I’m as disappointed as Willie Jackson and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer are delighted. But I understand his reason why.
Prebble said the Treaty is being treated as “a socialist manifesto, there's going to be endless numbers of grievances and I can see division in New Zealand being increased rather than decreased. And I don't want to be part of it.”
He was appointed to the role in October 2024, by Maori Development Minister Tama Potaka, who now says his focus is on “moving swiftly to complete the appointment of a new member”.
No, Mr Potaka, you are just not listening. Your focus must now be on the National – NZ First coalition commitment to review the Tribunal, as Mr Prebble pointed out to you in his resignation letter. If you had an open mind on the review, you would know that it might conclude there are not to be any members of the Tribunal.
When Mr Prebble explained what he meant by a ‘socialist manifesto’, he pointed to the Tribunal's strategic direction of ‘citizenship rights and equality’, which he understands to mean a right to equality of outcome:
“When you say that the treaty promises equality, that's the socialist dream. That's what socialists are in favor of. And socialist regimes, communist regimes, have all attempted to make everyone equal, and they've all failed.
“To have it now as a Treaty guarantee means that we're going to have successive governments [who] will have claims that they haven't achieved equality. Well, I hate to be the first person to say this, but they, regardless of their intentions, they will never achieve that. People just aren't equal.
“I think aiming for equality and equality of opportunity is a very worthwhile endeavor. What I'm saying is that no one puts in their constitution that you can bring a court case against the government if the outcome of a program you went to wasn't equal. That's how life is.”
Mr Prebble may be the first person in New Zealand government to say that, but it is a commonplace in biological science where it is shown that evolution proceeds because of such variation. Cognitive science has show there is individual variation in intelligence, for example, and that intelligence correlates with race and age. As Prebble says, “That’s how life is.” And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
If we want a healthy New Zealand economy, we need to place responsibility where it belongs. While equality of opportunity may be a social responsibility, even a government one, converting that opportunity into equity of outcome is an individual one and must remain so because that provides the incentive to fulfil the purpose of life.
Prebble also questions the need for David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill. I will vote for it, but Prebble is correct to say it should not be necessary as the Treaty is clear enough as it is. There is a little wriggle room, but the interpretation that has been put upon it by the Waitangi Tribunal is nonsense followed by propaganda. Seymour’s Bill is required to correct the improper behaviour of the Tribunal.
There is no partnership in the Treaty, for example; it is “a 20th-century invention,” as Prebble says. Trying to predicate partnership on the Treaty is an attempt to give credibility to the claim, as an element of the propaganda. It is an attempt by Maori activists, such as Willie Jackson and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, to elevate Maori elite (i.e., themselves) to a privileged position. It is utter, blatant racism at the expense of our democracy.
Mr Prebble’s criticisms of the principles claimed by the Waitangi Tribunal are correct; but I would have preferred that he stayed there to sort them out. The direction the Tribunal is taking our country is sheer madness.
Barrie Davis is a retired telecommunications engineer, holds a PhD in the psychology of Christian beliefs, and can often be found gnashing his teeth reading The Post outside Floyd’s cafe at Island Bay.
Reference
“Waitangi Tribunal member Richard Prebble
resigns,” Radio NZ, Russell Palmer, 5 March 2025.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/543785/waitangi-tribunal-member-richard-prebble-resigns
8 comments:
"Mr Luxon. Calling Christopher Luxon. I'm sorry Mr Luxon appears to have left the building. Perhaps you could try again later. Goodbye."
The Waitangi Tribunal has lost its mandate. If it no longer believes sovereignty was ceded, why should we, the citizens, be paying for a partisan Tribunal to prosecute only the purported breaches of the Crown, which they don't really recognise, and why should we be stumping up with the settlements? It's time it was disbanded, or we, the citizens of New Zealand, had our own Tribunal to review Maori breaches - for there've been plenty of those.
PM Luxon, get off the fence and do what you said you would do about 'getting us back on track'. If you're incapable of doing that, resign so we can find a real leader who will.
Prebble said recognising ‘multiple versions’ of the Treaty could lead to “endless grievances” and “increased division in New Zealand”. No could about it, Mr Prebble, it already has.
These ‘multiple false versions’ would be the Freemans fake, masquerading as the ”official English version as signed”, which is actually part of an official document Hobson called “Maunsells make do Maori language treaty”, as Martin Doutre has documented here, - https://www.treatyofwaitangi.net.nz/TreatyDocuments9.html
and the “Attempt at a reconstruction of the literal translation of the Maori text” by Hugh Kawharu. These false documents were used to introduce apartheid into New Zealand, extract billions of taxpayers’ dollars and assets from New Zealanders and are now being used to usher in the treasonous He Puapua Māori mafia manifesto for the complete control of New Zealand by 2040.
A sad day. Prebble's appointment seemed one bright spot since the new govt. But I was always astonished that he signed up. To be even faintly effective, the associated workload and angst would be the last thing people need in the twilight of their lives. He would be working among scores all with a direct and often indirect interest in the current course, and backed by a staff of hundreds all ditto. He would have been a lone voice of principle among a myriad with the huge overriding and corrupting motivation of self interest. If he seriously questioned he would go in fear of encountering some haka, kapahaka hyped maori nutter intent on te ao, tikanga utu. After observing the mighty maori disinformation program in action, the blind acceptance of, and the associated blind unreasoned illogical rage in the hikoi, and hearing the grossly inflammatory nutter inciting language of Waititi , Packer and co, and the only slightly more moderate of other prominent activists, he probably (and appropriately) considered his chances of reaching 80 as not good.
Time for the Tribunal and the Maori seats to go. Switch the focus to the things that unite us and the future we can create for this nation. I’m disappointed but not surprised Prebble has opted out. The Tribunal is quite likely not fixable from the inside - even more reason for it to go. Onward into the breach dear friends…
i Don't agree race and gender correlate with intelligence. I don't believe any research has concluded this either. Like any research in education and sociology there are just too many variables, involved to come to this conclusion. Intelligence is however highly related to education and we have a rotten education system with the longest tail of underachievement in the developed world.
Maori were achieving well in reading for example with the much superior traditional methods up to about the middle of last century that we used to have but with the cancelling out of phonics , about 1950 on wards they began underachieving big time.
With quality education you can achieve equity and equality. With the poor education as we have now you can't.
I agree with Gaynor. I'm afraid that the Ministry of Education and NZQA have been out of line for far too long. They must be restructured at a minimum, but better still is to close them up completely and rebuild with only the best performing staff and genuine experts. Sorry, but I met too many posers, clowns, self-promoters, yes-men and bullies there - and very negative workplace cultures.
Even more important is to get ourselves a first-rate curriculum. We have reason to be optimistic here, as Erica Stanford and various experts on her curriculum panels are working hard to improve on the "refreshed curriculum" of two years ago.
Finally, listen to experts such as Gaynor and remember that New Zealand is a multicultural society rather than bicultural. Many of our children are neither Maori nor European. Their needs are important too. David Lillis
Gaynor, I wrote there is a correlation with 'race and age' not 'race and gender'. A meta-analysis of the research on race is given by Richard Lynn in Race Differences in Intelligence, the first edition of which is available on the net: https://intelligence-humaine.com/Documents/Race%20Differences%20In%20Intelligence.pdf
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