Don Brash On The Prime Minister's Line In The Sand Over Treaty Principles Bill

Hobson's Pledge Leader Don Brash discusses the Prime Minister's line in the sand over Treaty Principles Bill & media's coverage of the hīkoi to Parliament on The Platform.

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Simon O'Connor: Extraordinary blindness

A response to Helen Clark and Don Brash's outdated views on AUKUS, China, and New Zealand.

The recent opinion piece by Helen Clark and Dr Don Brash is extraordinary, and not in a good way (you can read here [paywalled unfortunately]). Like other former leaders writing on the China question, they are living in the past – drawing on old perspectives to address the very real global challenges of today. Yes, China is an important trading partner for New Zealand – our largest and most important, and we must do all we can to nurture this trading relationship. But simultaneously we need to acknowledge the Chinese Communist Party is also a challenge to the rule of law, democracy, and the international order both in the Pacific and here in New Zealand.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: The Old Guard of Helen Clark and Don Brash are Out of Touch

Time to Hand the Torch to a New Generation

In a bizarre jointly written Opinion Piece, former Labour PM Helen Clark and Leader of the National Party Don Brash have written an article criticizing the new coalition for indicating NZ maybe keen to participate in the Aukus defence alliance between Australia, the UK and US. They start by saying, "In 1985, the NZ Labour Government made it clear that nuclear weapons were so terrible - in the full meaning of that word - that as a country we had no wish to be defended by them. As a result, we were rather unceremoniously ejected from the Anzus alliance which to that point had linked Australia, NZ and the US". That is far from the truth - a large part of the reason I heard persuasively stated at the time was that should a ship carrying nukes be in our waters when war broke out, that would make NZ a nuclear target. We feared being attacked by nukes, not defended by them.

Don Brash: What kind of country do we want to be?

Last Sunday, the Sunday Star-Times recalled on its front page the “fiery debate” triggered by my speech to the Orewa Rotary Club just 20 years earlier. Articles by several authors in the same paper brought the debate up-to-date and warned of the dangers of ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which the National Party’s coalition agreement with ACT provides will be introduced into Parliament, will be passed at First Reading, and will be referred to a Select Committee – but with no commitment from National to support the Bill beyond that.

Don Brash: Why the Maori electorate must go

One of the strange omissions from the coalition agreements which marked the establishment of the new Government was any reference to the Maori electorates.

Perhaps in one sense the omission was not strange: there had been little or no discussion about those electorates during the election campaign, either by those parties which might have supported their abolition or by parties which presumably support their retention.

Don Brash: The new government has one helluva a task in front of it: Compulsory indoctrination is unworthy of professional bodies

The other day, I became aware of another example of the way in which the last Government tried to embed its own narrow interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi into every aspect of New Zealand life.

This one involves the Real Estate Authority. Like many similar bodies, it encourages its authorized agents to get regular updates about the laws and regulations affecting their profession. In this case, real estate agents are required to do 10 hours of study on a variety of issues, theoretically relevant to the real estate industry.

Don Brash: Our democracy still under serious threat

When the new Coalition Government was announced little more than three weeks ago, those of us who believe that a democracy where every citizen has equal political rights is the only way to a secure and harmonious future were elated.

It promised to reverse so many of the measures which the Labour Government had put in place to undermine our democracy:

Don Brash: Time to jump back into the housing market?

Over the last couple of months, there have been lots of media reports which have had the effect of encouraging people to jump back into the housing market.

In mid-September, the New Zealand Herald headlined an article on the housing market with “House prices spring back to life”. The opening sentence of the article was “Auckland’s housing market is turning in time for the traditionally busy spring season, with prices climbing in 76 suburbs in the past three months.”

Don Brash: Should we have a referendum on the treaty

A couple of days ago, K Gurunathan – described as a former mayor of Kapiti – had an article in Stuff under the heading “ACT’s Treaty referendum: a bad idea, and even worse timing”.

In the article, he noted that former Prime Minister John Key had ruled out the idea of scrapping Maori electorates, even though it had long been National Party policy to do so, on the grounds that doing so “would be an incredibly divisive thing to do to New Zealand and New Zealanders. Do you really want to rip a country apart? I’ll tell you what would happen – hikois from hell.”

Don Brash: Confiscation of water infrastructure should by itself get government thrown from office 2023

Rarely has a political party promised so much in an election campaign and achieved so little during its time in office.

Labour made extravagant promises to end child poverty, to build 100,000 houses over 10 years and make housing more affordable, to make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases, and to improve our education system. Instead child poverty has increased on most measures; the number of new houses built has been trivial and, while house prices are at last easing somewhat, they are still among the most expensive in the world; we’re still burning imported coal to keep the lights on; and more and more kids are coming out of the taxpayer-funded school system unable to read and write.

And to top it off, New Zealanders are now facing the highest inflation in more than 30 years.

Don Brash: A pathetic attempt to justify co-governance

A day or two ago, I read an attempt by a Minister in the present Labour Government to justify “co-governance”, a word now used to mean governance where Maori New Zealanders share, on a 50/50 basis (sometimes with a veto), the governance of public services or natural resources with those without Maori ancestors.

Don Brash: Too many politicians are ignorant or intimidated

Too many politicians at every level of government – central and local – are either ignorant about what the Treaty of Waitangi meant or are intimidated by those for whom promoting the myth of partnership is the fastest way to power and resources.

We saw this ignorance most vividly when former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked what was in the first article of the Treaty on the occasion of her visit to Waitangi shortly after she became Prime Minister. She didn’t have a clue but, after some prompting by those around her, she mumbled something about partnership.

Don Brash: You have every right to be upset about this

There has been an outcry in recent weeks about the race-based differentiation of access to, and allocation of, health services. The spotlight on health came from the confirmation that identifying as Maori is a factor in determining a patient’s position on surgical waiting lists.

This discrimination is not new but has been escalated by the establishment of the Maori Health Authority.

Don Brash: Who's to blame for our still ridiculous house prices?

Over the last year or so, house prices in most parts of New Zealand have come back a bit, probably as a result of the relatively rapid rise in mortgage interest rates. But relative to incomes, New Zealand house prices are still outrageously expensive. It’s absurdly excessive house prices which explain why, when Credit Suisse published their global wealth report in 2021, New Zealanders were listed as the third wealthiest people on the planet – with the great bulk of that “wealth” being in the form of over-priced houses.

Don Brash: For heaven's sake, leave GST alone

I read with dismay this week that the Labour Party is contemplating removing GST from fresh fruit and vegetables. It will seem such a sensible policy to a great many people, and may therefore attract a lot of votes. As somebody who wants rid of this present Government, that caused some of my dismay.

But the main part of my dismay was because exempting fruit and vegetables from GST – or exempting anything else – is seriously bad policy.

Don Brash: What did the treaty really say?

Earlier today, I was sent a statement which read:

“On 9 July, an FTA [Free Trade Agreement] between Aotearoa and the European Union was signed. As part of our mandate, we prepared a Te Tiriti o Waitangi assessment of the FTA. We found that:

‘The Crown continues to exceed its authority as kawanatanga in the negotiation of trade agreements and deny Maori the right to exercise our rangatiratanga in the process, the content and the implementation of this FTA. Despite some improvements over previous agreements, the NZ EU FTA does not promote and protect the rights, interests, duties and responsibilities of Maori in a Te Tiriti-compliant manner and offers minimal, if any, concrete economic benefits to Maori business and workers.’

“Co-convenor Pita Tipene welcomed moves by the Crown, and trade officials, to start taking their obligations to Maori more seriously. ‘But we found they still have a long way to go to ensure the trade and trade related policy space delivers what was promised in Te Tiriti.’ "

Don Brash: The social consequences of controlling inflation through monetary policy

There is now a pretty widely shared consensus that inflation is undesirable for a variety of economic and social reasons. And around the world it has been widely accepted that inflation is best controlled by the central bank varying interest rates so that total demand for goods and services is broadly in line with the economy’s capacity to produce at stable prices.

Don Brash: Shane Te Pou is profoundly wrong

On the odd occasion when I have found myself in a TV studio with Shane Te Pou, I have always found him a likeable and reasonable kind of person but he completely lost me in his Herald on Sunday article, "Shane Te Pou asks Christopher Luxon to stop playing the race card and put national interest first" on 2 July.

The article is written as if addressed to the Leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, and notes that there are probably many policy areas in which the two are in agreement, though Mr Te Pou makes no secret of his leaning to the Left.

But then he writes:

Don Brash: I've cancelled my sub to the NBR

I have subscribed to the National Business Review for many years and try to read their daily emails most days. Sometimes, they have had some good articles, and one of their reporters is one of the best investigative journalists in the country.

But I have today advised the publisher that I do not want to renew my subscription when it expires shortly.

Why? Yesterday they published an article by Dita De Boni entitled “Right wing try dog-whistles to excite the wet and whiny ones”. The first lines of the article read:

Don Brash: Is racism justified in the health sector?

I’ve just read a depressing defence of the Government’s policy of prioritizing Maori and Pasifika when it comes to surgical waiting lists. It was written by one Will Trafford and published by Te Ao Maori News.

As background, most readers will recall that it was revealed in the New Zealand Herald of 19 June that Health New Zealand (or Te Whatu Ora as they prefer to be known) has introduced “an Equity Adjustor Score” intended to “reduce inequity in the system by using an algorithm to prioritise patients according to clinical priority, time spent on the waitlist, geographic location (isolated areas), ethnicity, and deprivation level”.