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Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Tim Dower: Te Pati Māori are shooting themselves in the foot


So, a Day of Action called by Te Pati Māori. Organisers promise they'll target busy roads and even try to jam the motorways.

They're talking about gridlock on roads into central Auckland, and gleefully suggesting this will cause millions in lost productivity.

Wow. What a useful and worthwhile objective that is.

Now, this is supposedly about an assault by the new Government on tangata whenua and the Treaty.

That assault as they see it comes in the form of dialling back the extensions to smokefree laws, scrapping the Māori Health Authority, and repealing Three Waters.

It's probably worth mentioning that those changes —with the exception of smokefree— were well flagged up during the election campaign.

And if there hadn't been broad support across the voting spectrum then we'd have ended up with another three years of a rotten Labour government, and its rotten policies.

The people have spoken, and the people want the country back on track.

The people, as I read it, wanted less divisive policy and a focus on reducing crime and tackling the cost of living.

Unravelling some of the smokefree changes was a surprise, but how can you interpret that as an attack on anyone?

Smoking is, after all, a personal choice. Nobody apart from those who sell tobacco is actually encouraging anyone to take it up, are they?

Look, it's a Tuesday, less than three weeks out from Christmas.

The Māori Party perhaps doesn't realise most people just want to get on with things, and can't afford a day off for a protest, especially when they don't really know what it's about.

Stopping regular working people from getting in and earning a crust could be seen as an attack on them. You're shooting yourselves in the foot guys.

Look, I don't expect big crowds out there protesting today, but as we've seen in Wellington, all it takes is half a dozen tossers with super glue to bring a major artery to a standstill.

Work from home anyone?

Tim Dower is a New Zealand journalist who works for Newstalk ZB as a newsreader and substitutes talkback announcer. This article was first published HERE

10 comments:

Barend Vlaardingerbroek said...

Apparently there has been some playing around with the words of the oath by TPM members.
If I were to change just one word of the oath, I would not be permitted to take up my seat in the House. But then of course I have to follow the rules 'cos I'm White.

Anonymous said...

Trying to get to work this morning on the Auckland motorway with all the electricians, plumbers and truck drivers was a waste of all our time.
And the bunch of hypocrites make a fuss but in the end pledge allegiance to the King of England otherwise they don’t get paid.
The need to fed at the trough is greater than really suffering with the down trodded Māori. And how downtrodden are the Maori?
Not that much by the look of the huge 4WD’s they were in. I know this coz they were in the same traffic jam as me!

Anonymous said...

Keep shooting, I say.

robert Arthur said...

Te Pati are providing to NZ a demonstration of the sort of blatant bullying which will apply under maori control to which co governance was the path. Preumanbly NZ will soon come to realise what a lucky escape we have all had with the results of the election.
Most of the utterenaces of Te Pati can be instantly countered but RNZ and msm interviewers and reporters still make no attempt and instead pander. Only Winston, Shane and seymour come close to.

CXH said...

'can't afford a day off for a protest' - how many of those protesting have a job to take a day off from?

Anonymous said...


Waititi - sporting a strange new hairdo - was positively grovelling to Brownlee in Parliament today.

"Together they would do great things."

Why?

Anonymous said...

interestingly, none of tpm folk agreed to honour their commitment of refusing to pledge allegiance to the crown. looks like money beats ideology one more time! at least Sinn Féin knew the meaning of honour, even if it left his constituents without representation...

Anonymous said...

Just watched SBS News in Melbourne -6.50 pm local time. Item on indigenous Maori protests and rights clearly taken without question from NZ msm. Awful.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous@6.47, of course, malcontent Maori and money have had a proven symbiosis for a very long time. There are three main kinds of the latter, I'll leave you to guess what kind of symbiosis is most likely involved.

Keith said...

So they spend huge amounts of money doing sign language on Paliament TV. Watching the swearing in ceremony, half of it was in Moari. How about some subtitles for the many New Zealanders who had no clue about what was being said!