John Robertson: Burn the Treaty Course, Torch the Rituals, Make Schools Secular

Preschool, primary, intermediate, college, university. That’s the education chain. At least, it should be. But in New Zealand it’s not education anymore — it’s indoctrination with a feather cloak. From the first day to the final year of university, kids are marched through spiritual rituals dressed up as “culture.” Karakia before morning tea, haka and nose-rubbing ceremonies on demand, atua in the curriculum, wairua in the textbooks — religion shoved down their throats without consent.

The University of Auckland’s now-optional Treaty course is just the tip of the spear. Students — including internationals who forked out nearly $6,000 — were forced to bankroll a political sermon disguised as a degree requirement. That’s fraud with academic robes on. Refunds aren’t optional; they’re owed. And the staff who made it compulsory? Fire them. You don’t get to abuse your post and keep your paycheque.

And it doesn’t stop there. The Māori Language Act turned te reo from a language into a state project, a taxpayer-funded zombie kept alive by legislation rather than demand. English spread because people wanted it; Mandarin spread because people needed it. Māori survives only because it’s been stapled into schools, offices, and officialdom by law. Left to choice, it would fade. Instead, it’s force-fed — another layer of indoctrination dressed up as virtue, draining time, money, and energy from things that actually matter.

But here’s the bigger picture: every level of New Zealand’s schooling is infected with the same scam. Christian prayer needs parental permission, Muslim or Hindu prayers would never get through the door — but Māori spirituality gets waved in with a smile, renamed “culture,” and shoved into your child’s day like broccoli. Only it’s not broccoli. It’s theology.

Parliament prays. Schools chant. Councils hold ceremonies invoking gods and spirits before cutting ribbons. And the law itself — thanks to the Resource Management Act and a maze of “tikanga” clauses — hands actual legal power to spiritual belief. That’s not neutrality. That’s a state religion in disguise.

The fix is simple:

• Refund every cent stolen from students by Auckland’s Treaty cult course.

• Sack the ideologues who forced it.

• Rewrite the Education Act so karakia, haka, nose-rubbing ceremonies, wairua — all of it — are legally defined as religion, subject to the same rules as Christianity, Islam, or anything else. Opt-in, never compulsory.

• Repeal the clauses in our law that enshrine spiritual belief over property rights and evidence.

• No more gods in government. No more spirits in classrooms. No more rituals in universities.

You want to practise faith? Do it at home, at church, at marae, at mosque, at temple. Fine. But don’t force-feed it to the rest of us and call it “culture.”

New Zealand doesn’t need co-governance, grievance cults, or a spiritual education system. It needs secularism. One law. One standard. No bloody exceptions.

The University of Auckland blinking first is proof the façade is cracking. Now it’s time to smash the whole rotten structure down.

• Make New Zealand Secular

For more information, listen to Michael Laws and Dr Parmjeet Parmar from ACT Party:

John Robertson is a patriotic New Zealander who frequently posts on Facebook.