Category: Maori Issues
This article updates information on the National Government’s highly controversial 2011 Marine and Coastal Area Act, that allows Maori tribal privatisation of the foreshore and seabed, through gaining Customary Marine Title over these priceless resources. The Act is the brainchild of pro-Maori Treaty Claims Minister Christopher Finlayson.
The Human Rights Commission has been a strong defender of the public’s right to the freedom of expression in New Zealand. It is therefore ironic that it has now created a permanent register which “names and shames” anyone who speaks out on the thorny issue of race relations, whose published opinions they deem to be negative.
There will always be individuals striving for greater personal power and control over others, at any cost. So when I read that Treaty of Waitangi workshops have been offered to new immigrants for the last 25 years, I’m curious.
Whanau Ora is the birthchild of MMP. It is the Maori Party’s policy for tribal self determination. It has been designed to direct hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into empowering tribal groups for self-rule - independent from the state but funded by it.
This week, even Lyn Provost, the Auditor General who has presumably spent many, many hours putting together a report on Whanau Ora said, "It was not easy to describe what it is or what it has achieved." These outsider inabilities to understand the concept may not matter if insiders did. But there is now evidence that parties directly involved disagree about aims and purposes.
While no-one can own freshwater in New Zealand, iwi leaders are pushing the government for race-based rights akin to ownership. They know that control of water brings power. They also know that water is big business. The Ministry for the Environment puts the economic value of New Zealand’s water at $34.85 billion a year – iwi corporations want a permanent share.
The ownership of water is coming to the top of the political agenda with sinister connotations that it can be bought and sold and allocated on the basis of race. Before public opinion is led down this road to hell it is timely to revert to first principles and to consider just what it is the politicians and their in house advisors are dealing with.
The result of the Far North District Council’s referendum on the establishment Maori seats was released last week. Voters in Northland have said a resounding “No” to Maori seats on their local council, by a two to one margin.
The official British Government position concerning who exercised sovereignty over New Zealand at the beginning of the ninetieth century is summarised in the instructions given by Lord Normanby to his appointed Consul Captain William Hobson before he sailed for New Zealand on the 25th August 1839.
Nowadays New Zealand is a nation of peoples from all over the globe. The commonality between us all is that we call New Zealand our home. We like to think we are a nation of equals - but there are many who seek to divide us by race.
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