NZCPR Newsletter: False Narratives

Thomas Sowell, the renowned American author, economist, and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, could have been describing New Zealand when he wrote, “Education is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination”.

While he was Education Minister, our new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was responsible for a radical overhaul of the education system to “honour” the Treaty of Waitangi. Introducing New Zealand History into the school curriculum was a key initiative. As the only compulsory subject, Chris Hipkins obviously considers it more important than English, Maths or Science.

NZCPR Newsletter: The Revolution Within

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if private power becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”

― President Franklin D. Roosevelt

In April last year, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced a review of local government: “They are now facing a wave of reforms that will significantly affect their traditional roles and functions… This offers an important opportunity to embody the Treaty partnership through the role and representation of iwi/Maori in local government.”

She was referring to Labour’s planned removal of two core roles and sources of funding from councils, namely the provision of water services and Resource Management Act consenting.

Graeme Reeves: Cooke on Partnership Treaty of Waitangi

Co–Governance is predicated on the assumption that the Treaty of Waitangi created an equal Partnership between Maori and the Crown.

Is that assumption correct?

The term Partnership was first used in the context of the Treaty in the Court of Appeal case (New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General [1987] 1 NZLR 641) in what is referred to as the Lands Case in 1987. In particular the obiter dicta (not the ratio decidendi) in the judgment of Justice Robin Cooke who was the President of the Court of Appeal at that time.

Since the publication of the He Puapua report and its eventual public release, a great deal of debate about the report’s expressed goal of the division of New Zealand into two separate sovereign states has ensued.

Gerry Eckhoff: Different votes for Different Folks

The expression, “Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war”, penned by the greatest of them all -Shakespeare -  usually refers to the political and societal restraints being unleashed to operate against a civil society, often in times of peace. Vladimir Putin, who clawed his way to power has literally unleashed his dogs of war against the people of Ukraine in the worst way imaginable.

Here in New Zealand our PM has more overtly let slip the collar of those who very aggressively support the creation of an indigenous minority government, led by something similar to that which is characterized by the current Maori Labour caucus.

Barrie Saunders: Three Waters – a totally unnecessary battle

The Three Waters proposal driven by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta is a totally unnecessary, very divisive battle with local government and the people of New Zealand.  

The focus has been on whether there should be co-governance with iwi leaders, and also, whether it adequately prevents privatisation, which I see as a red herring maybe designed to divert attention from the real issues.  

The critical question is whether the failings of local government are such, that their Three Waters assets should be confiscated by the state, reformulated into four entities, and then handed back into a convoluted governance regime involving iwi and local government nominees.   

Having looked at the papers behind the proposals I do not believe they meet the necessary threshold.  Yes, there are problems, as Local Government NZ has recognised for many years, but they do not in my view justify central government overriding local government in this heavy-handed manner.  

NZCPR Newsletter: Nothing To Fear

In a week when Russia invaded the Ukraine, and when the protesters in Wellington scored a major victory with the removal of vaccine mandates for children, the Government has embarked on a charm offensive to quell the growing public opposition to its racist He Puapua agenda.

He Puapua is, of course, Labour’s ‘masterplan’ to replace democracy with co-governance and tribal rule.

The New Zealand Herald’s two-page feature by senior political journalist Audrey Young identified Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson as an influential “power broker”.

What’s clear from the article is that Willie Jackson – and his Maori Caucus colleagues – are elevating the interests of Maori above those of all other New Zealanders.