Fed up with the endless anti-coloniser protest that takes place every year on Waitangi Day, here’s an idea. Why not create a new day of national pride to mark – our independence from Australia? A day of celebration and national unity could mark November 16, 1840, the date on Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter under which New Zealand became independent of New South Wales and was empowered to set up a legislative council, an executive council, and courts, under a governor.
The driving force behind this new national day is Ross Baker of the One New Zealand Foundation, a group that gained attention in 2006 when it shadowed the government’s Treaty2u propaganda road show around the country, countering biculturalist spin with historical fact.
