Water is the essence of life and in New Zealand we are fortunate to have an abundance of water. All living things on our planet need water to survive. In our modern society, water plays a vital role in things like comfort, hygiene, transport, science and even mythology.
There is a minority section of New Zealand society that, dangerously, believe they control/own the water and if they are not disabused of that belief, New Zealanders may well find that the well may run dry!
Unless we pay Maori for the water that is!
Maori claiming ownership of our water should not surprise us and is nothing new.
You only have to look back to 2012 when the Maori king at the time, Tuheitia, proclaimed – “We have always owned the water!” He went further by stating “the ultimate goal for iwi is to regain management and control of water…”
It is that control of our water and the enormous financial rewards that will flow from that control, acquired through te mana o te wai, that is of the most significance to Maori!
There are 70 major rivers in NZ, and then there are thousands of streams that are estimated to run to over 425,000 kilometres. We also have more than 4,000 lakes that are one hectare or more in size.
If you then add in the immeasurable outstanding aquifers and you start to get an understanding of why Maori elite have long eyed acquiring control of those prized natural assets!
We are not only talking about our natural waterways but also our water storage, delivery and use! Maori elite and their activist “soldiers” have long known that enormous financial benefits would accrue from gaining control of this vital resource!
And they came very close to attaining that enormous payout with the Labour governments Water Services Entity Act 2023.
That bill established 50/50 co-governance of the country’s entire water infrastructure with iwi given the power of veto through Mana o te Wai statements.
That power of veto gave maori the absolute power to block, stop and finally control. Full control in the hands of the minority!
In 2020 John Tamihere stated “Māori own the water because this country was settled by consent, not conquest, under the Treaty of Waitangi. Article 1 gave the Crown custodianship, not ownership.”
He added, “Article 2, for the avoidance of all doubt, retained, for Māori, absolute control of our waters, our land, and all domains.”
Tamihere further claimed, “The New Zealand government has allowed foreigners to pillage our water and monetarise the waters. What we see is a new-age gold rush where hundreds and hundreds of people are now staking a claim over water allocation rights and buying existing allocation rights.”
“But, in 2020 New Zealand, 180 years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Māori Party is asserting Māori rights to the ownership of this asset.”
“If Pākehā want to continue to assert their ownership over an asset they don’t own, we consider that to be state-sponsored theft. The government represents white power. It doesn’t represent sharing with the brown Treaty partner.”
His old “partner in crime” Tuku Morgan when speaking for Tainui in 2023, stated “…we are duty bound as Iwi to explore the full extent of ownership as outlined by the Waitangi Tribunal.”
Adding, “Iwi and Māori will be involved in water reform make no mistake about that. It will not be determined by fringe elements in our communities who are more interested in political grandstanding.”
Also in 2023 John Tamihere chimed in with this gem- “To what extent do you have a conversation with the generators on the Waikato to say, ‘times up, there’s got to be a levy here’?”
John leaves absolutely no doubt about what he has in his sights!
Maori elite’s posturing around getting their hands in the cash register is continually wrapped and swathed in expressive statements purporting to portray a superior environmental minded guardianship.
“As kaitiaki, The Māori Party will continue to lead the debate on protecting our environment from corporate greed and restoring the life force of our environment for future generations” said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
“When we tell the story of the decline of the well-being of our own ancestral Waiapu catchment, we often link it to the depopulation of our rural lands. Indeed, in many cases the degradation of our waterways, from a Māori perspective, is a part of a larger story of colonisation, urban migration and the loss of ancestral knowledge around care and communication with nature.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/06-11-2018/wai-maori-a-maori-perspective-on-the-freshwater-debate
“The reduced ability of Māori to exercise Kaitiakitanga (guardianship) over natural resources has led to a loss of mana.” That statement was from Living Water, a 10-year partnership between Fonterra and the Department of Conservation. https://www.livingwater.net.nz/about-living-water/
But we all know guardianship is not what they are after, is it?
Even as far back as 2010, local maori on the West Coast were objecting vigorously to Meridian Energy applying for resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal.
Surprise, surprise, upon the exchange of a financial “inducement” objections disappeared and agreement for the scheme to proceed appeared!
Then in 2020, during a period of a prolonged drought, the co-governed Waikato River Authority demanded 10 cents a litre, from the Auckland Council as payment for the water. That paltry 10 cents a litre actually amounted to $20 million a day!
In the end, consent was granted, you guessed it, in return for a $2 million a year payment to the Waikato River Authority!
A further example of the monetary windfalls to maori via alleged guardianship of our water was Meridian and Genesis Energy, in 2023, being reported to have paid Ngai Tahu over $180 million to “grease the wheels” for the re-consenting of the Waitaki hydro scheme.
Cause for even more alarm is the current legal action by Ngai Tahu, who is taking the Crown to Court seeking to force the co-management of all freshwater in the South Island. If successful, it would give Ngai Tahu the power of veto over water management and allocation. Put simply, total control!
Forget about $180 million. Ngai Tahu have now set their sights on the grand prize!
And the superior guardianship ability is again asserted by stating “…it wasn’t taking the action just to protect cultural practices, like traditional food-gathering “but for the good of all”, given the state of freshwater within its territory.”
…“but for the good of all”…Yeah Right!
Those examples of the greed of Maori elite are only scratching the surface. There will be many more millions of dollars changed hands that the public are kept totally unaware of.
So, why do the “victims” of these shakedowns pay up? Afraid of the furore that would be created by the disadvantaged and deprived Maori?
They engage in this ownership fraud and crude extortion yet there is no legislation, no law that in any way confers ownership!
This self-appointed authority and misappropriation of power and extortion is carried out right under the noses of government. Do they decry, do they denounce, do they debunk these blatant extortive demands? NEVER!
National heads what is now a visibly divided coalition and National is truly reluctant to confront the race issue that is eroding our democracy. Luxon simply ignores the public concern and refuses to tackle Maori related issues head on or even at all. In the context of dismantling the excesses of Maori authority and control he seems to be walking on egg shells.
Prime Minister Luxon, presumably, sees Maori as victims of colonisation. Why else would the power of veto, conferred in Maori via Te Mana o te Wai statements, remain in Water Done Well? Why else does he not challenge the Maori elite and activists claims of water ownership and indeed, sovereignty?
The current coalition government was elected to curtail the bureaucratic waste, cease the financial profligacies and most crucially, terminate the ideological, all-pervading, race-based-advantage and privilege Labour undemocratically conferred on Maori.
Many National supporters now consider he is ignoring or being irrationally blind to the ethnically skewed legislation and assistance afforded to Maori. That, after all, was the fundamental motivation for his election.
There is a cultural agenda being imposed on New Zealand. It has been allowed to develop and thrive thanks to successive governments to the point where our civil service, our education system and even our courts and judiciary are pervaded by an irrational desire to disembowel democracy and replace it with Ethnocracy!
All, seemingly, to atone for the horrendous act of colonisation!
Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE
Unless we pay Maori for the water that is!
Maori claiming ownership of our water should not surprise us and is nothing new.
You only have to look back to 2012 when the Maori king at the time, Tuheitia, proclaimed – “We have always owned the water!” He went further by stating “the ultimate goal for iwi is to regain management and control of water…”
It is that control of our water and the enormous financial rewards that will flow from that control, acquired through te mana o te wai, that is of the most significance to Maori!
There are 70 major rivers in NZ, and then there are thousands of streams that are estimated to run to over 425,000 kilometres. We also have more than 4,000 lakes that are one hectare or more in size.
If you then add in the immeasurable outstanding aquifers and you start to get an understanding of why Maori elite have long eyed acquiring control of those prized natural assets!
We are not only talking about our natural waterways but also our water storage, delivery and use! Maori elite and their activist “soldiers” have long known that enormous financial benefits would accrue from gaining control of this vital resource!
And they came very close to attaining that enormous payout with the Labour governments Water Services Entity Act 2023.
That bill established 50/50 co-governance of the country’s entire water infrastructure with iwi given the power of veto through Mana o te Wai statements.
That power of veto gave maori the absolute power to block, stop and finally control. Full control in the hands of the minority!
In 2020 John Tamihere stated “Māori own the water because this country was settled by consent, not conquest, under the Treaty of Waitangi. Article 1 gave the Crown custodianship, not ownership.”
He added, “Article 2, for the avoidance of all doubt, retained, for Māori, absolute control of our waters, our land, and all domains.”
Tamihere further claimed, “The New Zealand government has allowed foreigners to pillage our water and monetarise the waters. What we see is a new-age gold rush where hundreds and hundreds of people are now staking a claim over water allocation rights and buying existing allocation rights.”
“But, in 2020 New Zealand, 180 years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Māori Party is asserting Māori rights to the ownership of this asset.”
“If Pākehā want to continue to assert their ownership over an asset they don’t own, we consider that to be state-sponsored theft. The government represents white power. It doesn’t represent sharing with the brown Treaty partner.”
His old “partner in crime” Tuku Morgan when speaking for Tainui in 2023, stated “…we are duty bound as Iwi to explore the full extent of ownership as outlined by the Waitangi Tribunal.”
Adding, “Iwi and Māori will be involved in water reform make no mistake about that. It will not be determined by fringe elements in our communities who are more interested in political grandstanding.”
Also in 2023 John Tamihere chimed in with this gem- “To what extent do you have a conversation with the generators on the Waikato to say, ‘times up, there’s got to be a levy here’?”
John leaves absolutely no doubt about what he has in his sights!
Maori elite’s posturing around getting their hands in the cash register is continually wrapped and swathed in expressive statements purporting to portray a superior environmental minded guardianship.
“As kaitiaki, The Māori Party will continue to lead the debate on protecting our environment from corporate greed and restoring the life force of our environment for future generations” said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
“When we tell the story of the decline of the well-being of our own ancestral Waiapu catchment, we often link it to the depopulation of our rural lands. Indeed, in many cases the degradation of our waterways, from a Māori perspective, is a part of a larger story of colonisation, urban migration and the loss of ancestral knowledge around care and communication with nature.” https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/06-11-2018/wai-maori-a-maori-perspective-on-the-freshwater-debate
“The reduced ability of Māori to exercise Kaitiakitanga (guardianship) over natural resources has led to a loss of mana.” That statement was from Living Water, a 10-year partnership between Fonterra and the Department of Conservation. https://www.livingwater.net.nz/about-living-water/
But we all know guardianship is not what they are after, is it?
Even as far back as 2010, local maori on the West Coast were objecting vigorously to Meridian Energy applying for resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal.
Surprise, surprise, upon the exchange of a financial “inducement” objections disappeared and agreement for the scheme to proceed appeared!
Then in 2020, during a period of a prolonged drought, the co-governed Waikato River Authority demanded 10 cents a litre, from the Auckland Council as payment for the water. That paltry 10 cents a litre actually amounted to $20 million a day!
In the end, consent was granted, you guessed it, in return for a $2 million a year payment to the Waikato River Authority!
A further example of the monetary windfalls to maori via alleged guardianship of our water was Meridian and Genesis Energy, in 2023, being reported to have paid Ngai Tahu over $180 million to “grease the wheels” for the re-consenting of the Waitaki hydro scheme.
Cause for even more alarm is the current legal action by Ngai Tahu, who is taking the Crown to Court seeking to force the co-management of all freshwater in the South Island. If successful, it would give Ngai Tahu the power of veto over water management and allocation. Put simply, total control!
Forget about $180 million. Ngai Tahu have now set their sights on the grand prize!
And the superior guardianship ability is again asserted by stating “…it wasn’t taking the action just to protect cultural practices, like traditional food-gathering “but for the good of all”, given the state of freshwater within its territory.”
…“but for the good of all”…Yeah Right!
Those examples of the greed of Maori elite are only scratching the surface. There will be many more millions of dollars changed hands that the public are kept totally unaware of.
So, why do the “victims” of these shakedowns pay up? Afraid of the furore that would be created by the disadvantaged and deprived Maori?
They engage in this ownership fraud and crude extortion yet there is no legislation, no law that in any way confers ownership!
This self-appointed authority and misappropriation of power and extortion is carried out right under the noses of government. Do they decry, do they denounce, do they debunk these blatant extortive demands? NEVER!
National heads what is now a visibly divided coalition and National is truly reluctant to confront the race issue that is eroding our democracy. Luxon simply ignores the public concern and refuses to tackle Maori related issues head on or even at all. In the context of dismantling the excesses of Maori authority and control he seems to be walking on egg shells.
Prime Minister Luxon, presumably, sees Maori as victims of colonisation. Why else would the power of veto, conferred in Maori via Te Mana o te Wai statements, remain in Water Done Well? Why else does he not challenge the Maori elite and activists claims of water ownership and indeed, sovereignty?
The current coalition government was elected to curtail the bureaucratic waste, cease the financial profligacies and most crucially, terminate the ideological, all-pervading, race-based-advantage and privilege Labour undemocratically conferred on Maori.
Many National supporters now consider he is ignoring or being irrationally blind to the ethnically skewed legislation and assistance afforded to Maori. That, after all, was the fundamental motivation for his election.
There is a cultural agenda being imposed on New Zealand. It has been allowed to develop and thrive thanks to successive governments to the point where our civil service, our education system and even our courts and judiciary are pervaded by an irrational desire to disembowel democracy and replace it with Ethnocracy!
All, seemingly, to atone for the horrendous act of colonisation!
Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE
9 comments:
Yes, it’s extortion. Yes, it’s corruption. It’s no different to a mafia protection racket. And our government isn’t stopping it. In some cases they are even further embedding it. Why???
Just remove ethnicity from all governance and policy .Thats everything . Return the Sea bed and Foreshore to the Crown .
A fine example of Luxon ignoring Maori issues was on Hosking's radio interview this morning.
Luxon is going to fix our education problems and create the best possible scheme by dismantling NCEA.
However, not a single word about the in your face indoctrination all the way through from first entrants through to "matauranga " science and all the fabricated Maori bullshit to degree level.
Why not Mr Luxon ?
You know, we know , everyone knows that this crap is what is failing NZ students of every color.
And he will not even say a single word about it.
Then we get to the beyond comprehension demands by Maori.
BTW, any suggestions that Maori are going pay compensation for the recent flood damage by Maori water in the Tasman area ?
Luxon 's huge liability is increasing daily.
If as Maori we are all so virtuous, then why not write down all the Te Ao Maori - tikanga, matauranga, etc. - as a complete and free reference, open to all for the benefit of humankind - sort of the way science is, or most religions are? Then councils, government, other organisations and anyone can refer to them?
Indeed - but is the moment too late? If done now, there could well be civil war.
Anon 11:58 - Should threats of violence be a consideration? Appeasement didn’t work for Chamberlain and isn’t solving problems in NZ either. Bullies love weakness. What’s happening in our country isn’t right. We are increasingly being treated differently by central and local government, and the legal system, depending upon on our ancestry. Our Prime Minister won’t even talk about it. Should we cower and say nothing? I don’t think so.
Somewhere between the swirling mist of information, disinformation, scandal, Maorification and daily drama, the ordinary New Zealander sits bewildered. We have no say about the direction our country is heading. We can't even have certainty that we will have free access to water in the future.
An email letter sent to the Prime Minister - Rt Hon Prime Minister Luxon , I refer you to the very important / relevant article below by Pee Kay . You / National undertook at election-time to unwind and rid us of the Maorification , together with the Co-governance imposed on us by the late Labour Coalition Government. The article below by ‘Pee Kay‘ sets out in the clearest possible terms just how important this has become in relation to our fresh water resources. Maori claims to own the rights to and control of our ( perpetually renewable) fresh water resources have no merit and essentially represent a massive scam Governments have bought into , aimed at making massive amounts of money for Maori ( essentially the self-styled Maori elite) on an ongoing basis , by disenfranchising all ‘non-Maori’ New Zealand citizens of their legitimate shared water rights . These claims must not be accommodated , and to the extent they have been , they must be revoked .
Much of this situation has resulted from the unchallengeable recommendations / decisions of the ultra, ultra biased , totally Maori-partial and long outdated Waitangi Tribunal ‘Maori gravy train’ , coupled to the confirmatory decisions of an ‘activist’ infiltrated judiciary.
You promised to rid us of Maorification Prime Minister . This undertaking was for many voters the reason they voted National ( and you) into Government / power . You / National have an obligation / responsibility to honour those undertakings / promises underpinning those votes .
What better place to start than ‘water’ and MACA — two of the great / overwhelming rorts on ALL non-Maori New Zealand citizens — representing 84pc of the population.
Let us see the acrylic promised us .
Sincerely
Hugh Perrett
Auckland 1050
Epsom electorate
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