Former Labour Party leader Helen Clark was always a strong admirer of Sweden. During her time as New Zealand’s Prime Minister, that country was doing well and she was keen to emulate their model of government within our policy framework: “Sweden and New Zealand may be geographically a long way apart, but our shared values, attitudes, and policies make us among the most like-minded countries on earth”.
Time has shown however that Sweden’s iconic humanitarian policies are now creating widespread social unrest.
In particular, their open borders immigration policy, which has been described as the closest thing the Swedes have to a national religion, has been responsible for the country being swamped by refugees and asylum seekers. Almost 200,000 entered Sweden in the last year alone. As a result, migrant services are unable to cope, and the peace and stability of the country is now at risk.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, Fraser Nelson, the editor of Britain’s long-running Spectator magazine, explains that the problem for Sweden is that while the migration crisis meant that the immigration situation facing the country changed dramatically, their policy did not:
“If the finest political minds in Sweden had set out to incubate a far-Right backlash in the world’s most tolerant country, they could not have done better than what has happened over the last few years. First, run an open-door immigration policy making your country the top destination in the middle of a global migration crisis. Next denounce as ‘neo-fascist’ anyone who raises objections. All of this has handed entire sections of the electorate on a plate to the Sweden Democrats. Its leader, Jimmie Åkesson, was on sick leave for five months – he need not have returned. His rivals have been doing all his work for him.”
After many months of growing public alarm over the number of immigrants flooding into Sweden, border controls were finally introduced late last year. But the internal strife caused by the massive influx of migrants remains, with widespread social unrest, rising crime, and the emergence of vigilante groups. The police force appears unable to cope with the scale of the problem.
The reality is that Sweden’s main political parties took far too long to respond to events that were destabilising the country – largely because they were reluctant to change a policy that had long been heralded as a core plank of Swedish society. However, with the migrant crisis showing no signs of waning, the government was finally forced into action. The problem for Sweden is that the changes came far too late.
This example of a core social policy becoming embedded within the political establishment to the detriment of a nation is not, of course, unique to Sweden. It is a problem faced by many democracies where a ruling party has its political identity wrapped into a particular policy and is reluctant to make change.
New Zealand is facing just such a situation right now, with an established policy that is creating growing social concern and is in urgent need of reform.
It is the controversial policy of ‘biculturalism’ – a policy that is now being used to divide our population along racial lines to give a minority an elite status of economic power and influence.
In New Zealand, the bicultural movement emerged in the seventies, spearheaded by academics and politicians seeking greater social justice for Maori. But the movement became radicalised, and followers were embedded into government institutions to change society from within.
Nowadays bicultural policy is driven by a political and tribal elite.
By reinterpreting the Treaty as a so-called ‘partnership’ with the Crown, they are claiming status as a superior ruling class entitled to co-govern the country on the basis of their race. And by inserting Treaty principles and bicultural policies into a growing body of New Zealand legislation – including, crucially, the education system – they have created a state-run indoctrination system.
But many New Zealanders are now troubled by the implications that radical biculturalism has for our future. Some quite rightly say it subverts the fundamental principle of democracy upon which our nation is built.
Democracy stands or falls on the principle that recognises the equal value of all citizens – irrespective of background or birth. It gives each citizen the power to hold the government to account.
Biculturalism is the opposite – it is a system where tribal rulers are unaccountable and their power and authority unchallengeable. This is not what New Zealanders want.
In 2012 I reported on two Focus Groups that had been convened to investigate public attitudes to biculturalism – it is worth repeating the findings. Most participants saw biculturalism as divisive, dangerous, and backwards looking. They believed that segregating the population on the basis of race was not the way for a modern society to move forward.
Overwhelmingly they supported the notion of equality – New Zealand as a country where all people should be treated as equals: “If you are a citizen, you are a citizen, a Kiwi – you should be treated the same”.
They felt it was time that the Maori seats and other symbols of a bicultural past were abolished. New Zealand had evolved and moved on – “one people, one race, one country”.
They also asked an important question: Do Maori have more value than everyone else? The consensus was, “It’s making us different people when we are all one race and should all be treated the same.”
The notion of race is one that is being challenged internationally.
The science on this is clear – separate biological races do not exist among modern humans today, and thanks to intermarriage from the earliest of times, nor have they ever existed. In fact, the data shows that any two individuals within a particular population are about as different genetically as any two people selected from any two populations around the world.
That’s not to say that there are not significant differences between people – of course there are: hair, eye, and skin colour, facial features, height and a myriad of other physical and genetic attributes that makes each one of us unique. But there is no scientific foundation to the claim that separate races of human beings exist. Race nowadays is largely a social construct, based on self-perception.
As history has shown only too clearly, there is real danger in defining people by race as it opens up the possibility of granting privilege or discriminating collectively. Throughout the ages it has led to all manner of dreadful atrocities. So much so that after World War Two, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) drew together an international panel of anthropologists, geneticists, sociologists, and psychologists to investigate the concept of race. In 1950, they issued a statement, which included the following two points:
- Scientists have reached general agreement in recognizing that mankind is one: that all men belong to the same species, homo sapiens.
- The biological fact of race and the myth of ‘race’ should be distinguished. For all practical social purposes ‘race’ is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social myth.
In the United States, after the war, Congress authorised the Department of Energy to analyse human genes in order to identify, among other things, whether radiation from the use of the atomic bomb had caused genetic mutation. Preliminary investigations led to the view that the best way to carry out the analysis was to map out the entire human genome in order to obtain a reference sequence.
This work eventually led to the establishment of the Human Genome Project, a thirteen year international effort, launched in 1990 and costing more than US$30 billion, to discover the complete set of human genes and their DNA sequence.
The project confirmed the early findings of UNESCO:
- DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies (races) exist within modern humans.
- While different genes for physical traits such as skin and hair colour can be identified between individuals, no consistent patterns of genes across the human genome exist to distinguish one race from another.
- There also is no genetic basis for divisions of human ethnicity.
Many countries are now recognising the dangers of defining people by race and are eliminating the concept from their constitutional arrangements. Austria has rejected the idea of separate races, as have Finland, Hungary and France. Similar moves are underway in Sweden, and are also being considered in Germany.
In Fiji, all laws and conventions based on race – including separate electoral rolls and reserved seats in Parliament – have been abolished.
The reality is that these countries have now recognised that using race or ethnicity to differentiate the legal status of people collectively is unacceptable. People should be treated as individuals and it is up to a country’s political leaders to stand up against those who seek to impose racist classifications on their society in support of the equal value of all citizens.
As Professor Robert Wald Sussman from Washington University points out in his book The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea, proponents of race-based policies have deluded the public into believing their fallacies because “many of our basic policies of race and racism have been developed as a way to keep these leaders and their followers in control of the way we live our modern lives”. He explains that many such leaders see themselves as “the best and the brightest”, clearly believing that they have a right to hold power and rule.
When you think about it logically, it is pure madness, that in this country of four and a half million people from over 200 different nations, we have allowed a minority of supremacists with powerful allies in government to hold us hostage to racism and separatism.
In New Zealand it is citizenship, not race, that should be our defining feature.
Meanwhile, the bicultural elite continue to push further and further down the path towards unearned privilege and racial supremacy. If their demands are successful this year, not only will the National Government enable the race-based control of New Zealand’s fresh water supplies, but through their Resource Management Act reform bill, they will also put in place a framework to enable the race-based co-governance of local authorities.
These changes are likely to further escalate the growing public concern over the direction the government is taking the country.
In his article about Sweden, our Guest Commentator Fraser Nelson wrote that the failure of the government to change their immigration policy to address the migration crisis, created a backlash, with critics denigrated and labelled as “neo fascists”.
Here in New Zealand, those raising concerns about issues related to biculturalism are denigrated and called “racists”. The irony is that it is the biculturalists, who are defining people by race, and undermining the democratic principle that all people are equal, who are actually the racists.
Fraser went on to say that the Swedish Government’s failure to address the deep seated and growing immigration policy concerns, in effect handed “entire sections of the electorate on a plate” to the opposition.
When something similar happened in New Zealand in 2004, in response to the fact that the Treaty of Waitangi claims process was escalating out of control and creating widespread public alarm, all it took was one powerful speech on ‘Nationhood’, by Dr Don Brash to change the political balance of power.
At the present time, no politician appears prepared to stand up against the powerful vested interests that are driving the biculturalism agenda.
But are they pushing the country too far? Will their demand for control of our nation’s fresh water be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
Only time will tell.
THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
Would you like to see the government continue to strengthen bicultural policies in New Zealand, leave them as they are, or abolish them?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| Let’s try something new – equal rights for all. | Fiona |
| We are all Kiwis.There should not be two standards of citizenship. This is anathema to the underlying principle of equality which should define our democracy. | Bernie |
| We must stop the tribal elite from gaining control over the nation with their claims, based on twisted history, for political power. New Zealand is a democracy and it must stay that way, where EVERY person is an equal without special rights for a minority. | Ernest |
| I have lost confidence in the governing class in this country. | Cyril |
| Wake up New Zealand…already this country is being called aoteroa nz everywhere you go they are using their so call rights to greet dignatarys coming to our country. Fed up with their whining and smugness being driven by a greedy few. | Dianne |
| One Nation one pe0ple. | Win |
| Start with abolishing the Maroi Seats. | Charles |
| We should be all one people, we are a multicultural nation and becoming more so. | Bev |
| There is no reason not too, this is an in your your face issue | Wally |
| When Muslims take over then so-called Maori will jump into bed with New Zealanders. | Monica |
| Before we go under. | Barry |
| Something must be done urgently to stop our wonderful country being hijacked by a privalidged minority. | Bryan |
| In a democracy the majority rules, on behalf of all. | Brian |
| We are one nation of many ‘races’ and in a democracy, should all be equal, in our society, in opportunity, in Law and eventually, in cultural dress. | Vic |
| Abolish them…..before you have to tear the Treaty of Waitangi from their cold dead hands. | wiremu |
| Over time, it can be seen that any attempt to divide peoples on racial grounds lead(obviously) to eventual division,dissension and . conflict. | Douglas |
| End Apartheid in New Zealand now. Start by getting rid of the Maori electoral roll and the Maori seats in Parliament. | Kerry |
| NO MORE RACIST MOARI APARTHEID! At 6 years old, my youngest read the Treaty on display at Te Papa and asked me what the problem was. So either figure it out or f**k off back to where you came from in your wooden boats. | Mark |
| Bi-culturalism is in itself racist, all people should be equal. This is not the case as now in NZ. We should be registered with the United Nations as a racist country. | Laurent |
| We must bring in binding referndum in order to help the politicians grow a pair and we must do this very soon before it is too late. | Ronmac |
| One group cannot and should not be able to suck the life blood and claim superiority over the rest. It should be remembered that there were people here before Maori. Unfortunately, power and politics will not allow this fact to be taught, but there are those among us who will continue to work until it is acknowledged. I believe this will not be sorted out until New Zealand’s true history had made itself manifest. | Kevin |
| We are all one people in one country! | Pam |
| Why does this National lead government continue to prostitute itself? Be a good parent and just SAY NO to NZ’s family spoiled child … MAORI! | David |
| The government should be committed to the Treaty of Waitangi but not the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. | Chuck |
| The vast silent majority of New Zealanders are being conned by politicians who are being driven by radical backward looking tribal ideologists intent on securing from the state rewards to tribal minorities. | John |
| It is now 2016 the year when N.Z should have one electoral roll for all our people and abolish the Maori seats. We are one people one Nation. Racism and Racists not welcome here. | Margaret |
| Maori seats in Parliament and in local councils, the Treaty gravy train, the moves to allow Maoris to influence the RMA, demands to control fresh water and land, and who knows what other ideas to force us to succumb to their endless cries of gimme, gimme, gimme, all these changes must be stopped and taken no further. | Chris. |
| Oh for the appearance of another Don Brash if some of that ilk came forward I am certain that they would be successful Politically. | Robin |
| A Nation is a tightly knit group of people that share a common culture. Thanks to biculturalism and race-based laws NZ no longer fits this description. Removing all reference to race from our laws and statutes would be a good start. Time to get back on track and stop wasting time and money on changing our flag – this is just a red herring that shifts the focus away from serious issues such as the falsehood of biculturalism which needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible. | Scott |
| They must go – they are racist and ridiculous. Divisive, stone age tribalism should not play any part in New Zealand’s future. | Les |
| Yup. | Murray |
| This country is become more racist than ever before because Maori are pushing for more & more. It has to come to a stop. | Tony |
| Please someone follow Don Brash and not make us an aparthied country! | JC |
| My wish would be for a govt that had the balls to tell Maori enough is enough and start treating non Maori with a bit of resoect and stop pandering to Maori. Maori are not special people and I wish that they would rrecognize and accept the fact. | Mike |
| We are New Zealand Citizens. Anybody who identifies themselves as anything else needs to be helped to assimilate. If they will not comply they should find somewhere else to live. | Aunty Podes |
| We are one people! | Tim |
| There are too many different races in NZ to classify any one of them as “special” We are all members of the human race and should be treated equally. | Richard |
| Devisive race based policies will eventually destroy this beautiful country. I really worry for my grandchildren and the generations to come. | Rod |
| We are currently governed more by the Treaty of Waitangi Act than the treaty itself. | Peter |
| It can’t work, and shouldn’t. Leave the past in the past. | Andy |
| Biculturalism will never be a reality in the nation I pledge my allegiance and I would fight to defend that position. I am a New Zealander born and bred who has spent half of my working life in the Armed Forces where I took an oath of allegiance to my Nation in order to gain the privilege of service, and the other half working in manufacturing industries building products that contributed to the growth of the companies and the wealth of the nation. The thought that my Government would permit this effort to be divided into dual control based upon one race that arrived in this land first, and all others that arrived later is neither democratic or agreeable. Indeed, this is not the arrangement that Queen Victoria and her officers arrived at by Treaty. Where is the Party that promoted one nation and equality of all citizens gone? | Michael |
| We are all Kiwis regardless of race and we all should have the same rights…no eliteism based on culture…a culture that is not indigenous as Maori immigrated here the same as everybody else. Giving special ‘rights’ to any minority over the majority is apartheid isn’t it? Abolish all race related laws & privileges. NZ is my, my children & grandchildrens country of birth regardless of our skin colour/ethnical background and we want it to stay that way. One people. One voice. | Jamison |
| We are all in the same boat and we all have to paddle together or we sink! United we stand,Divided we fall! | Theodorus |
| We are now firmly in a country that actively promotes reverse racism. With maori clamouring for and obtaining more rights that white citizens and with our heavy load of so called refugees New Zealand’s future is in trouble. | Peter |
| Thanks for raising this topic. Bicultural policies are dividing local communities now. I hope to see Rotorua’s Mayor and Councillors tipped out next election due to the racial tensions they are creating by giving privileges based on “race”. | Lachlan |
| Equal citizenship and equal opportunity. One of the core values of the NZ National Party. Not strongly held it would seem.. | Martin |
| After watching that excellent documentary” Skeletons in the cupboard”, they should abolish biculturalism and also all Treaty settlements as they are all based on mistruths. | Steve |
| Since the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 land which I owned and farm has been changed. I no longer have any control and no longer receive rental income. This land has been taken back to Maori control. Landslides are left unrepaired. Also Maori land is rated at a separate level. Neighbouring Maori land is covered in gorse, produces nothing but disperses seeds that I spend money to control. I can tell you more! | Laurie |
| Any race that wants special privileges is destined to be disliked or even hated by those who feel discriminated against. The Treaty of Waitangi has been twisted by those greedy and disgusting IWI who milk it to get as much as they can for themselves from this present Government. if we did not have MMP a strong government would tell them to go and get stuffed but because they have the Maori party as a Coalition partner they have to kow tow to the IWI. The Maori and any body else can have their cultural events and I don’t have to interested. | Colin |
| So called race difference have and are a cause of conflict among people and countries. Races are not going to address one of the worlds current problems, namely global Warming. But the people of the world can by working together as countries and not waste resources on trying to establish superior elites to the detriment of poor people and fragile developing countries. . | Alan |
| There can be no room, not even a whisker, of racial favouritism in democracy. All citizens equal! | Rob |
| Go with the science! | Dennis |
| Biculturalism has no place in our society needs another Don Brash to stir the iniquitys of all the rubbish that goes on We do not need to be controlled by minority groups who are just stirers any how. | Russell |
| Not needed. | Edward |
| Grew up in a country (South Africa), where I saw first hand the damage this approach causes. Was shocked to see `apartheid” alive and well in NZ and indeed flourishing. There is little doubt the current approach is causing and will cause `inter-racial’ tensions and does not bode well for NZ. | Mike |
| We are all equal in New Zealand, not just one race versus another – that should be abolished. We get there on our own merit not because we are Maori or Pakeha or any other culture. | Kerin |
| Due to interracial marriages over many years biculturalism will divide families. | Brett |
| How many times must we say racism is wrong for our governments who practice it, to listen. | Eric |
| Absolutely they should be abolished. | Clark |
| How far does social racialism go to protecting our established way of life in NZ. The immigration policy will go a long way to destroying if the self serving politicians are not curbed in their idiotic actions and policies. We don’t need Sharia law here… | Ian |
| The Maori financial base is quoted as being $40 billion, most of it gained from Waitangi Tribunal settlements with no obvious trickle down to the general population who identify as Maori, probably because it is in the interests of their hierarchy to ensure that many remain poor which justifies more handouts. Anything other than abolishing them creates loopholes to be tested. They should go. | Mike |
| I have red hair and my brother has black hair my sister has blonde hair but we are all of the same family and no one is above the next. | Bryan |
| Like, yesterday! | Kevin |
| While ethnicity should have little signifigance, social structures and inter-relationships certainly do. | Peter |
| As the Treaty was ratified by extending the boundaries of New South Wales (NSW) to encompass “all of the islands of New Zealand” if Maori have a “Partnership” it is with NSW. The Treaty played no part in New Zealand’s independence or forming our Government; this was done by Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter of 16-11-1840, ratified on 03-05-1841 our true founding date. This Royal Charter authorised our split from NSW, gave us our own Government and English law only within which all became British citizens with the “same rights”. Truth will prevail. Queen Victoria did not have the right nor the power to grant Maoris exclusive rights that would be denied her own people and the result of her Royal Charter was that all became British citizens no different from one another. | George |
| When Governments foster race based policies and ideals we have “Institutionalized Racism” an ugly outcome, of no benefit to the nation, or the peoples so divided. | Lionel |
| Hell are we not all New Zealanders? The Treaty was never a partnership! | Peter |
| How can we open the eyes of our stupid politicians to what is happening? We were progressing well as a nation as one people prior to the treaty nonsense. Any unfair confiscations of land could have been addressed without fuss and without an accompanying gravy train. Unfair? We all suffer from unfair. We suck it up and move on. | Judith |
| Over due for change. One people in NZ | Jeff |
| I think bi-cultural policies of the present government will further divide the country. I also believe that Maori seats should go and Waitangi Day should be renamed NZ Day. Please also note that there was no racist theme in the proposed aliernate flag. | David |
| We are one nation, no differences for any person, no separte parts for any people | Geoff |
| We are one people from many different countries who arrived here at many different times to build our homes and families together. | John |
| It appears that this current government is prepared to commit political by strengthening bicultural policies, why? | Dennis |
| The only sensible and logical solution for benefit to everyone. | Alan |
| If this country is to succeed we must be one people , all New Zealanders. With out privilege for one sector. | John |
| MMP has much to answer for. | Paul |
| Furthermore, the Treaty of Waitangi should be rescinded because it is being manipulated for racist political purposes. We need to practise respect and responsibility, not “rights”. We do not have rights without responsibilities. | Alan |
| Stand up John Key and remove racial discrimination from all New Zealand citizens. | Mary |
| When have Maori become the object of special treatment.? One cannot blame entirely MMP,. There is this craven acceptance that Maori are something special, some thing above the rest of us. hence the special consideration in every aspect of our society. There is no doubt that the United Nations pressure upon our Politicians has a great deal to do with this “special treatment” . Well they are special in some respects 9if that word can be used in this context) they head off the crime statistics, they receive special treatment thru our social security system. No rates payable on Maori land and of course they are excluded from Tax on their so-called charities. Oh Boy! The Anti Apartheid Movement need not have worried about South Africa ” here is a HOME VERSION”. | Brian |
| Bicultural policies? I call them Racist policies, No where else in the world would you find a government hell bent on putting one minority race ahead of the majority. It is democracy in reverse and it is dividing a once great country and turning it into a 3rd world train wreck, a gravy train wreck at that! | Stevo |
| We are a divided country due to govt policy and we are being driven further into an apartheid country. | Kay |
| One Country, one People, one Nation ! | James |
| If not abolished ‘soon’ NZ will surely have it’s own Isis like disaster vis-a-vis most African and Middle East countries. | Stuart |
| Pierre Trudeau the PM that brought multiculturism to Canada in one of his last talks said multiculturism was one of his biggest failures. | Jim |
| This Iwi-this and Iwi-that makes me sick! | Wally |
| No comment as its commonsense to do just that…abolish all bicultural policies when I such policies work for one sector only, especially as we now have such a huge migration of people coming in all the time, it’s about time we were all treated equally. | Audrey |
| Biculturalism is just another excuse to rob the productive of their wealth and distribute to the non productive in the name of social justice, in perpetuity. Whose wealth and by what right ? There is only Justice. All bicultural laws should be abolished. Failure to do so could result in a future civil war which I am sure no rational person in this country would want to become involved with. | Don |
| Bicultural policies are apartheid. | Trevor |
| Again I say we are all New Zalanders never mind what colour we are. | Laurel |
| The sooner the better – there isn’t time to delay! | Albert |
| Biculturalism as a philosophy belongs in the 19th century and even then it was a flawed concept. There is only one race, the human race. | Peter |
| Served a purpose 50 years ago. Time to get rid of the concept. | Jenny |
| Its a no brainer!! | Bruce |
| The sooner the better. There should be no room for race based politics. | IAN |
| NZ should make more distinction between citizens and the other lesser degrees of residence. Anyone who is not an NZ born citizen should pass more rigorous tests before being allowed to be an NZ citizen. | John |
| Bi or Multiculturism does not work as many European nations are finding out hence the rise of extreme nationalism. A country (geographically defined and acknowledged entity) must have a unique all encompassing identity and way of living for all it’s citizens overriding ethnic and religious ‘cultures’. Common sense I would have thought. | Steve |
| Somebody said, ‘Power to the people, it is the people who employ the politicians so they should do as we tell them. Or sack the lot.’ | Johan |
| The culture is the problem. race is a red herring in the debate about human values, ethics and social values. Some cultures such as islam are regressive in all these indices for social cohesion. | Chris |
| Get rid of them, we are all supposed to New Zealanders. | Bill |
| Must be abolished – NOW This household will not support Nation anymore if they continue to “give-away” all NZer’s right to -land, sea, air and water. | Elayne |
| Urgently. | Pam |
| For god sakes isn’t it time to make a stand !!!!! | Shane |
| No alternative. | David |
| ‘Biculturalism’ is actually a misnomer as it is a hybrid monoculturalism. | Barend |
| The government has said in the past that no one owns water therefor it is not the governments to give to one race of people over an other. | Bruce |
| Maori culture is not compatible with democracy. | John |
| Abolish, Abolish, Abolish!!!!! There should be no room in our country for segregation. | Lorna |
| Abolish for sure the only way to go, enough is enough biculturalisim is a load of rubbish made up to appease a minority of grabbers who will never stop grabbing. | James |
| How can historical facts be so distorted or hidden by the government and its agencies?? What’s the matter with our journalists?? | Alan |
| We need to stand firm on the grounds of equality – a struggle looms! | Peter |
| In this country they’ve only really served to provide an undeserved platform for those who’ll try to exploit each and every nonsensical possibility. Surely we’re adult enough to comport ourselves to the tune of the old adage “sticks and stones … “ | Jim |
| They are a racial time-bomb which if not defused will escalate into ultimate bloodshed. | Tom |
| We should all be treated EQUAL! ALL NEW ZEALAND CITIZENS SHOULD BE TREATED AND VALUED THE SAME AS EACH OTHER! END OF DISCUSSION! | HEATHER |
| NZ needs, deserves a govt that rules across the board for all races that reside as New Zealanders in Aotearoa. | Warwick |
| But it won’t happen: no politician would dare to face the Maori backlash; instead, we are treated to weasel words and duplicity. It’s utterly shameful. | Graham |
| We are One country so why are we devided into to RACES? | Hugh |
| APRTHEID in NZ is following a disturbingly similar path to what happened in South Africa. The government of the day in that wretched country tried changing names given to Apartheid, calling it such euphamisms as separate development, etc. But if it walks like a duck, etc.- – – . NZ has APARTHEID, simple as that. | Geoff |
| We are all kiwis. | Terry |
| Before it is too late. | Barbara |
| We are a multicultural nation not bicultural and therefore we should be treated as one ie New Zealanders. We all live in New Zealand and not Aotearoa which is another made up name.. Unfortunately we still have a very radical minority (15%) who for some reason are still able to pressurise the Government to do what they want.. We need a political party with sensible and enlightened views to get into power with an overwhelming majority so that they do not need to form a coalition with another party . Coalitions always manage to cut away the ground under the governing partys policies. | Rog |
| Time for new leadership on this matter. | Murray |
| As long as there are separate Maori seats we will have political parties grovelling to attract the Maori vote. We desperately need a new leader with the guts to say “Enough is enough!” Can’t see one arising out of the pathetic lot of politically correct sycophants on show at the moment. | Mitch |
| Biculturalism is a mad idea. | Josie |
| None of us like the way things are moving and we all write letters that few read. We complain but do not act. What ideas are there that can galvanise some action from a significant portion of the people ? | Mike |
| A country cannot thrive on separatism. | Barry |
| To get back to a Democracy, which is defined by equal rights for all, we need to abolish ALL race based acts, laws, and entitlements. | Joyce |
| We are all citizens of New Zealand irrespective of colour , race or creed! | Jim |
| Abolishment would require common sense which jobs worth politicians are devoid of ! | Samuel |
| I was born here I am a kiwi as is evryone else born here. | Luke |
| One set of rules and regs for all. Biculturalism is over as we are a country of many cultures. | Elizabeth |
| One Nation – one people must prevail, and all legislation should flow from that point. | Frank |
| We can but dream that history doesn’t repeat itself. | Rosa |
| I am sick of the pro-Maori apartheid policies of past and present governments. | Selwyn |
| Abolishing bicultural policies still enables Moari to persue their own interests like the rest of us. Neith does this stop any individual adopting what he or she sees as useful to his or her lifestyle. Without any force of law biculturism would evolve naturally and would not be subject to the whims of a few on either side. | Victor |
| No matter who it is, if somebody keeps putting gifts in your out-stretched hand, then you keep your hand outstretched. Maori descendants are no different. As long as this, or any other government keep the gifts & privileges coming, the hand will remain out-stretched . Many sectors of society have forgotten the value of good parenting, honest toil etc. Why consider joining civilized society, when you bury your head in re-written history, & get paid for it. | A G R |
| Stop racist policies! | Quentin |
| We want to avert racial/civil war. | Tony |
| One nation. One people surely. | JOHN |
| 1 people .. 1 set of laws .. no treaty nonsense .. look forward, not back. If mistakes were made, learn from them and progress. Stop stirring and be proud to be a New Zealander. | Kabe |
| Causing division – separatism and is WRONG – One Treaty One Nation – treat EVERY citizen the SAME!!! | Tony |
| The bicultural policies as it stands at the moment is dividing our country. But even more, it is proclaiming the smallest section by far as to be supreme over the other. We are one country and therefore should be one nation with a collective pride in our country and nation. | Ursula |
| I think most thinking people have had a guts full of this govt pandering to these Maori “elite” and caving in to their demands. But it was all started by Helen Clark. Key and Finlayson must go before more damage is done. And the “don’t care” generation need to wake up to what is happening in what was the paradise of the world. They are our future leaders! | Carolyn |
| Without question they need to abolished and the ONLY question on ANY form (apart from Census) should be Are you a NZ citizen? End of story. Asking a person race, is racist; especially if this dictates the treatment they receive. I have a friend who is Ngai Tahu, never put her Iwi on a form and only wrote New Zealander. Daughter needs a tablet for school, so she went to WINZ and was turned down. She submitted the exact same form and included her iwi. Her daughter had the tablet within a week. How is this not racist discrimination??? | Michelle |
| One people one Country. | Ian |
| We are ALL Kiwis. If they don’t like that go live some where else. | Jim |
| They are causing division and resentment. | Dave |
| ..if not ….a Divided Nation will exist for many generations to come….!! | Chris |
| One Nation One people Equal access to services Equal Rights. Are we not better to think to the future rather than keep living in the past. We can’t change our history, only our present, for our future. | Peter |
| They are racism gone mad. | Bruce |
| One law for all NZ is how it should be. | Cherryl |
| There is no defensible basis for separate ‘racial’ representation, benefit or privilege in New Zealand. Those that presently exist were engineered by self-interested individuals and parties. | Geoffrey |
| Only POLITICIAN would try and cement their position | Collin |
| Absolutely – at the first possible opportunity. | Andrew |
| Has the government forgotten its stand on apartheid in South Africa? | Peter |
| The Labor and Greens politics cannot accept the truth of one citizenship, one law, one justice, (delegated shared administration) as initiated in the Treaty of Waitangi. They look to buy votes with concessions that have distorted our sovereignty to be; separate citizenship, separate law, separate administration, and only one payer, the productive taxpayer. As in all things there is reason, this flawed reason is, because separation brings deep cultural disharmony which is necessary to bring about a change from Westminster Presumption of Innocence Governance to UN Communist Presumption of Guilt governance under the NWO. Clark was a NWO champion prepared to sell our sovereignty down the drain for NWO status. Key looks to be following the same trend under the influence of the IMF. We the people are the only body who can rectify these politics of fools and demand; one people, one citizenship, one law, one head administration, one currency free from IMF control, one sovereign control over our own borders and respect for our varied cultures but no enshrined quotas and no enshrined unearned entitlements, no enshrined corporate empowerment. People forget that Sweden lost so much of its male population in the second world war that Sweden was in danger of total demise. The sex reputation of the 50s and 60s that Sweden obtained was a direct result of a purposeful culture change to permit the creation and acceptance of children born out of wedlock because the country had as many as three women for every man in some of their districts following the catastrophe of war, a world war Sweden did not seek to engage in. Sweden’s socialist policies have emerged from that background of chaos, the need to recruit and grow more men and balance their population numbers. Such a social program is not entirely fitting the needs of NZ’s diverse immigrant population and its cultural background from both hemispheres. It is hard to acknowledge that the small previously described third world country, FIJI, has progressed forward in a more sound and enlightened way on the rule of one citizenship, one law and no reserved racist privileges, than NZ. it only shows how regressive and ignorant our two culture division is. No meaningful progress as a country will exist for NZ until this flawed direction is rectified and only the conservative minded National Party has means to do so, and by not doing so, demonstrate their inadequacy to be trusted with the administration of the Country. | Richard |
| The government continues to cheat democracy. | Lance |
| Equality for all! | JC |
| Clark encouraged retribalisation in the 70’s and anyone with half a brain would have known the outcome.The romans detribalised conquored countries successfully and this is the logical choice nz should follow but that would require politicians with backbone something sadly lacking in the insipid parliamentry culture. | Rowan |
| We need to return to sanity! | Peter |
| One people all equal I thought that was intention of the treaty? | Roger |
| As long as there are bicultural policies NZ will always be divided. | Lyn |
| If Focus Groups show that the majority of the population are against biculturalism, how is it that we do not have one major political party reflecting the fact. The situation cannot alter in a peaceful fashion until this changes. | John |
| Absolutely NO to all forms of separatism, racism and tribalism that is conveniently masquerading as biculturalism. Wake up NZ before it’s too late. | Steve |
| The government should abolish all policies and statutes that give racial preference just as Sweden is doing. | Brian |
| Biculturalism is past its use-by date! | Francis |
| Trying to divide the country on the basis of race is wrong. National will be punished in the polls if they go through with giving iwi control of water. | Mike |
| Biculturalism should be abolished ASAP | Jason |
| The separatists have powerful friends in government. It is sickening that they are able to impose their racist policies on us all. | Tim |