There was the long-planned haka in Parliament’s debating chamber last week, for which they’ll be slapped on their wrists with a wet bus ticket, but the hīkoi was their crowning glory.
This was all about politics, grievances aside, and they’ve got what they craved, publicity. The march could easily have turned ugly with a good representation of bikies, legally showing their patches for the last time before they’re made illegal on Thursday.
But the protesters were well behaved, respectfully moving aside to let yours truly into the Beehive.
Parliament’s Speaker Gerry Brownlee wisely prevented the public from watching proceedings from the galleries overlooking the debating chamber, preventing a repeat of the raucous outburst last week. It allowed the business to be conducted unhindered.
The Greens were meaningless, trying to embarrass the Prime Minister for not addressing the crowd outside. As his deputy Winston Peters rightly said, he wasn’t invited.
The man in charge of the bill that saw people marching around the country, David Seymour, might not get his referendum on the Treaty, but he’s now got six months of public hearings on it before the justice select committee.
That will keep the Act Party in the limelight as the articulate Seymour pontificates about equality for all, while at the same time picking up wavering centre-right voters.
So ironically, the hīkoi and the months that follow it will benefit the two diehard political enemies.
The Greens will also benefit simply for being green and supporting any anti-establishment cause, while New Zealand First will be unaffected because it’s simply Winston Peters.
National and Labour will be licking their wounds. But they’ll heal in time for the next election, which is the feeling of those in the parties even though they acknowledge they’ve taken a hit.
It’ll be tougher for Labour though with its leadership joining in with the protesters and, as a result, publicly aligning itself with the Māori Party.
And if you’re wondering just how silly they can be, get a load of their latest antic in Parliament – they’ve laid a complaint against the beleaguered Speaker Brownlee, claiming he overused his powers, going further they said, than for any other protest.
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngawera-Packer must have been asleep in Parliament listening to Barry Manilow when Speaker Trevor Mallard blasted his dulcet tones to the deafened Covid protesters.
She also complained about the party not being able to give the whānau water. Well, the Speaker could have done a Mallard and turned the sprinkler system on.
And she’s also complaining about Brownlee denying the marchers access to Parliament’s Wi-Fi. She mustn’t know about the ability of smartphones to use their own data.
Now that’s the coalition partner Labour will likely need. It doesn’t bear thinking about!
Barry Soper is a New Zealand political journalist, and has been featured regularly on radio and television since the 1970s. Currently, Soper's main role is political editor at Newstalk ZB, a radio network in New Zealand.
5 comments:
The irony of Debbie complaining about lack of wifi & water for the protestors…..
I think it’s time we let the racists have self-determination, separate themselves from NZ, & form an apartheid state. If that’s what they want, no one would really care - so long as they don’t expect to use our money to do it.
However, guaranteed their support will diminish pretty quickly once they realise they have to fund their specialness themselves.
In the meantime, TPM should be docked for every day they don’t turn up to the house.
You forgot to mention the mainstream media, who will also have plenty to write or broadcast about and plenty of opportunities to give their racist opinions rather than news. And as it is all happening in front of them, they can do it all with the least amount of work.
On reflection, I suspect the hikoi served a useful purpose. Very few of the population follow political developments in detail; things like He Puapua very distant to most. The degree of favouritism of maori and the extent of pro maori propaganda throughout education and much else is not obvious to all. But the hikoi has served to alert all that maori are on to something very, very attractive to them. All at the expense of, and to the disadvantage, of non trace maori citizens. Hopefully non maori will now appreciate the seriousness of the situation which misguided and gullible/careless mps have fostered, and attitudes to existing and further race based favouritism will harden. Mercenary non maori lawyers who have worked for the maori cause will now realise how their efforts have seriously compromised the NZ for their non trace maori descendants. (And, if order is considered important, for all). Many teachers may reflect on their work ditto. After the obvious effectiveness of the hikoi the next hikoi/carnival will be about the shore. it will prove near impossible to stop effective ownership of the shore and miles outside of passing to maori/trace maori.
I have the opinion that Labour is both pooping in its own nest at the same time it is eating it....long may they wallow in the crap they created.
Te Pati Māori. All about sovereignty and Mana Motuhake - except when it comes to paying for your own rollover data.
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