Mike Butler: An iwi and some Maori wards

For those of you about to vote on whether or not to continue with the Maori ward your council has imposed, a bit of published bragging shows what “iwi Maori” think about seats on councils.

The August 25 edition of the Hawke’s Bay Today included a two-page advert displaying what looked like 63 candidates for eight councils from Wairoa to South Wairarapa.

The Wairoa District, Hawke’s Bay Regional, Napier City, Hastings District, Central Hawke’s Bay District, Tararua District, Masterton District, and South Wairarapa councils are listed on a map in the background of the advert.

Mike Butler: The Parole Board and Mr Titford

Prisoner Allan Titford’s eighth parole hearing last week involved new Parole Board chair, Judge Doogue, and was covered by a reporter from the New Zealand Herald.

Mr Titford had objected to the presence of a reporter because of expected media hostility, was overruled, and the Herald published Allan Titford’s denied parole amid claims of unfair treatment (yes, that was how it appeared) on August 16, 2025.

Mike Butler: Why the ‘two-state solution’ won’t fly

Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ recital of the “two-state solution” mantra while joining with Britain, Canada, Australia, and Norway in placing a travel ban on two Israeli Ministers ignores history.

Peters recited that mantra while saying that the Israeli ministers “severely and deliberately undermined that [the two state solution] by personally advocating for the annexation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements, while inciting violence and forced displacement”. (1)

The two Israelis involved are National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Mike Butler: Climate, resources, wealth, control

A master plan by the world’s uber-wealthy elite to profit by controlling all resources, radically change the food we eat, transform the supply of electricity and dictate how we use it, and replace currency with a system of credits, is circulating and not taken seriously.

Agenda – their vision of the future 2025, a feature-length independent documentary written and produced by Mark Sharman, former United Kingdom broadcasting executive at ITV and Sky, provides more evidence.

Mike Butler: Don’t forget the old pioneers

The Pioneers – Makers of New Zealand, a new book by writer-publisher John McLean, reminds us of those who built New Zealand, tells how, and explains why their contribution should not be forgotten.

McLean descends from an unusual pioneering family of Scots who did a double migration, first to Nova Scotia in 1793, and then on to Waipu, in Bream Bay, Northland, in 1854.

The people behind contractors John McLean and Sons also descended from this group. This company built bridges, railways, most of Wellington’s wharves, the entire Auckland electric tramway system, as well as the early stages of the Otira Tunnel under the southern Alps, starting in 1907.

Mike Butler: Hamas, Israel, the West's decline

The Builder’s Stone – how Jews and Christians built the west – and why only they can save it by Melanie Phillips, starts with the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, and discusses precisely how Jews and Christians built the west and why only they can save it. Phillips, a British journalist, author, and publisher, is a well-placed to write on this issue.

“Phillips” was the surname adopted by her parents, who moved to Britain from Poland and Russia after the Holocaust, because “their real name was difficult for the English to pronounce”, she said.

Mike Butler: Top auditor repeats redress error

I wondered why out-going Auditor General John Ryan used an incorrect treaty settlement total in How public organisations are fulfilling treaty settlements commitments, released on May 1.

That was interesting to me because in February of this year I questioned why that government department gave the $2.738-billion figure in response to an OIA request.

Is the treaty settlement total dollar spend sensitive, I asked - see: https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/02/mike-butler-treaty-settlement-total.html  

Mike Butler: NZ’s wars as they saw them

The Spark, the Logs, and the Gasoline, by Piers Seed, that presents the New Zealand wars in the words of those who were there, is an outstanding book that should be a gamechanger in New Zealand policy making.

This is the third book in which Seed applies the discipline he gained earning a Bachelor of Engineering in electronics to New Zealand history.

In Hoani’s Last Stand (2022), he proves without doubt that no women and children were herded into a church at Rangiaowhia (near Te Awamutu) on February 21, 1864, and burnt to death by colonial troops, as has been frequently claimed.

Taonga and Contra Proferentem (2023) analyses two “very wobbly” legal constructs that the Waitangi Tribunal has used in decisions over 40 years.

The New Zealand wars have been investigated for 162 years and have generated successive compensation payments, the latest of which totals $4.6-billion.

The perception of these conflicts has changed radically over the years.

Mike Butler: State racism, dysfunction exposed

ACT leader David Seymour has done New Zealand a huge favour through his Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill – he has exposed the racial divide that has been created by successive governments.

The debate and referendum that Seymour courageously pushed for should have taken place decades ago, before former Justice Minister Geoffrey Palmer launched the treaty settlement never-ending story that has apparently not settled anything.

Mike Butler: Treaty settlement total sensitive?

I have put in numerous requests under the Official Information Act and have become accustomed to being avoided, delayed, and obfuscated. I have not been lied to.

But a response last month by the Office of Crown Maori Relations, to an OIA question on how much money has the government paid in total claims since 1975, including the most recent settlements, looks like misinformation.

Mike Butler: Tribunal’s coastal conjuring

More evidence that the Waitangi Tribunal makes it up as it goes along appears in its latest blockbuster titled Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 Inquiry Stage 1 Report.

Predictably, the tribunal “found” that “the procedural and resourcing arrangements supporting the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 breached the Treaty and prejudicially affected Maori”.

Why “predictably”? The tribunal almost without exception recommends in favour of claimants and has done so for decades.

Mike Butler: How the councils decided

Of the 45 councils that established or planned Maori wards after the Ardern government outlawed the right for affected citizens to have a say, Kaipara was the only council to disestablish its new ward and Upper Hutt City the only one to rescind its decision.

With varying types of complaint, the others confirmed earlier commitments to separate voting arrangements for Maori roll voters.

It means that 42 councils are required to formally ask ALL their constituents next October whether or not they support race-based voting at council level.

Mike Butler: Tribunal’s dodgy Ngata quote

A quote from a luminary Maori politician in Nga Matapono - The Principles shows how the Waitangi Tribunal twists information.

The quote, on page 24 of the new report in a section discussing the sovereignty and the treaty, is from a book by former Native Affairs Minister Sir Apirana Ngata. The report said:

Mike Butler: Tribunal displays its principles

The Waitangi Tribunal’s latest report titled Nga Matapono - The Principles puts its principles on show while condemning both ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill and New Zealand First’s review of treaty principles in legislation.

The 202-page report, that draws heavily on the once-was-covert He Puapua plan for two governments in New Zealand, predictably concludes that both policies were:

Mike Butler: Maori ward vote exemption wanted?

Since the Ruapehu District Council’s mayor has asked for his council to be exempted from the requirement to hold a vote on Maori wards next year, let’s have a look at what happened there three years ago when signatures were being collected for a petition.

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said his community qualifies for an exemption because the community had its say when a petition failed to gain the numbers needed to demand a poll.

This is according to a Wanganui Chronicle story by Moana Ellis who is a “Local Democracy Reporter” funded by the Public Interest Journalism fund which encourages coverage that favours an affirmative-action interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

But Mr Kirton’s claim is not as clear-cut as he wants you to believe.

Mike Butler: Maori wards decision looms

Councillors on the 45 councils that imposed Maori wards once polls were outlawed must soon decide whether to disestablish them, or rescind their decision, or face campaigning in an election in which Maori wards are the issue.

This is unless the coalition government waters down or withdraws the Local Electoral (Maori Wards and Maori Constituencies) Amendment Bill, which is currently under attack from Maori wards supporters during submissions.

Each council must decide during a “transitional period”, which is the weeks between the time when the bill becomes law, which could be July 31, and September 6.

Mike Butler: Treaty settlements – let’s be honest

Let’s be honest about treaty settlements for a few minutes.

The table attached shows that around $4.6-billion has been largely paid in financial redress for alleged breaches of the treaty by the Crown all the way back to 1840 and the Maori Party, rebranded as Te Pati Maori, looks angrier than ever.

That raises the question whether anything has actually been settled.

Mike Butler: The British Empire – a force for good

The British Empire – a force for good, a new book, is a refreshing antidote to the current zeal for decolonisation, which encourages us to reimagine history as “a morality play in which white men are the baddies”.

Author John McLean, a writer and publisher, who has a MA in history and a Bachelor of Law from Victoria University in Wellington, and did Bar finals at Grays Inn in London, tells the stories of Britain’s 101 colonies established over 400 years, capturing the boldness and zeal of the pioneers who built the empire.

The story of the British Empire starts during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

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: Tauranga wants fairness on Maori ward

Six thousand Tauranga citizens who petitioned in 2021 for a vote on a proposed Maori ward want some fair treatment over such a ward that is currently being imposed on Tauranga.

These citizens feel aggrieved that their local election in July 2024 features such a ward without a vote even though the right to vote on such wards is being restored.

And it looks like that Maori ward will stay in place for six years, until 2030, long after other councils have had referenda on or disestablished their Maori wards.