Mike Butler: ‘Co-governance’ coup confirmed

Commentator Morgan Godfery has confirmed what the Government has been denying for the past year, that the He Puapua plan for two governments in New Zealand, one for Maori and one for everyone else, is under way and that the people of New Zealand will never have a referendum on it.

This confirmation came in an article by him that was published today in The Guardian, titled “In New Zealand, Maori co-governance is already underway – referendum or not”. (1)

The term “co-governance” is a weasel word, ambiguous and misleading and probably intended to be so. A Maori supremacist quite likely sees no “co” when “co-governance” is mentioned.

NZCPR Newletter: The State of Our Nation

“Totalitarianism: a form of government that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state. Totalitarianism is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. The power of the centre… is absolute power.” - Encyclopaedia Britannica

It is traditional to start a new year with a stock-take of the state of the nation. We are now in the middle year of Labour’s three-year Parliamentary term of absolute power. We have learnt a lot about our Prime Minister and the forces that drive her.

While Jacinda Ardern claims she runs an open and transparent government, we now know that is a lie. Her election-night promise to govern for all New Zealanders, was also a lie.

Bob Edlin: Waititi is championing a Treaty-based system of government

Waititi is championing a Treaty-based system of government – and we shouldn’t be surprised that democracy is not the objective.

Democracy means government by the people, or a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

It is a state of society characterised by formal equality of rights and privileges.

And (in this definition, at least) it features 

 … the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

Right there we can see why democracy might be problematic for Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, who would have surprised nobody when he outlined his vision for a ‘tiriti-centric Aotearoa’ where the majority doesn’t rule over Māori

In other words, he wants Maori to be politically privileged.

Garrick Tremain: Grave Diggers

 Here is Garrick Tremain's latest cartoon commentary!

NZCPR Weekly: The End of Democracy

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter, we outline what the full Government ‘roadmap’ to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by 2040 reveals, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Fiona Mackenzie shares concerns that Nania Mahuta’s Water Services Bill will result in freshwater being controlled by Maori tribal interests, and our poll asks whether you support the proposal to elevate the status of Maori to 50/50 co-governance.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
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NZCPR Weekly: Proportional Representation – Disproportional Influence

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s newsletter we reflect on the final election result, coalition formation, and the demise of the Maori Party, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Karl du Fresne looks at the perversities of MMP, and in this week’s poll we ask which electoral system you prefer – MMP or First Past the Post.

*To read the newsletter click HERE.
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Michael Coote: Unitary Plan deadline fast approaching

Just weeks remain before submissions on the proposed Auckland unitary plan close on Friday, February 28, 2014. After that, those who have failed to get their word in edgeways and asked for the right to speak at subsequent Resource Management Act (RMA) hearings will be shut out of direct input into the process.

The deadline is salient not least because Auckland Council under mayor Len Brown is attempting to use the unitary plan to foist a race-based constitution upon Auckland that will permanently elevate its part-Maori inhabitants to legal and public policy supremacy over all other residents and ratepayers.