Mike Butler: Who really broke the treaty?

It wasn’t the Crown that repeatedly broke the Treaty of Waitangi, and $4.3-billion has been paid to “settle” grievances that had been fabricated, according to commentator Dr John Robinson.

Career scientist Robinson, who has authored a series of works on racism in New Zealand, puts a blowtorch on New Zealand’s treaty industry in his new book titled Who Really Broke the Treaty?

He has seen the inside of that industry, worked for it, and knows exactly how it functions.

You would be surprised at the scale of a massive scam that has been going on for nearly 50 years – in broad daylight, and funded by you.

Mike Butler: Treaty principles and threats

Those who have done well out of the invention of treaty principles “will object to their removal” and “use the loud voices and threatening tactics”, Auckland University Professor of Education Elizabeth Rata wrote last October.

So true. Once the ACT Party’s proposed Treaty Principles Bill became a reality, as soon as the government changed, those loud complaints rang out.

Garrick Tremain: Cloak of kudos

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Maori King and our Prime Minister meeting! 

JC: One Country, One People, One Law

Why on earth does the National leader, Christopher Luxon, bother to go to Ngaruawahia? Is it a case of if you don’t go you’re insulting your supposed hosts, and if you do go it’s their chance to insult you? Regardless, it serves no useful purpose. ACT and NZ First had the good sense to stay away. A better idea would be to scrap the Maori seats because they serve no useful purpose.

It is now 2023 and the time is well past when the priority should be to ensure we are all one people living under the same laws. National has to stop pandering to one small sector of Maoridom. There are no votes in it for them. The elite know their best chance of screwing the rest of us is to stick with Labour. The last six years and particularly the last three since Winston left, are proof of that. The Labour Maori caucus has virtually run the show to the detriment of our country.

John Robinson: Who is King of New Zealand?

One king to protect a democracy

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy.  In this strange system, which works well in practice, acceptance of an inherited figurehead provides a shield for equal citizenship within a Westminster democracy in a sovereign county – all of which are now under attack.  

If Charles were able to insist that only he is sovereign, he would return to us our country.

Graham Adams: Three Waters - Voters don’t know the half of it

When the public grasps just how much power is being handed to iwi, opposition will skyrocket.

Car company magnate Henry Ford once said: “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

The same might be said of Nanaia Mahuta’s plans to confiscate the nation’s water infrastructure assets — paid for by generations of ratepayers and taxpayers — and to hand disproportionate control of them to iwi.

Mike Butler: Burnt church atrocity refuted

A new book titled Hoani’s Last Stand – the real story of Rangiaowhia by Piers Seed refutes once and for all allegations that in 1864 British troops attacked a defenceless village in New Zealand and burnt to death women and children sheltering in a church.

Here the word “refute” is used with its correct meaning, of proving that something is wrong. Some mistakenly use “refute” when they should use “reject” or “dismiss”. Only the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter can utter a word make something bad go away.

Bob Edlin: Maori monarch declares waterways off-limits

Maori monarch flexes muscle to make waterways off-limits but we muse on the matter of legality.

The Waikato and Waipa Rivers have been declared off limits during Level 3 of the Covid-19 emergency, prohibiting food gathering and all recreational activities on the waterways..

Elsewhere around the country people have been barred from going to some beaches by vigilante groups who set up checkpoints to impede the public.

In the case of the two rivers, the prohibition has been imposed by a former truck driver who now rejoices in the title of Māori King Tuheitia.

Mike Butler: Tribes compete in Auckland claim

It was only a matter of time that some tribe would claim the city of Auckland. Then, lo and behold, when the frail, intellectually challenged Maori king did just that on Friday, a second claim for the City of Sails was revealed.

First, Maori king Tuheitia told more than 500 people at his annual speech at Turanagwaewae Marae that he was determined to launch a claim for greater Auckland.(1)

Mike Butler: A billion in assets but little charity

Waikato-Tainui’s 2014 report boasts assets of $1.1-billion and distributions of $55-million over 10 years but it is over to anyone interested to work out that charitable distributions of $6.1-million over the past year only make up about nine percent of the tribal corporation’s consolidated net profit of $70.9-million. (1)

The fact is very little goes towards charity from this entity that has charitable status that means it pays very little tax. Charitable distributions for the 2014 year were $2.5-million for education, $1.2-million for marae grants and facilities, $1.7-million for Kingitanga, and $0.7 million towards a range of cultural activities.

Sarah Taylor: Waikato charity's lifestyle spending

Spending by Waikato-Tainui's Ururangi charitable trust reinforces the perception that tribal trust money goes on cars and lifestyle for a favoured few and not on charity.The Ururangi Trust was set up in 2008 by Waikato-Tainui Kauhanganui Incorporated for a range of charitable purposes, mostly limited to purpose (b) as described in section 1.4 of the trust deed, to "carry out the duties and services which uphold and support the head of the Kaahui Ariki and which are for the benefit of Waikato Tainui." (1)

Shares in its sole trustee, Ururangi Limited, are owned by the iwi's governance entity Waikato-Tainui Te Kauhanganui Incorporated with the beneficiaries listed as “Waikato-Tainui beneficiaries, children/young people, older people”, and “general public”. (2)