In Case You Were Wondering – InternetNZ and the Treaty
Treaty of Waitangi politics intrude ever more conspicuously into many areas of our society and our public life. Even New Zealand’s left-leaning mainstream media have picked up on the University of Auckland compulsory indoctrination-rich Waipapa Taumata Rau course [1], and Janet Dickson’s challenge to the Real Estate Authority [2] over their compulsion on estate agents to undertake a compulsory professional development module called Te Kākano (The Seed). Another example in tertiary education concerns efforts to decolonise the Massey University BA degree [3] This document supports the notion that society must remain “cognisant of structural ongoing contamination of white/Western hegemony.” It supports the idea that decolonisation does not exist without a framework that centres and privileges Indigenous life, community, and epistemology.
Such examples barely lift the lid on the extent of Treaty indoctrination across the public service, the education and research sectors, businesses and professional regulatory bodies. For example, the Midwifery Council’s Scope of Practice [4], the cultural safety requirements imposed on practitioners by the New Zealand Psychologists Board [5] and the Treaty-centric competency standards for New Zealand pharmacists [6], while perhaps well-intentioned, place undue emphasis on the needs of one ethnic and cultural group. A very heavy focus on one population is evident in the charters, mission statements and constitutions of many organisations in New Zealand.
Surely, organisations based around modern communications technology should see their businesses as serving the entire community, without the need for critical social justice agendas in their operations. However, it seems that even the Internet cannot escape the current identity politics.
The Internet was developed using late 20th Century information technology and advanced high speed communications network technology. Such technology is universally available to the entire world and, by its very nature, is not exclusive to any one ethnicity. In fact, it is one of the most democratising of any technology – of the world’s 8.20bn population, 5.56bn individuals use the Internet, and the average personal daily usage is over six hours! [7]
The following is quoted from the InternetNZ website [8]:
InternetNZ holds the delegation for the .nz country code top level domain. It operates the regional registry for New Zealand (the .nz Register). The .nz Register is a single register, shared registry system that manages the registration of .nz domain names and associated data.
The following principles guide the management of .nz:
Goal 1:
We promote policies and practices that are inclusive of Māori perspectives, to achieve access and equity in .nz domain, and global internet governance.
We work with the Māori community to ensure Māori voices are actively involved in shaping digital, internet policies and decisions.
Work with and support Māori decision-making for the protection and use of te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori within .nz rules and the Internet.
We advocate inclusion and support the priorities of Māori and rangatahi Māori in Internet governance platforms.
Goal 2:
Implement Ngā Pae: Pae Kākano | Horizon 1.
We have a clear Tiriti vision, we understand what it means to InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa Group to be Tiriti-centric.
Centre, embed Te Tiriti through our strategies, policies, practices, people capability to achieve digital equity, digital inclusion and access for Māori.
We are building confidence, knowledge and capability in te ao Māori, whilst ensuring a Te Tiriti o Waitangi perspective guides everything we do.
Foster meaningful engagement and build stronger relationships with Māori organisations, iwi, hapū on kaupapa that are mutually beneficial.
Goal 3:
InternetNZ Group has a clear identity, centered in our Te Tiriti vision - we are clear on our story and who we are. Our people and values are strong drivers for our identity as InternetNZ Group.
Increase Māori engagement and awareness of InternetNZ Group and membership opportunities.
Goal 4:
We have a sustainable, equitable community funding model into the future (including partnerships with other philanthropic, community, Iwi, hapū, Māori national bodies, organisations).
Surely, organisations based around modern communications technology should see their businesses as serving the entire community, without the need for critical social justice agendas in their operations. However, it seems that even the Internet cannot escape the current identity politics.
The Internet was developed using late 20th Century information technology and advanced high speed communications network technology. Such technology is universally available to the entire world and, by its very nature, is not exclusive to any one ethnicity. In fact, it is one of the most democratising of any technology – of the world’s 8.20bn population, 5.56bn individuals use the Internet, and the average personal daily usage is over six hours! [7]
The following is quoted from the InternetNZ website [8]:
InternetNZ holds the delegation for the .nz country code top level domain. It operates the regional registry for New Zealand (the .nz Register). The .nz Register is a single register, shared registry system that manages the registration of .nz domain names and associated data.
The following principles guide the management of .nz:
- .nz should be secure and trusted: .nz infrastructure must be dependable and secure, and .nz be trusted
- .nz should be open and accessible: everybody should be able to observe, participate, innovate and enjoy the benefits of .nz
- .nz should serve and benefit New Zealand and reflect and be responsive to our diverse social, cultural and ethnic environment
- .nz should support te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and participation in .nz by Māori
- .nz should enable New Zealand to grow and develop: it should help people, businesses and organisations connect, create, innovate and grow.
Goal 1:
We promote policies and practices that are inclusive of Māori perspectives, to achieve access and equity in .nz domain, and global internet governance.
We work with the Māori community to ensure Māori voices are actively involved in shaping digital, internet policies and decisions.
Work with and support Māori decision-making for the protection and use of te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori within .nz rules and the Internet.
We advocate inclusion and support the priorities of Māori and rangatahi Māori in Internet governance platforms.
Goal 2:
Implement Ngā Pae: Pae Kākano | Horizon 1.
We have a clear Tiriti vision, we understand what it means to InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa Group to be Tiriti-centric.
Centre, embed Te Tiriti through our strategies, policies, practices, people capability to achieve digital equity, digital inclusion and access for Māori.
We are building confidence, knowledge and capability in te ao Māori, whilst ensuring a Te Tiriti o Waitangi perspective guides everything we do.
Foster meaningful engagement and build stronger relationships with Māori organisations, iwi, hapū on kaupapa that are mutually beneficial.
Goal 3:
InternetNZ Group has a clear identity, centered in our Te Tiriti vision - we are clear on our story and who we are. Our people and values are strong drivers for our identity as InternetNZ Group.
Increase Māori engagement and awareness of InternetNZ Group and membership opportunities.
Goal 4:
We have a sustainable, equitable community funding model into the future (including partnerships with other philanthropic, community, Iwi, hapū, Māori national bodies, organisations).
Investment priorities are guided by clear objectives that promote equity, align with priorities identified by Māori in the sector.
It is perfectly reasonable that effective engagement with Māori, as with all stakeholders, should be part of the mission of InternetNZ. However, by declaring that it will be Te Tiriti-centric, InternetNZ, like our universities, is implicitly taking a political stance, when as a user-focused organisation it should remain entirely neutral. In the authors’ view, the extensive ethnocentric priority and preference expressed in these InternetNZ Strategic Goals distort and impede the fundamental concept and principles of the multi-stakeholder model of the internet – open access for all. The stated goals stand at odds with the principles of Internet governance as identified, for example, by the global Internet Society that leads the multi-stakeholder approach to the global management of the Internet. These standards are:
It is perfectly reasonable that effective engagement with Māori, as with all stakeholders, should be part of the mission of InternetNZ. However, by declaring that it will be Te Tiriti-centric, InternetNZ, like our universities, is implicitly taking a political stance, when as a user-focused organisation it should remain entirely neutral. In the authors’ view, the extensive ethnocentric priority and preference expressed in these InternetNZ Strategic Goals distort and impede the fundamental concept and principles of the multi-stakeholder model of the internet – open access for all. The stated goals stand at odds with the principles of Internet governance as identified, for example, by the global Internet Society that leads the multi-stakeholder approach to the global management of the Internet. These standards are:
(i) Inclusiveness and transparency.
(ii) Collective responsibility.
(iii) Effective decision-making and implementation
(iv) Collaboration through distributed and interoperable governance.
In the authors’ opinion, the InternetNZ’s 2025-2026 Strategic Goals statement:
(i) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of inclusiveness and downgrades all other groups in New Zealand society by focusing on and preferring the input and the outcomes of one particular group.
(ii) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of collective responsibility. In fact, it places disproportionate responsibility on second-tier groups of New Zealanders to meet the special needs of one particular ethnic and cultural group. These needs are defined by self-selected members of that group, relying on the application of the Treaty of Waitangi to justify distinctive and separate considerations in a 21st century medium. The internet was designed for globally open access for all rather than any particular social, economic, religious, cultural, national, age, or racial grouping.
(iii) Fails the Internet Society’s standard of collaboration through distributed and interoperable governance. The Strategic Goals, as written, limit and restrict interoperability (particularly internationally) by a focus on one domestic ethnic group. Such specialisation has been proven, both in policy and research, to constrain effective collaboration across national and international boundaries.
As a critical facility for Internet access for New Zealanders, InternetNZ needs simply to recommit to the fundamental principles of a globally interconnected world, that demonstrate no preference for any particular ethnic, religious, social, economic, national, cultural or racial grouping. InternetNZ should prepare a balanced set of strategic goals and sub-goals that reflect these open-access-for-all principles and standards.
All New Zealanders should support respectful and ethical behaviour on the Internet. However, we must avoid even the remote possibility that access to a .nz domain name could be frustrated because the user may not support one or more of the strategic goals outlined above, or New Zealanders’ rights and responsibilities being differentiated by race.
References
1. Waipapa Taumata Rau Course, The University of Auckland, 2025 https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/undergraduate-study-options/waipapa-taumata-rau-course.html
2. Ric Stevens “Janet Dickson case: Requirement to make Māori tikanga course mandatory for real estate agents ruled valid by High Court” NZ Gerlad, 4th February 2025 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/janet-dickson-case-requirement-to-make-maori-tikanga-course-mandatory-for-real-estate-agents-ruled-valid-by-high-court/T7HJI6672RBWBPDEV5PJ6U347Q/
3. Massey University (2025). 'It's complicated': reflections on teaching citizenship in Aotearoa New Zealand https://mro.massey.ac.nz/items/f5bc8793-6081-48fe-ae25-4417616947d9
4. Midwifery Council, Midwifery Scope of Practice 20th March 2024 https://midwiferycouncil.health.nz/common/Uploaded%20files/SCOPE%201%20March%202024.pdf
5. New Zealand Psychologists Board, Guidelines for Cultural Safety, June 2009 https://psychologistsboard.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GUIDELINES-FOR-CULTURAL-SAFETY-130710.pdf
6. Competence Standards for Aotearoa New Zealand Pharmacists, April 2024. https://pharmacycouncil.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Competence-Standards-for-Aotearoa-New-Zealand-Pharmacists.pdf
7. Digital 2025: Global Overview Report - The Essential Guide to the World's Connected Behaviours. January 2025 https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2025/02/digital-2025/.
InternetNZ Rules https://internetnz.nz/nz-domains/nz-rules/nz-rules-2024/
9 comments:
It appears that every single one of these organisations have been captured but the actual truth is they have but also in the 2020 Public Services Act (DEI hiring) and in Labour’s 2022 changes to the Incorporated Societies Act which forces by 2026 these organisations to reregister their constitutions and they have been coerced to absolutely allign to the TOW obligations.......what ever they actually may be for non-crown entities.....
That law is purely and simply indoctination using the propagandised TOW as partnership etc and that form of 'politicised indentity policy' is the ploy (a way of behaving that someone plans carefully and secretly in order to gain an advantage for themselves) of the Fascist......
What we are now experiencing courtesy of this law from Labour is a fascist move to change society in New Zealand to the benefit of the few.....
The question for New Zealanders is, are we done yet?
Surely .nz did not openly recruit onto permanent staff anyone so preoccupied with matters maori that they were able to produce these goals unaided. How were the ideas fed into .nz? Which maori insurrection organisation provided them? Or was some maori consultancy hired to supply? The degree of the maori infiltration into NZ life is truly formidable. Quite one of the most artful revolutions in world history.
Under Goal 1 "support the priorities of rangatahi ". This should ensure no restriction on porn.
i agree. they are killing the country
Thank you john and David for an excellent article. The madness and/or favouritism from this government, a government that produced a coalition agreement that so many of us thought would return democracy to NZ, would see common sense finally prevail, that would end spurious claims from the Waitangi tribunal and activists, continues apace!
We now see regulatory bodies having to “bend the knee” to the treaty, bow down to “superior” maori knowledge and “science” with THE TREATY, not the government, not the people, not the country being the foremost “regulation” in the land! Your article highlights just how ridiculous and how embedded maori dispensation has become and most importantly, just how much we have been deceived!
Why doesn’t our coalition govt just repeal Labour’s 2022 changes to the Incorporated Societies Act? Or am I missing something here?
It’s amazing that all of these organisations seem to fail to realise they are establishing systemic racism.
Don’t we have laws against racism?! Surely these newly treaty centric organisations are in breach?? And if not our anti racism laws need updating quick smart
Fundamentally what is the driver behind all this Matauranga Maori agenda?
Is any of this sympathy and acceptance of Maori matters going to help Maori or anyone else beyond building up Maori self -esteem ?
Are we being pushed back into the Romantic Era of "the noble savage 'with the belief civilization , particularly Western Civilization is destructive?
Is it just a desire by Marxism to destroy Western Civilization. ?
Is does concern me that Maori feature strongly in poor health, low education , crime , welfare , child murders and low economic circumstances , but how is any of these internet dictates , particularly , going to help improve these statistics ?
Well they won't because the cause of these poor outcomes are not due to racism and so called colonization but the rotten education system we now have and a misguided health system that does not focus on prevention and life style factors .
For me our education system is where the focus needs to be and this means returning to Traditional values, methods of teaching and discipline . Spectacular academic results are being achieved by eg the ly based Michaela School in London whose student intake is from a very poor suburb.
For example we have had in NZ for at least 45 years the most iniquitous reading method possible , Whole Language, which also selectively discriminates against low decile children which includes in NZ many Maori . WL hampers social mobility making the disadvantaged even more so and the lack of achievement gap even wider.
Progressive Education ( PE) is the culprit not Colonisation . But that puts the blame on academia who introduced PE. But they don't like that their cleverness and higher intellect has been the cause of the mess we are now in . Colonisation with traditional values including Christian ones is for them is to be the villain.
Valid question. Just as why if the 2011 MACA law not repealed? Woke National is part of this problem - as has been revealed.
The most serious aspect of this issue is as follows:
1. CRT (critical race theory) concerned the infiltration of the public sector in NZ by cultural marxism ( 6 areas: parliament, public service, judiciary, police, universities , media). This has been achieved;
2. this 2020 Labour law ( Incorporated Societies Act) is the exact same exercise for the non-governmental sector. 24.000 bodies in NZ - huge numbers of members ( i.e. people in civil society) involved. An obligation to re-write their constitutions by 2026 and planned because Labour expected to get another term.
Lesson: the comprehensive scope of this exercise is undeniable - i.e. the total indoctrination of NZ 's public and private sectors. Both sophisticated and dangerous.
What was/is the aim of this cultural marxist exercise ? Ardern was the key figure but exited as the heat increased. She has possible successors: Hipkins? Luxon? Bishop? Swarbrick? even Waititi?
NZ - a small state - may be targeted as the poster child for transformation from democracy to ethnocracy. It has all the features: tribal minority, colonial past, excessive/unsustainable benefit culture, vulnerable economy ( in today's world), destroyed Education system, low level inexperienced MPs ( due the MMP system.).... = its demise would symbolize the defeat of Western democracy .
Elsewhere in the Western world, the pendulum has moved towards the centre again . This has not yet impacted NZ. (Island nations react more slowly.) Total clean out is the only solution but very difficult to execute. Only Seymour and Shane Jones come close to this amongst current politicians.
Do not dismiss this as " fanciful". This is how this indoctrination
works. NZ remains very fragile and remains at high risk.
*Comment based on actual first hand observation at the highest level of geo-politics.
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