Category: Democracy
While sovereignty now rests with Parliament to govern on behalf of all New Zealanders, it is voters who have the democratic power to decide who should rule the country: government of the people, by the people, for the people. And every three years we exercise that power at the ballot box, when we decide whether the old Government should carry on - or be replaced.
Many are aware that there are two treaties, an 1840 treaty and a 1986 reinvention, and that people on both sides talking past each other when it comes to treaty politics. But beware of everyone who alleges the coalition government is “rewriting the treaty”. The treaty was quietly rewritten long ago and that rewritten treaty is behind the division that is on display at Waitangi today.
None of these measures promised by the Coalition Government changes the Treaty itself. Those making such claims are deliberately scaremongering and misleading the public. They don’t want New Zealanders to have a debate about where the current Treaty arrangements are taking the country. Nor do they want public scrutiny of the vast array of race-based privileges that have already been established.
The Government will honour the Treaty. But unlike the Labour government, we will honour it without moving away from equal voting rights, without creating complex co-governance bodies and bureaucracies in Wellington to decide how central services should be delivered in the regions, and we will honour it while upholding the equality of all New Zealanders before the law.
The Coalition needs to remember that they have been delivered a strong mandate to reset the country and get us back on track. That means ignoring the pleadings of noisy vested interests and standing firm to deliver on the promises they made at the 2023 election.
There is now reason to be optimistic that our political institutions can return to implementing the policies upon which they were voted to office, and it will be our first truly MMP government which will make that possible.
On behalf of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research I would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!
This plan for tribal control, which was to dominate the agenda of the new government, had been deliberately kept hidden from voters during the election. Labour feared a backlash that would have cost them votes if the public found out.
We have now had a glimpse of where we have been heading, we know what co-governance looks like and we know where it will take us if the agenda that under-pins it is not brought to an end.
We are witnessing a remarkable turnaround in New Zealand politics. The Coalition agreement entered into by National, ACT and New Zealand First reflects the first three-party coalition deal in our country’s history. Democracy can be seen to have prevailed, with MMP delivering what a majority of New Zealanders want.
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