Category: Guest Posts

An increasingly common theme expressed by New Zealanders returning home from overseas is: this is about as good as it gets compared with most of the places they have visited, and it is not just the scenery they are talking about.

Widespread criticism about Trans Pacific Partnership, Maori and the Treaty of Waitangi forced me to reread a big chunk of the TPP and previous free trade agreements and to study every element of the criticisms being levelled against the TPP and Maori.

Twelve years ago Don Brash, as the then leader of the National Party, delivered a landmark speech to the Orewa Rotary Club: He dared to confront the issue of separatism. While the response from some was predictably shrill, the message resonated with enough voters to rebuild National's support from what had been a crushing election defeat under Bill English

On the 6th August 2015 the “Iwi Chairs Forum” and Local Government New Zealand Inc. signed a Memorandum of understanding dealing with a wide range of matters including the management of fresh water in New Zealand. In the same month the Forum held a Hui which has published a report dealing with its aspirations relating to fresh water.

When it opened 15 years ago, the Öresund Bridge was seen as a glistening symbol of the new Europe. Sweden and Denmark had been joined together by a motorway with no border controls, fusing together economies and even blurring national identities.

It would be great to see Human Rights Commissioner Susan Devoy take on a real problem, instead of wasting time on hoary old sillinesses like dropping the word Christmas from our summer vocabulary.

I have had Melanoma Cancer since I was sixteen. I have had 45 Lymph nodes taken from my neck and my arm. I have had five tumours surgically removed. I have had two brain tumours and surgeries within six weeks of one another. I have four in-operable tumours on my lungs. Keytruda could be my saving grace.

The proposed amendments to the Resource Management Act announced just a few days ago make it abundantly clear that we are well down the track of accepting that we are not really one people at all, but two distinct groups with different political rights.

It’s not at all empowering to be dependent on the state for your income but far worse would be dependency on a tribal leadership lacking democratic check and clear rules.

A $1-billion “capacity building” fund plus tribal ownership of freshwater, of all Crown owned river and lake beds, and the water column, are among proposals the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group is taking around the country for tribal ratification.