A.E. Thompson: Censoring Psychologists

Others have commented on the NZ College of Clinical Psychologists' removal of an article it previously published in its professional journal because, in retrospect, that article did not conform to the organisation's values. Some values!

A.E. Thompson: Racist Control of New Zealand Psychologists

I draw your attention to public documents from the New Zealand Psychological Society, the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists and the New Zealand Psychologists Board.

The New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP) is currently pushing workshops called 'Te Tiriti O Waitangi Informed Psychology in Aotearoa' (see https://nzps.gecco.co.nz/event-manager/ViewEvent/220).

A.E. Thompson: Propaganda on Hone Heke's Flagstaff Hill

I'm not sure if anyone here has drawn attention to the flagstaff at Russell. That was the one that Hone Heke's associate Te Haratua chopped down in July 1844 and Heke followed up with three further fellings from January to March 1845 whereupon those breaches of Te Tiriti (that Hone Heke had signed) led to local civil war and contributed to the start of 'land wars' around the new country. The flagstaff story is an amazing tale albeit that details vary from different sources. Essentially, Hone Heke objected to losing money that he and his cuzzies had been extracting as an informal fee from visiting ships. (Like the fees for access to beaches that will be extorted through customary title of Foreshores and Seabeds...) The Governor had imposed a customs tariff that led to ships avoiding the Bay. Also, Heke was unhappy when the country's capital was relocated from Russell to Auckland, further reducing his opportunities for more wealth and power. Ethical ruminations about the fairness of British rule were probably not so prominent in motivating this slave-owning chief.

A.E. Thompson: Encouraging the Survival of Te Reo

Even assuming a case can be defended for taxpayer-funded efforts to revive or to maintain te reo, what we are seeing seems a stupid way to go about achieving that.

Throwing in Maori substitutes for an arbitrary range of words in English narratives (e.g. 'mahi', 'whanau' and 'motu') will at best lead to many people recognising and perhaps using those few words but remaining completely unable to participate in a Maori language conversation either as a listener or speaker. There will always be a constraint on how many Maori terms can be inserted into an English utterance before it becomes so burdened with te reo it will no longer be intelligible to most of the English-speaking world. We are probably close to that limit already.

A.E. Thompson: Collins' Over-correction on the Marsden Fund in 2024

The Marsden Fund was established by the government in 1994 and we the population pay for it through taxes. After Grant Robinson changed the qualifying criteria for its funding awards, Judith Collins has now reset those criteria to be closer to the foundational purpose of the Fund. From Collins' responses on the matter in parliament on 17/12/2024 (You Tube: "Taxpayers' Union | Judith Collins deals with Marsden Fund questions in Parliament"), she seems to be ignorant on the topic of science. Good research on social issues is as much science as are chemistry, physics etc. If she knew what she was talking about she would have simply emphasized that she is making Marsden Fund focus on particular types of science closer to that envisaged in setting up the Fund.

A.E. Thompson: Dr Duncan Webb’s Creative Reasoning Regarding Treaty Principles

I don’t agree a referendum is a sensible way of determining what, if any, principles underlie Te Tiriti or were believed to exist by the signatories. That’s a bit like voting to decide whether it rained yesterday or not. Better to find, or commission unbiased people to find, evidence and decide one way or another. Unfortunately, that wasn’t  done properly by the Waitangi Tribunal, as Ewen McQueen (author of ‘One Sun in the Sky: The Untold Story of Sovereignty and the Treaty of Waitangi’) discovered when he looked for, but was unable to find, evidence to support the Tribunal’s claims regarding principles.

A.E. Thompson: Radio New Zealand - Woke but never Broke

There was an interesting article in the Herald on 30 August about Radio New Zealand's nose-diving ratings and audience numbers. Its title in part was "Media Insider: RNZ’s radio ratings drop ‘a cause for soul-searching’ says CEO".

RNZ is fully funded through our taxes so doesn't have irritating advertisements, yet listeners are fast moving to commercial stations. RNZ's chief executive and others were reported offering various unlikely explanations such as the location of their operation and how large their office space is. No mention of one of the most likely explanations, that RNZ's constant use of te reo and focus on all things Maori are not what most people want to hear. The elephant in the room.

A.E. Thompson: Saving Money and Sense at Health New Zealand

Health NZ's governing board was replaced with a commissioner to rein in budget overruns. One might wonder where savings can be made. Unfortunately, some of the savings will be at the expense of 'front line' health services if critics are correct in alleging that the percentage increased funding for health fell well short the percentage increase in population due to immigration and the increased proportion of aging baby boomers placing greater demands on health services.

However, publications from Health NZ point to considerable race-based ideological investment of dubious benefit. For example, a communication last week stated:

A.E. Thompson: It's Health New Zealand Now but the Ideology Remains Te Whatu Ora

I was made aware that Health New Zealand recently sent an email to its staff as follows:

"We encourage everyone to incorporate karakia daily. To help support you with this we have created some pre-recorded videos to learn karakia. Our resource is designed to give you some options that will enable you to learn and develop your confidence and skills. Note over time we will be adding more recordings for you to choose from."

A.E. Thompson: Health NZ and the PSA sneak in a bit more racism while they can

Days after the new government was sworn in, the PSA has announced the latest employment agreement (yet to be ratified by members) for the 'Allied' health staff with Health New Zealand, i.e. non-medical health professionals such as social workers, radiologists and so forth. One item in the agreement states:

"Allied leading the way with an exciting new Tikanga clause, the first of any health collective agreement! Māori Pūtea/Allowance - A Pūtea will be paid where, by mutual agreement, the kaimahi Māori will deliver Pūkenga Māori on behalf of the service or organisation, where this knowledge is not recognised in their role or remuneration."

A.E. Thompson: Voters Voice Of No Interest To The Left

New Zealand's socialists are quickly showing what they think of democracy. On the same day that our new government announced its agreed policies, our Public Service Association (PSA) sent to its members the following email. It seems highly disrespectful of the public's voice through the ballot box.

PSA ready to defend public and community services and Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

A.E. Thompson: Taxpayer Funded RNZ Serves The Left

RNZ's broadcast with the title 'Officials working overtime to get last 9 kiwis out of Gaza' on Checkpoint on 13/11/2023 included an interview by Susana Lei'ataua of Simon Eccleshall from Doctors Without Borders. That interview was not relevant to the title of the broadcast; why might that be? Ms Lei'ataua gave Mr Eccleshall a free platform to bemoan attacks on hospitals in the Gaza Strip. Fair enough to allow the public to be informed about that. Although no specific blame was leveled it was clear from Mr Eccleshall's narrative that he was referring to Israeli military as responsible for the violence around hospitals and other medical services. That may have been fair enough although it wasn't actually ascertained to be accurate and no question from Ms Lei'ataua arose to clarify this. The Israel-blaming implication was allowed to go unchallenged. Mr Eccleshall made a number of strident, absolutist statements asserting that attacks on hospitals are never acceptable and he referred at one point to the need for investigation of war crimes. 

A.E. Thompson: Te Tiriti into the Dustbin of History

Open Letter to National Party Leader Christopher Luxon and National Party President Sylvia Wood:

Dear Christopher and Sylvia,

I have never in my life voted for National. This year I have been considering doing so to try to stop the current socialist administration from wrecking New Zealand further. However, I could not bring myself to do so if Mr Luxon is prepared to speak dishonestly as was the case about his MP's Joseph Mooney's obviously correct statement about Te Tiriti.

A.E. Thompson: Our Non-White and Female Rights Commission

Tusiata Avia writes and performs hate-fuelled material such as 'poetry' stating that she and "a car full of brown girls" are going to drive around looking for "white men" or any of the descendants or incarnations of Captain Cook and 'f... them up' with a pig hunting knife.

Meng Foon's belated response to numerous complaints about this poem stands in contrast with his strong, fast public responses to even the most innocuous things that might offend non-white people. 

A.E. Thompson: The Whatuing Of Our New Health Service

My contacts have provided an update on the 'reforms' of our health service. Not much has been sorted or admitted to yet though undoubtedly at great expense. Just providing new letterhead paper, envelopes, signage etc across all the previous DHBs and throwing away all the previous stuff will be very costly and wasteful. However, it's all worth it to bless us with the language of Manglish; the title of this piece joins in the fun. In a recent communication to employees of Health New Zealand (oh sorry, Te Whatu Ora; the English name isn't even mentioned in most communications), the following were noted:

A.E. Thompson: (Oral) History Never Repeats - RNZ's 'NZ Wars' Series

Radio New Zealand collaborated with Great Southern Television and Aotearoa Media Collective to produce, funded by us taxpayers, a number of video productions and associated podcasts for radio called 'NZ Wars'. I heard one recently and was struck by the sarcastic and biased nature of the commentary. Another one that played on RNZ was called 'NZ Wars: Stories of Wairau' so I explored it in detail as follows.

Use of the abbreviation NZ in the title of this series reflects the racism throughout it. Let's not use the white-skinned actual name of our country.

A.E. Thompson: Manipulated by Language

Radio New Zealand is still called that. Labour's abandoned plan to merge it with TVNZ would have enabled the name 'Aotearoa' to be used. The 'working name' used by Labour as they worked through the merger and necessary legislation was 'Aotearoa NZ Public Media', but if it had progressed we can be sure they would have dropped the NZ entirely. They couldn't even bring themselves to use more than the initials of our country's name. Like The Christchurch Shooter whose name, according to Ardern's dictate, should never be spoken.

It's not clear why RNZ and TVNZ have not already abandoned that colonial term for Maoriland; possibly the laws underpinning their existence and funding would have made it difficult. Getting rid of 'New Zealand' may have been one of the reasons the Ardern government embarked upon the merger, alongside Ardern's desire for a media monolith that could be more effective for spreading her politburo's preferred propaganda.

A.E. Thompson: More Tricks From the Ardern Government

Ardern leads the most corrupt and dangerous government current generations have seen.  News reports on Friday 28 October informed us that 'an independent panel' had been hand-picked and commissioned 18 months ago by the Minister of Local Government Nanaia Mahuta to make recommendations for future local government, a draft version of which they had now released for consultation. The panel claimed that their final report was to be delivered to the minister in June next year after they consider submissions that will close on 28 February 2023. The draft recommendations just happened to sound like a list of of the Ardern government's wishes and propaganda.  The terms of reference set by Mahuta for the panel ensured that would be the case.

A.E. Thompson: The Newly Named Government of our Newly Named Country

 

We are seeing huge changes to our government and its services under false claims about what the Treaty of Waitangi said, even assuming it's at all sensible to engage in the mental gymnastics required to apply any such treaty to circumstances far removed from the era for which it was designed. Let’s look at some of what's happening to our administration under our noses.

 

According to its new logo, our government now calls itself 'Te Kawanatanga O Aotearoa' with 'New Zealand Government' as a deliberately lesser postscript underneath. There appears to have been no warning about this, no opportunity for the public to consider it. It wasn't mentioned at all in Labour's election campaign. "Big deal, it's just a Maori name for government" some might say, but it's a lot more than that. It's not just adding a Maori name, it's prioritizimg that name and essentially renaming our government.

A.E. Thompson: Our New Race-Based Health System

One of the most significant changes brought about by the Ardern government is redesigning of the Health system into two entities based on race. Let's take an early look at one of those entities, the new Maori Health Authority 'Te Aka Whai Ora'.

Its web site promises enhanced 'rangatiratanga' for Maori over their health and claims this is "central to Te Tiriti O Waitangi and will help ensure everyone has the same access to good health outcomes". 

Wait, there is no mention, reference or allusion at all in Te Tiriti regarding health or any outcomes beyond Maori having the same rights as the British Queen's subjects. This does not and never did include a right to the same outcomes, probably not even opportunities and treatment by the state given that the British monarchy routinely favoured a few over the rest. 

No, Maori were promised only the rights and opportunities allowed to the majority of British plebs. If we had a right to equal outcomes then the laziest drunkards should always be kept in the same wealth, Lamborghinis and private mansions as the hardest working high achievers earn.