Barrie Davis: How to Save Democracy

Writ large on the back cover of Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s 2025 book How to Save Democracy in Aotearoa New Zealand, is the claim “New Zealand is a democracy: the people should be in charge”.

I doubt that New Zealand is a democracy in anything but name – which is not ‘Aotearoa’, by the way – and I question whether Sir Geoffrey is participating to make it one.

Barrie Davis: Co-governance is Not a Democracy

There have been two related articles on Breaking Views recently: one is “Lindsay Mitchell: The Death of Personal Responsibility,” 5 July 2025 (here) and the other is by me, “Barrie Davis: Divisive Racism Propaganda,” 2 July 2025 (here). I will briefly outline each of them, but they have in common that responsibility is being moved from the individual to the State. I am wondering if this is an element of co-governance, whereby all responsibility is on the impoverished taxpayer and none on the wealthy Maori elite. Are we being made the taurekareka of the iwi chiefs?

Barrie Davis: Behaviourism 101

We regularly receive communications from the authorities, universities and the media which seem to be driven by an ideology of either a Maori or a European persuasion. What brings about these communications: why are they created and how are they structured? And what do they achieve and how should we respond? Barrie Davis uses behavioural psychology to help find some answers.

In a recent Breaking Views post, “Dealing with today's small, raucous, crazy Maori fringe,” 21 July 2024 here, Dr Michael Bassett critically commented on the Jack Tame interview of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, in particular her “assertions about how Maori ‘korero’ and ‘kaupapa’ justified her allegations of ‘genocide’ being perpetrated by a ‘white supremacist’ government against Maori.”

Breaking Views Update: Week of 18.8.24

Saturday August 24, 2024 

News:
Limited engagement with iwi on Three Waters replacement, Local Water Done Well - officials
The Government’s replacement of Three Waters, Local Water Done Well (LWDW), has had “limited engagement” with iwi and Māori so far, officials have warned.

“Lack of consultation may create perceptions that decisions have already been made, without the input of affected stakeholders, or understanding the implications for individual Treaty settlements.”