Category: Maori Issues
THE GOVERNMENT’S DECISION to rush through the remaining stages of the Marine Coastal Area Bill is as ill-considered as it is dangerous. For this is no ordinary piece of legislation, easily repealed by a newly-elected House of Representatives. It is a bill which confers upon Maori, by virtue of their indigeneity, a new kind of property right (Customary Title), along with a powerful new set of legal powers to enforce that right – powers which the legislation’s many critics believe will undermine the generally accepted principles of liberal democracy.
After nine months of campaigning to raise public awareness about the dangers of the Marine and Coastal Area Bill, the National Party is on the brink of passing it into law - while the country is still in mourning over the shocking Canterbury earthquake. According to Parliament’s Order Paper, National intends pushing ahead with what has been called the most controversial bill in modern times, on Tuesday.
“The face he showed to the country this week was that of a man who didn't give a stuff what people thought. It may be one that his colleagues and National supporters hope he will not be revealing too often.” Herald Editorial, Sunday 20 February, 2011
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.
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