Category: Maori Issues
It appears that unless there is intense public pressure NOW, John Key will pass the Marine and Coastal Area Bill into law under urgency this week. Why else would the Bill have been rushed back from the Select Committee two weeks early, before members of the committee had even read the officials’ 500-page report, obtained crucial legal advice, or made amendments to the bill? Why else would National have refused to rule out urgency when asked in the House on Thursday whether they intended using urgency to pass the bill into law this week?
In the cop spoof comedy “Sledgehammer”, the policeman hero Mike Hammer used to pull out a huge silver gun in the presence of frightened women and children and say, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” The National-led government is in the same position with attempting to force the Marine and Coastal (Takutai Moana) Bill through Parliament as soon as it can get away with it.
A modern day extension of biculturalism is multiculturalism, the notion that many cultures can exist side by side within a society. This is in contrast to the more traditional belief that a nation can only function cohesively if the different groups within adapt to the cultural values of the society at large.
In New Zealand the chief threat to nationhood has been the Maori separatism which our leaders continue to promote, at the cost of the rest of us ~ costs both immediate, in terms of loss of assets and resources ~ the foreshore and seabed is next ~ and long-term, in terms of national disintegration.
As we step into election year, it is surely time to take stock of what the National Party said it would do, and what it has actually done.
The National Party has a problem, thanks to their list MP Christopher Finlayson. He no doubt promised his Caucus colleagues that he could deliver on a bill to replace Labour’s Foreshore and Seabed Act that would satisfy the Maori Party’s desire to address perceived injustices in the Act and in a manner acceptable to National’s voting constituency. He would have persuaded them that with the help of John Key’s assurances that non-Maori have nothing to fear from the changes, a public backlash could be avoided.
The following are extracts from Submissions to the Marine and Coastal Area Bill. All submissions can be found on Parliament’s website.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”.- Martin Luther King
A solidarity picnic against a land protest at the Far North Taipa Sailing Club has shown what to do when authorities are reluctant to enforce a trespass order – take direct action. Since the organised protest picnic against a Maori land protest may indicate a turning point, the following quick look at 43 years of treatyist activism shows how the movement has relied upon occupations, marches, and litigation.
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