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Thursday, December 28, 2023

Don Brash: The new government has one helluva a task in front of it: Compulsory indoctrination is unworthy of professional bodies


The other day, I became aware of another example of the way in which the last Government tried to embed its own narrow interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi into every aspect of New Zealand life.

This one involves the Real Estate Authority. Like many similar bodies, it encourages its authorized agents to get regular updates about the laws and regulations affecting their profession. In this case, real estate agents are required to do 10 hours of study on a variety of issues, theoretically relevant to the real estate industry.

I say “theoretically relevant” because in 2023 15% of the 10 hours of courses – or 1.5 hours – was required to be about Maori culture and language, and indoctrination of the view that what the Treaty of Waitangi really provided was not the cession of sovereignty to the Crown (the majority consensus for most of our history) but rather a partnership between Maori chiefs and Governor Hobson. This 1.5 hour programme was to be provided and the agents assessed by a politically-motivated Maori group from the Bay of Plenty area.

A distant cousin of mine objected to this political indoctrination. She has been a real estate agent for several decades, operating in recent years in some of the eastern suburbs of Auckland. She grew up among Maori and for some years taught in a predominantly Maori school. She has some ability in te reo having studied for and passed School Certificate Maori and expanded upon her knowledge since. She considers many Maori individuals to be both friends and inspiration and is generally supportive of Maori culture.

But she strongly objected to having to be indoctrinated in a narrow – and, she and I both believe, a fundamentally incorrect – view of what the Treaty of Waitangi provided. Parts of the course were also in complete conflict with her ethical and religious convictions, so she sought an exemption on conscientious grounds from having to undertake that part of the programme. That exemption has been denied for no obvious reason, and with effect from 1 January 2024 her licence to practise as a real estate agent will be cancelled – and be unable to be renewed for five years – unless her appeal against this ruling is upheld. And this despite the fact that the Treaty of Waitangi programme will no longer be mandatory from 1 January 2024.

Since having this issue drawn to my attention, I have watched an interview on the Platform between Sean Plunket and David Seymour discussing exactly this kind of indoctrination, now very widespread across a great many professions and occupations. As David Seymour remarked in that March 2023 interview, this not only involves a great deal of time and bureaucracy, with lots of people bogged down in doing “studies” which have absolutely minimal or no relevance to their occupation, it also inculcates an interpretation of the Treaty which is totally inconsistent with any concept of democracy where all citizens are equal before the law.

It is outrageous stuff, and all New Zealanders who want our society to be a democracy need to push the Government to stomp on it without delay.

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. Don blogs at Bassett, Brash and Hide - where this article was sourced.

7 comments:

Ewan McGregor said...

Keep at it, Don. This sort of thing is, indeed, outrageous.

Anonymous said...

This is blatant in your face indoctrination compared to the silent insidious indoctrination that has gone on for years in NZ.
Sadly, most NZers don't recognize or realize that they have been indoctrinated.

Anonymous said...

It is the 'GOVERNMENT' that is the enemy of We the People.

Anonymous said...

Don, I knew about this earlier in 2023 as an agent friend of mine said the same thing to me. I'm unsure if this this purely on the real estate body, or the labour govt forcing this racist behaviors upon the good people.
The push back now starts, we need to name these racists and they can then be held to account for their racist behaviors and forcing this bs upon people who don't need to know this stuff in order to do their job correctly. It is nothing short of a far left racist agenda.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comment that the woman respects the Maori culture. Maybe this is where the Maori radicals have gone so wrong. Treaty of Waitangi did make NZ one country with Maori cession of sovereignty but this did not mean they had to otherwise give up their culture. Yet somehow this has become so distorted so that Maori are not New Zealanders having and contributing culturally but instead they and their culture are separate from the rest of NZ with enormous distorted political and social clout that they have extorted from the rest of NZ.

As an aside given that Maori culture and politics have contorted into one, I no longer have a positive interest in either.

robert Arthur said...

furthermore, all this paid for maori twaddle shows up as product for GDP purposes, despite not contributing to the betterment of anybody and being simply a waste of everybody's time and effort.

Anonymous said...


The proposed debate on Treaty principles will require a strong stand by NZers
-very much more robust than anything to date.

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