John McLean: High Time To Wield The Axe

Tribal threats to New Zealand’s democracy must get the chop, before it’s too late

There’s no such thing as pan-Māoridom. Never has been. Not before colonisation, and not now. “Māori” are a collection of separate tribes (iwi), which now number about 150. None of these tribes were or are democratic. The head of each iwi hierarchy is a paramount chief, the Ariki, typically an inherited status. At the bottom of each traditional Māori tribe were the slaves and baby girls.

So it should come as no surprise that many Māori leaders are no fans of democracy.

David Farrar: More taxpayer funded lobbying?

Stuff reports:

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka has asked his officials for urgent advice around “electioneering” concerns related to a Whānau Ora advertisement encouraging Māori to sign up for the Māori roll was released this week.

The half-hour ad was rolled out by the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency this week, featuring artist and activist Tame Iti (Ngāi Tūhoe).

Mike Butler: Probing Whanau Ora trough

Why did it take Labour MPs Nanaia Mahuta and Kelvin Davis so long to question the Whanau Ora one-stop welfare scheme? Both MPs this week said it was not good enough that, six years after its launch, there has been no detailed public progress report.(1)

However, John Tamihere , the chief executive of Whanau Ora commissioning agency Te Pou Matakana, which hands out the money, disagrees.