The Waitangi Tribunal has been reviewed, and the review recommends it needs more people and more money.
It is strained, says the review. They are of course technically correct. It is strained because the Waitangi Tribunal is busy.
It is busy with “urgent”, and we use that word loosely, numbers of gripes and grievances around the general state and status of Māori, or more accurately, a small selection of Māori who have seen for years and decades now the Tribunal as an almost endless source of respite in their never-ending list of grievances.
This is a classic make-work programme.
Puff your chest out, inflate your sense of self-importance, busy yourself with a myriad of invented tasks and then in the review, guess what? You are overworked and under-resourced.
The Government is going to do something about all this and, unfortunately for people like me, they are not moving nearly fast enough.
As we have said a number of times, the Tribunal is well past its useful life.
The idea that it addressed historic wrongs has come and gone.
Deadlines should have been placed years ago on those wanting to argue their case, with expiry dates on applications and negotiations.
All Governments have failed miserably to this point on the discipline required in that area.
But now it's down to ongoing dabbling in matters of the day that carry no weight and have a growing amount of political agitation about them.
It's simply a jacked-up, grievance mechanism funded by the taxpayer to supply ammo to the gravy-trainers for an ongoing, if not neverending, list of woe.
It takes gall in a broke country with cutbacks all around you to then go and ask for yet more resource.
But then that’s the Tribunal isn't it? Political, wasteful, past its use-by-date and clearly arrogant.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
This is a classic make-work programme.
Puff your chest out, inflate your sense of self-importance, busy yourself with a myriad of invented tasks and then in the review, guess what? You are overworked and under-resourced.
The Government is going to do something about all this and, unfortunately for people like me, they are not moving nearly fast enough.
As we have said a number of times, the Tribunal is well past its useful life.
The idea that it addressed historic wrongs has come and gone.
Deadlines should have been placed years ago on those wanting to argue their case, with expiry dates on applications and negotiations.
All Governments have failed miserably to this point on the discipline required in that area.
But now it's down to ongoing dabbling in matters of the day that carry no weight and have a growing amount of political agitation about them.
It's simply a jacked-up, grievance mechanism funded by the taxpayer to supply ammo to the gravy-trainers for an ongoing, if not neverending, list of woe.
It takes gall in a broke country with cutbacks all around you to then go and ask for yet more resource.
But then that’s the Tribunal isn't it? Political, wasteful, past its use-by-date and clearly arrogant.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
10 comments:
Spot on Mike! Even if the TPB had gone to a second reading, the country still has a problem allowing the Waitangi Tribunal to continue hearing false claims by wanna be Māori, all costing the country into the billions of dollars now. Money that will never trickle down to those that need help, tribalism in action.
All very well and good Mike, and of course quite correct, but who on the NZ political scene has the Trumpian guts and confidence to disband this outdated, black hole for our tax money? There are moral (and pragmatic) reasons for doing so and legislation that can be invoked, so why is it not yet done?
Who will have the guts to do something about this?? Not the current National, maybe Act, possibly Winston, i just wish we had some people with vision and guts to run this country.
Goldsmith and Potaka downsizing the WT? Pigs might fly.
I understand PM Luxon is considering standing for Te Pati Maori at the next election because their manifesto suits his vision for New Zealand better .
He started maorification at Air New Zealand and I prove that by a simple glance at the cabin crew and Air NZ have the gall to limit the weight of customers in cabin baggage.
His non answer of why he dismissed the Treaty Principles Bill is further proof of his proposed Waka jump to Te Pati Maori
Well said Basil.
Basil, Luxon is already running Te Parti National.
And any of his TPN MPs who don't fall in line are censured.
Take the voice of Maureen Pugh, being shut down because she ventured to express a sensible opinion of so called climate change.
Public support by National MPs for democracy is quickly shut down.
Maybe Air NZ should weigh passengers and charge a premium for those that add more weight to the plane.
I commentated on another post but will repeat it here that the PMs true colours are on full view when you see how he crawls to Maori tribe leaders like Tainui and Nga Tahu. Probably because he sees them as successful players in the business world. But he conveniently forgets where their generous business capital came from. All courtesy of NZ Taxpayer via his friends like Mr Finlayson and others
The Waitangi Tribunal could have a useful role but its acceptance of oral history as evidence equal to or better than written records and real evidence is one of the factors that has resulted in so many silly findings. Such as inventing a bunch of vague and fake Treaty principles.
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