John Robertson: What We Are Witnessing Is A First-World Democracy Sliding Into Tribal Barbarism

When Paul Henry stepped into the studio on Q&A with Jack Tame to dissect the state of the nation, he touched a raw nerve that the political establishment spends millions trying to numb: the absolute absurdity of a country running its legal system on racial tribalism. What we are witnessing is a first-world democracy sliding into tribal barbarism, narcotized by an intellectual cowardice that refuses to name the rot eating our civic foundations.

Andy Oakley: For Social Cohesion, Should We Scrap the Terms Pākehā and Māori in New Zealand?

In today’s opinion piece, the question is a big one: Should New Zealand ban the words Māori and Pākehā?

Not just discourage them — I mean remove them from legislation, from government documents, from schools, and from official use entirely. For the sake of actual social cohesion, these two words have become more harmful than helpful.

Elizabeth Rata: Neotribal Capitalism and Co-Governance

In a Nutshell

Capitalism creates prosperity. But its relentless drive to accumulate must be controlled by democratic politics. Neotribal economic corporations (the 'neo' means they are different from the pre-modern tribal re-distributive economy) are like socialist ones. They merge the economy with politics. Dangerously, they institutionalise the merger in legislation, policy and practice. Because those combined interests are invisible, they are unchallengeable.

Geoff Parker: Why Hipkins’ Treaty Romanticism Divides New Zealand

Chris Hipkins’ Waitangi Day sermon in the New Zealand Herald is a carefully constructed exercise in political reassurance: warm words, borrowed Māori concepts, and a curated sense of moral superiority. What it is not, however, is a serious account of how a modern liberal democracy actually holds together — or why New Zealand is becoming more fractured, not less.

Let’s start with the basics. The country is called New Zealand. It is a civic nation with a settled name. Prior to European contact there was no Māori concept of a single nation, and no name for the country as a whole. The name New Zealand dates back to 1643, when it was formally named Nieuw Zeelandt by the Dutch. It was later anglicised to New Zealand by the British, and has remained the country’s recognised name for nearly 380 years. “Aotearoa,” by contrast, is a modern substitute, absent from the Treaty of Waitangi itself.

Anglo Saxon: New Zealand's proposed new planning laws won't support detribalisation.

Chris Bishop's new planning and environment laws sadly miss the mark and won't fix the single biggest problem facing resource management in New Zealand. What's really needed is full detribalisation.

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Insights From Social Media: The Last Stagecoach is leaving?

Gravedodger writes > With no Grandchildren and time has declared it will not happen now, it will have no effect on me, selfish as that will appear.

Geoff Parker a sometime contributor to the Basset Brash and Hide Blog has painted a gloomy portrait for the future of this once bright beacon of a peaceful multicultural democracy that could well have been an inspiration for any and all inhabitants of the known world

Geoff Parker: Tribalism Is Creeping Into New Zealand....

Tribalism Is Creeping Into New Zealand — And It Threatens Centuries of Hard-Won Democracy 

Democracy didn’t fall from the sky. It was built through blood, rebellion, struggle, and centuries of ordinary people refusing to live under systems where power belonged only to the few. It took generations to overcome monarchy, class hierarchy, feudal obligation, and tribal rule. What replaced them was the revolutionary idea that every individual is an equal citizen, and that government answers to all the people — not to clans, castes, or inherited elites.

Today, New Zealand risks sleepwalking backwards.

Insights From Social Media: Tribalism

Bryan Mitchell writes > Interesting, but what it should reveal about the modern 'tribal' aspect of claims, is that they are not individual. If people looked history in the UK, and take Scotland as the example because it was the last tribal based society in the UK. It's the land owners and controllers that have the wealth and influence. The Lairds that once were clan chiefs who gained control of the clan lands and assets, not the ordinary clan (tribal) members. Apply that to our circumstances and because the government has dealt with tribal entities instead of individuals the same inequity as happened in Scotland is being applied here.

Dave Witherow: Treaty weather

 Democracy, as a prescription for society, is all or nothing. It can’t be diluted, apportioned...

Things are getting a little heated. Simple propositions that, not long ago, would have been understood, are no longer. We see this every day and we saw it recently in Wellington in front of the Beehive, being demonstrated by a large number of people.

It is now obviously a waste of time trying to explain, or even discuss, the contentious Treaty, and its alleged Principles. There are no Principles. There never were any — and despite the well-paid sophistries of the country’s “top lawyers”, there still aren’t.

Mountainside FM: NZ a broken nation

Those British who had just put an end to slavery laid down the foundations of New Zealand.

They would never have written, or agreed with, a Treaty that divided the country into two unequal races, having asserted the very opposite: that all New Zealanders were equal British subjects.

This was a precious legacy for the new nation, to be safeguarded and never taken for granted.

New Zealand has paid the price of ignorance and inactivity, allowing a determined minority to build a tribal, ‘indigenous’ and race-based division, which destroys the claim to equality and liberty of all others....


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Fiona Mackenzie: Legacy Media Commentators Display Their Ignorance

Some commentators in the legacy media seem desperate to be seen as fair and supportive of identity separatists. They are vigorously protesting against the Government’s attempts to restore New Zealand’s democracy.

Recent rants have targeted legislation that may require Councils to hold referenda on identity-based electoral wards (i.e., those identifying as Māori versus all other New Zealanders).

NZCPR: Building Success

What makes a country great?

It’s a timely question to ask, because over the last few weeks, with ferries running aground, air force planes breaking down, and electricity pylons falling over, we’ve all had cause to question whether New Zealand can still be regarded as a highly developed western nation, or whether we have become a struggling backwater.

The truth is that first world status must be earned. Regrettably over recent times we’ve taken our eye off the ball and fallen badly behind. We can no longer say, hand on heart, that we are a world leader in education, healthcare, infrastructure, or any of those other foundations of a civilised society.

Dr Peter Winsley: The mask has slipped - now we can see tribalism’s true face

The mask has slipped - now we can see tribalism's true face (but things are looking better overall

In recent weeks the mask slipped, and we saw tribalism’s true face. Kiri Tamihere-Waititi delivered a declamatory call for Māori to overthrow the Government, declare sovereignty and do what the f##k they want.

AUT’s Dean of Law dismissed a legal practitioner as an old racist dinosaur who should slip away into the corner and die. Karen Chhour, Minister responsible for Oranga Tamariki, was attacked by others with Māori ancestry, essentially because she gave priority to children’s wellbeing rather than to cultural identity and whakapapa.

Gary Moller: Is tribalism the greatest threat to our liberal democracy?

The other day, my grown son visited the doctor for a minor concern and was surprised when they didn't charge him. Despite his offer to pay, they refused to accept it. Interestingly, I also went to the doctor for a minor issue, but was charged $80 for the brief ten-minute visit. The reason for this discrepancy is clear: I am a retired white man, while my son is a working man with brown skin, just like his mother's complexion. We are a family divided by privilege based on our skin colour (race, or tribe). So, also, increasingly, is the entire country.

Paul Brennan chats with Elizabeth Rata on the events at Waitangi and her research on the two Treaties

Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit at the University of Auckland, Professor Elizabeth Rata, discusses events at Waitangi and her research on the two Treaties of Waitangi and the arguments therein.

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Elizabeth Rata: In Defence of the Liberal University and against Indigenisation

The suppression of individual thought in our universities spills over into society, threatening free speech everywhere.

Indigenising New Zealand's universities is well underway, presumably with the agreement of University Councils and despite the absence of public discussion. Indigenising, under the broader umbrella of decolonisation, involves incorporating the post-1975 principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, inserting the traditional beliefs and practices of matauranga Māori into all areas of university life, and including Māori nomenclature and observances in university operations.

Elizabeth Rata: The Treaty and Neotribal Capitalism

This paper was published in “Public Sector, The Journal of the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand”, Vol 26, No 3 September, 2003, pp. 2 - 6

The Treaty of Waitangi has become a talisman for a bicultural New Zealand. Such a leap from prior obscurity to ‘oracle’ status (Sharp, 2002) can be explained in a number of ways. The orthodox explanation is that Maori have overcome colonial-imposed subordination for the economic and political partnership promised by the treaty. In this paper I propose a different interpretation.

Peter Winsley: While people focus on the election radical change is happening without voter awareness

It is election year. Political parties are building candidate visibility – they are testing each other in the House before they clash on the hustings – they are refining existing policy and announcing new manifesto commitments.

Democracy requires free, fair and regular elections based on one person, one vote, and all votes are of equal value. It requires freedom of speech, open Government, a critical media, and the rule of law. It assumes human universality and therefore equal citizenship rights. It requires a secular Parliament and other Government institutions.

That is the way democracy is supposed to work in New Zealand. However, the reality is that radical change is now occurring with little scrutiny, and much electioneering is just a side show.

Stuart Smith: RMA Looks Like a “Step Towards Tribalism”

I attended the Taxpayers Union’s ‘Stop Central Planning Committees’ meeting in Blenheim recently. Kudos to the Taxpayers Union for raising awareness about David Parker’s RMA reform bills which propose the establishment of 15 ‘Regional Planning Committees’ (RPCs). These RPCs – co-governed and required to give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – will significantly diminish the planning responsibilities of democratically elected councils.

Garrick Tremain: Pre Treaty - back to the good old days

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on New Zealand's downward spiral to tribalism!