I have subscribed to for decades. It is entitled to change its stance, but I cannot condone its activities by assisting it by continuing to subscribe."
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