Matua Kahurangi: Forget white privilege

Māori privilege is the real story

With arrests taking place in both Australia and the UK over people simply displaying the national flag, it is worth highlighting a disturbing case closer to home.

Last year, during the Te Pāti Māori organised Toitu Te Tiriti march, a man named Phil Engel was carrying the New Zealand flag on High Street, Masterton. He was not blocking marchers or causing disruption. He walked in front of the protest, keeping a safe distance, his flag held up quietly and peacefully.

What happened next was shocking. Engel was shoved by one of the movement’s leaders, sparking a scuffle. In the process, his flag was snapped in half.

Perce Harpham: Expanding the Coalition’s Task

The result of the election has been an enormous relief. Especially as clearly many Maori voted against the rush to a coup d’etat which would install tribal governance by their hierarchy.

Also a relief is the fact that the Coalition Agreements undertake to reverse so much that had been done by a Government suffering from a form of delirium induced by experiencing the power of being able to govern alone. They had apparently become desperate to maintain the backing from the Maori seats.

Peter Hemmingson: We are the eighty-percenters (80%)

Radical [part-] Maori “brown necks” and post-colonial-guilt-tripping white liberals claim most New Zealanders see nothing wrong with [part-] Maori privilege; and that only a handful of benighted “racists” object to it.

WRONG.

Some poll results:

David Lillis: Sorry, Professor Mutu – You do not Convince!

In academia much bogus knowledge is tolerated in the name of academic freedom - which is like allowing for the sale of contaminated food in the name of free enterprise. I submit that such tolerance is suicidal: that the serious students must be protected against the “anything goes” crowd. Mario Bunge (2010)

Can we Possibly Cooperate?

Recently, we have seen numerous articles and heard interviews on colonialism and historic repression from people such as Professor Margaret Mutu. We agree with Professor Mutu that colonialism brought negative experiences for indigenous people and that historic racism has left a legacy that is felt to this day. However, as Professor Mutu knows, indigenous communities were not themselves innocent of repression and exploitation of others. Just as various oppressors across different parts of the world at different times were guilty of murder and theft of property and lands, so too did indigenous societies engage in warfare, enslavement and cannibalism – behaviours that were not unknown before the arrival of Europeans – even here in New Zealand.

John Porter: 2% Of New Zealanders Are Really Maori

Are Maori really that disadvantaged in New Zealand?

You don’t have to search very hard to find plenty of articles on the net that will quite plainly quote stats saying Maori are very disadvantaged. Here is one I found on the E-Tangata site:

Dr Hylton Le Grice: I am simply a New Zealand citizen

The position in New Zealand is really quite simple.

‘Māori’ are said to be 16% of the population, but this is entirely incorrect because, most of those people who say they are ‘Māori’ have less than 50% Māori genetic background. However, let’s be generous here and say that perhaps one eighth of these people have more 50% or more Māori genes in their makeup.

That means that only 2% of our population, about 100,000, have the technical right to call themselves Māori. The other 14% illogically deny the majority of their genetic background. This is simply irrational and could not stand up in a balanced debate.

Bob Edlin: Budget benefits builders of statues of Maori leaders

It’s not enough to monitor the flow of Jacinda’s Treaty Treats by visiting the Beehive website in the belief it will have registered them in the name of transparency.

Some Ministerial statements are posted on sites such as Scoop before they are posted on Beehive.govt.nz – The official website of the New Zealand Government.

A post on Scoop this morning tells readers that Budget 2021…

• Appropriated $1 million  to build statues of Maori leaders;
• Is investing $20 million over two years in Māori boarding schools; and
• These are part of a Budget package of more than $1 billion for Māori.

Fair to say, the ministerial statement at Scoop (posted in the name of the NZ Government yesterday) expands on spending initiatives to benefit Maori that were declared on Budget Day in a document headed WELLBEING BUDGET 2021: SECURING OUR RECOVERY

Roger Childs: Does the Country Need a Maori Party?

About 17% of the population calls itself Maori, but only 1.2% gave their vote to the Maori Party in this year’s election. This resulted in the Party getting two seats in the new parliament, but with more than 30 MPs having some Maori blood, does the ethnic group need a separate party to promote its interests?

Successive governments have been incredibly generous to those who call themselves Maori, for example more than 90 pieces of legislation make special mention of Maori culture and interests. Any financial announcements by the government invariably include an allocation for the tangata whenua. Before the start of lockdown in March $56 million was set aside for the group and the subsequent budget allocated $900 million to help Maori cope with Covid-19.

Louis Houlbrooke: Maori Business Privilege

Tender quota for Māori business: 

Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta wants a quota of 16% of government spending on roading and construction tenders to be made exclusively available for Māori businesses.

If a Minister was found to be handing out government contracts on the basis of iwi connections, it would be considered corrupt. But Nanaia Mahuta seems to think she can avoid this accusation by enshrining the practice in government policy.

Bob Edlin: You will know the border has been reached when virus vigilantes stop you in the name of health and safety

Good questions were raised by “a Far North man”, who did not want to be named because of his fear of retribution.

Talking to the Northland Age late last month, the man said he was

“… scared. Really scared. Not because of some virus. We have ways to deal with this. I am scared because our authorities allow people to take the law into their own hands.

“People with no authority, people with no mandate, who are not elected to represent the people by democratic rules.

“They are allowed to form a private militia, select their own people and block public roads. They are allowed to take away one of the basic human rights from us, the freedom to move.”

Bob Edlin: How the Treaty and indigenous rights are being brought into the response to Covid-19

A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website  under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning.

“Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence.

One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori should be promoted to take over from whomsoever now is heading the Covid-19 planning response team.

Another is that the planners should make Māori people their top priority.

Perhaps the headline writer misconstrued what the reporter was told.  Let’s see.

NZCPR Weekly: Maori Privilege

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we we look into the growth of Maori Privilege and urge readers who haven’t already done so to send in a submission on the Bill to entrench the Maori seats, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Dr Michael Gousmett explains why taxpayer subsidies to billion dollar iwi corporations is so misguided, and our poll asks whether you believe Maori corporations should receive preferential tax treatment.

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