The bushfires in Nelson have been headline news for more than a week. Families watched nervously as their homes, animals and livelihoods were threatened or destroyed. Hundreds of firefighters from all around the country battled a blaze which was said to be one of the largest in New Zealand’s history.
The fire, which started in Pigeon Valley the day before Waitangi Day, is thought to have been caused by a spark from a contractor ploughing stony ground. It quickly spread out of control in the tinder dry conditions in the area.
By 8am on Waitangi Day, a Civil Defence Emergency had been declared and residents were being asked to evacuate.
The Prime Minister visited the area the next day, acknowledging the difficulties locals faced: “I can only imagine how difficult it is to pack up what you can and to evacuate so I want to acknowledge the families who have had to do that – and I want to let you know we are here to understand how we can help in the days and weeks ahead.”
She then announced that the Government was setting up a $20,000 Mayoral Relief Fund to help the community get back on its feet.
The initial reaction of many of those following developments would have been incredulity – $20,000 to support a community devastated by fire compared with pledges announced in the lead up to Waitangi Day of over $220 million to appease Maori.
After the PM’s announcement Labour’s public relations machine would have gone into overdrive. It didn’t take long for the clarifications to begin to appear – the $20,000 was an “initial” pledge from the Government; the funds were in “addition” to other support from the Ministry of Social Development, Housing New Zealand and the Ministry for Primary Industries; a further $50,000 was available to help farmers and growers in the region…
But in that rare moment of clarity, before the Government’s PR team kicked into action, the inequity of the Prime Minister’s $20,000 funding promise to assist a distraught community, compared to the $220 million in political favours for Maori sent New Zealanders a clear message about this Government’s priorities: appeasing Maori voters is the key to Labour’s re-election and takes precedence; helping those in crisis is secondary.
Political commentator Karl du Fresne called Labour’s $220 million spending promises ‘pork-barrel politics’: “Americans call this pork-barrel politics – the funding of local projects in the hope that voters will reward their benefactors at election time.”
He goes on to explain, “Pork-barrelling is a traditional Labour weakness, but Winston Peters – perhaps taking his cue from Robert Muldoon, a socialist in National disguise and the man Peters appears to have modelled himself on – is favourably disposed to it too. The announcements will have played well in the regions and to Maori, especially in Northland, where Peters and Jones have their roots.”
So what exactly will the $220 million of taxpayers’ money pledged by the PM to appease Maori interests be used for?
Firstly, $100 million will be given in the form of grants and loans to the owners of multiply-owned Maori land, who can’t get access to bank funding to develop their land. This appears to be a follow-on from the grants that Labour gave the last time they were in office to Maori home-owners to help them fix up their houses.
The Government has justified this latest initiative on the basis that a lack of capital is the major reason why so much Maori land is underutilised and so many Maori families are impoverished.
At the present time multiply-owned Maori land covers 5.5 percent of the land area of the country. There are more than 27,000 land titles and almost 3 million individual ownership interests. The average block size is just over 50 hectares and has over 100 owners.
Adding to the complications, more than half of all such blocks have no governance bodies, and much of the land is landlocked.
Successive government have attempted to reform the laws surrounding multiply-owned Maori land to enable it to be more readily used to generate wealth for the owners. However, reform proposals are always greeted with intense suspicion, including those most recently championed by the Maori Party under the previous National government.
Now, the Minister of Maori Development Nanaia Mahuta is proposing some limited changes including to the role of the Maori Land Court – based to some extent on the changes proposed by the former government.
Since the Maori land ownership succession process currently takes 12 times longer on average than for general land – mostly because every change has to be approved by a Maori Land Court Judge – by enabling a court registrar to carry out uncontested succession applications, the Minister expects to expedite the process.
But the bigger concerns involve the ownership structure of multiply owned Maori land. In a Maori Appellate Court decision, two owners of a block of land who derived revenue from the commercial use of the land to the exclusion of the other owners, were ordered to allocate the revenue that they had received beyond their share to those other owners.
It was a similar story with a decision of the Maori Land Court. They ruled that a minority owner of multiply-owned Maori land was within his rights to grant a licence to a commercial third party to use the land without the consent of the remaining co-owners, since the area of land he was using equated to his own shareholding. So while the trespass action brought by the other owners was not upheld, concerns were raised over whether the income he received amounted to more than he was entitled to, based on his shareholding in the land.
In other words, undertaking any business activity on multiply-owned Maori land can be fraught with conflict. That means that unless the ownership structure of the land is properly set up and administered by either a Maori land trust or an incorporation, complex problems may arise.
In light of these difficulties, it is questionable whether Labour’s policy of throwing money at land owners will make it easier for those who are entrepreneurial to create viable businesses, or whether proper reform is the only realistic way forward.
Of the rest of the $220 million that was promised in the lead up to Waitangi Day, $20 million was earmarked for investment in the Kaipara region – largely upgrading roading infrastructure and developing iwi business opportunities, $21 million is being set aside for digital ‘hubs’ in communities including every marae, and $82 million has been set aside for jobs programmes, to get young unskilled Maori “off the couch”.
While a main objective of funding from the Provincial Growth Fund is to create jobs and boost the regions, Newshub recently reported that although almost $26.6 million of its $3 billion fund has been spent, only 54 jobs have been created – that’s a cost of around $484,000 per job!
While splashing the cash won support from Maori leaders at Waitangi, it is unlikely to help improve the situation faced by disadvantaged Maori families.
In fact, none of the race-based funding initiatives – including the billions of dollars in Treaty of Waitangi claims settlement funding – have made any real difference to the lives of disadvantaged Maori. You only have to walk down the main street of Huntly, which is in Tainui’s heartland – the iwi corporation that settled its Treaty claim almost 25 years ago and now boasts a billion dollar asset base – to see the truth in that.
This is a point that Dr Don Brash, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank and leader of the National Party, attempted to make when he was invited by Te Ahikaaroa Trust chair Reuben Taipari to speak on the lower marae at Waitangi last week.
In spite of preparing an address and travelling to Waitangi, Dr Brash was not given the courtesy of being able to deliver his speech. Instead he was silenced by a protest orchestrated by the wife of the organiser, that guaranteed media headlines for what was otherwise a relatively peaceful and uneventful day.
Their protest sign read “No room for racism”. Given the Oxford Dictionary defines racism as “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”, it is reasonable to conclude that it is the supporters of Maori supremacy who are the racists, not Dr Brash who is calling for equality.
In other words, New Zealanders who advocate for equal rights are not racists. And the sooner we have politicians in Parliament with the guts to stand up for equality, the sooner this country will be able to go forward, strong and united, as one people.
But for true equality, more needs to be done: New Zealand should follow the lead of countries like Sweden, Austria, Belgium, and France, as well as many US States, by removing all references to race from our Statute books.
The speech that Dr Brash couldn’t give is reproduced here as this week’s NZCPR Guest Commentary. He explains why race-based entitlements have not lifted outcomes for disadvantaged Maori:
“There must be at least serious doubt whether the positive discrimination intended by successive governments over the last half century to assist the economic status of Maori New Zealanders has actually worked as intended…
“Not only have most Maori not benefited at all from this growing affirmative action, many have been positively harmed by it.
“Why? Because it has led many Maori to assume that other taxpayers owe them a living, and that in due course other taxpayers will have to discharge that obligation. What on earth could be more demotivating than to be told, again and again, that your poor education, your poor housing, your low income or inability to get a job is not your responsibility at all – it’s the fault of a grossly unfair system arising from injustices done to some of your great-grandparents by some of your other great-grandparents?
“It is surely not in the least surprising that too many people with a Maori ancestor are unemployed and poorly educated – the present environment positively encourages helplessness.”
Dr Brash is right. Taking a broader view, it is socialist governments that encourage dependency on the State, while conservative governments tend to take the opposite approach by promoting independence and personal responsibility.
The reality is that Maori disadvantage is no different from the disadvantage suffered by other New Zealanders. Much can be attributed to poor lifestyle choices – poor money management, poor education, and long-term dependency on welfare which, for over 40 years has rewarded single parents including teenagers for having children that they struggle to care for. The long-term effects on these children is scandalous, yet little has been done by successive governments to address the underlying causes of the problem.
In fact our Youth Courts are full of young people who are victims of Alcohol Syndrome Disorder because their mothers made bad choices when they were pregnant.
Maori children are the worst affected, not because their ancestors are Maori – but because of the choices their parents have made.
But the Prime Minister’s message at Waitangi is that Maori disadvantage is due to differences between races – “our two houses”, as she calls it. But by turning a convenient blind eye to the real causes of dependency, the Adern Labour Government will continue the cycle of government failure to make any real difference to the lives of those who would benefit the most from good policy.
The problem of course is that the PM’s priority is to retain the electoral support of Maori voters. So she sees nothing wrong in entrenching Maori dependency and appeasing the Maori grievance industry, even if it means giving Maori $220 million, while Nelson’s fire victims get $20,000.
THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
Do you support Labour’s use of race-based funding?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| The situation here in N.Z. is going from bad to worse, with Maori managing to get all the privileges. WHY can’t we just be ONE PEOPLE? | Sylvia |
| Apartheid under a different name – totally undemocratic, would be manifested in a change of the name of the country. If it was put to the vote it would be completely rejected. | Roy |
| The comments made by Dr Don Brash are, as always, correct in their entirety. Unfortunately, they mostly fall on deaf ears. It is like casting pearls before swine. | Bruce |
| Blatant bribery. Where is the same amount for Nelson farmers on productive but now fire-damaged land/ | Craig |
| I thought we were one nation!!?? | Bruce |
| No way! | Mark |
| The Maori woman had to bully Dr Brash because she could not control him. Of course the infantile, shallow, coward Ardern, along with her Marxist cohorts,-the Green party, all of the Cabinet, the Labour & NZF govt. plus most of National MP’s cave to the Maori racists. | Monica |
| An issue that also needs to be addressed is the misconception that Maori are indigenous to New Zealand. They were early settlers, and Maori today acknowledge with justifiable pride the great voyages of their ancestors to here from another place. So why do continuing references to Maori as the indigenous people of New Zealand seem to remain unchallenged? | Beverley |
| This Labour Policy is pure Bribery, to try to achieve a ‘bought’ Vote base for the next election – But then, National Party politics was not much different anyway, just better disguised. Our ‘elected’ politicians are only interested in keeping their overpaid and lazy positions, like the most recent Winston Peters’ scam to obtain a better retirement gold-mine. | MervB |
| We are being brain washed into “How hard done by is 15% of N Z’s Population.” They are NOT hard done by all those that feel they need to push a barrow do so with grandeous success–what about those of us that have done an “Honest days work for an Honest days pay” (yes there are a number of that 15% that are honest BUT many more that sit on their chuffs and moan and groan. –then get more and more | Marylin |
| When will we ever learn ? | Bruce |
| No apartheid in New Zealand | Jenny |
| Nope! This is all ridiculous. | Jim |
| It scares me the way things are going and I am glad that I am old and won’t have to live in my beloved New Zealand with all these horrible and unfair and undemocratic policies. | Margie |
| absolutely not, it will further entrench a defunct system | Bryan |
| no race based funding at all | Barry |
| I agree with you and Don Brash. Keep up the good work | David |
| If you keep throwing money (our money) at them, they will keep accepting it, and never find a reason to get up off their backsides. Oh, forgot to mention, they will keep voting for you as well. Isn’t that lucky? | TOBY |
| What a waste of money. The Labour Government has done this mainly in Northland simply to buy the votes from mainly Maoris living north of Auckland. Winston Peters, of course fully supports this travesty because although NZ First sits well below the 5% cut off for his party, if he wins his seat it entitles him to drag numerous other MPs into seats that they don’t deserve and haven’t earned and cannot run responsibly. Thus is the undemocratic system of MMP. | Chris |
| we should all be treated the same. No racial bias. | Barry |
| New Zealand has been our name forever and it should remain so. | Barry |
| Just using tax payers money to buy votes | Darryl |
| Any race-based policies are very hard to justify. | Laurie |
| It clearly hasn’t been successful in the past. | Malcolm |
| this should never happen | Gerard |
| Just trying to buy votes for next year. | Rex |
| Political parties do not govern for the masses but pander to the maoris. This is unbelievable as they only make up 15% of the population and only half are eligible to vote. Its time politics governs for all and race has no bearing on the matter. | Dennis |
| Because its dividing NZers and should be needs based. | Julie |
| All political parties are guilty of buying Maori votes with taxpayers money, made worse now by a sense of Maori entitlement which has caused foment resentment amongst the white people who are the main contributors. This can only end badly. | Rex |
| Sadly we will always be a race-based country while we have a very minority group pulling us down from going forward……. | Colleen |
| The huge amount of funding has not made any significant progress and where is the accountability . | Wendy |
| It is the most patently obvious racist moves that ANY New Zealand Prime Minister has ever made. Ardern could win any competition for ‘Biggest Racist” hands down. She wants to help Maori, then stop giving our money to them to waste. | Carl |
| Pretty obvious why the Coalition Govt. is pushing race-based funding…it’s worth a lot of votes next election. Can’t the rest of us see that and protest successfully? We are all too afraid of being labelled racist! | Barrie |
| No, I don’t support it as it is not directing the money to solve a problem but to create an even greater problem regarding economic and social needs. | James |
| NZ has a spoiled child in the family that has never been told NO! Let’s hope that Crusher gets her chance to be the parent that has the gumption to dish out some tough love so that the rest of the family can get a break from the aggressive tribal disrupter before they destroy the family. By the way Jacinda the first paragraph covers off the bit about getting Empire citizenship in return for ceding tribal and chiefs’ sovereignty. Remember? Cede comes from the Latin cedere — to yield. Not from the Wellington… to partner | David |
| I believe we should all be treated the same I e being equal in all aspect of the country. No special treatment should be given to people of a particular breathing. | Peter |
| No I do not! Will we ever become one nation with one people? The whole thing is of course pure vote buying which goes further to revealing the weakness of democracy! | Jim |
| NO, for the same reasons the banks wont touch it. Will Labour donate big time to improve my private property, not Bdy likely. | Donald |
| Just more of the same from the economic vandals currently calling themselves a coalition Government. Maori would do well to actually listen and learn from Dr Brash. Instead of being allowed to deliver his address he was shouted down by organised protesters. While the successive Governments continue with race based privilege for maori they will be confined to dependency on taxpayers for support. Taxinder is a disgrace as are those who who deliberately ambushed Dr Brash at Waitangi this year. | Chris |
| NO. The Maori have had over 100 years like everyone else to make it, but until they stop jumping up and down and poking their tongues out at every body and knock tribalism on the head I’m afraid they will never make it. | Athol |
| Absolutely not ! It should be a crime that approx 14% of the NZ population can demand a 50% stake in the running of the country ! | Donald |
| Vote DON BRASH! He is the only man who has ever had the balls to say MAORI ARE NOT SPECIAL. Giving maoris any money at all just makes me sick. They have had all the same opportunities as myself ( 69 years of age ) and there is reason for any special treatment for them. If they cant behave like civilised human beings after 180 years of hand outs, rip up the so called treaty and let decent people get on with our lives. | Des |
| NO!!! How can somebody in their right mind morally justify such an injustice anyway. Well , the princess can — and she made it very clear where her preferences are: Certainly not with the victims of this blazing catastrophe. The MSM ( if they still were independent in their reporting) would have jumped at this outrage to offer 20000 Dollars as a’ “relief'” fund and on the other hand offering 200 Million to Maoris, but instead, we learn from NZCPR as the only source out there in the barren journalistic wilderness what scandal and outrage is happening here. If this would become known to all NZ landers out there this could well trigger a serious political backlash for Labour. I wonder if National and S Bridges are sharp enough to exploit this scandal. I wonder??? | Michael |
| No way. We are never going to be a one nation people when all Labour is doing is throwing money at Maori. There are many disadvantaged people in NZ, doesn’t matter the race, and what is being done for that – money should not be thrown willynilly at Maori so that they will vote Labour next time. Where is a ONE nation? What’s happening is making people of NZ feel racist because its obvious one race is chosen over another – because of money | Kerin |
| NO NO NO NO NO NO | Bryan |
| Blatant Racism – Simply a means of supporting the U.N requirements to hand over all land to the indigenous people. Sadly the new Polynesian immigrants in 1350 AD raped, pillaged, assimilated, murdered and ate the majority of these people. | Bruce |
| It is a complete Farce and needs to stop | Laurel |
| Race based funding is racist. It suggests some races are incompetent. | Peter |
| It is way past time any race based legislation was repealed as there are no full blood Maori left. | Andrew |
| It is racist! | Kelly |
| Nothing will change until Maori themselves understand that they have no more choices but to change their ways and the socialists will never allow that to happen | James |
| I don’t support any government Labour or other using taxpayers money for race based funding | Penina |
| The Treaty has been judged in the Supreme Court of NZ by Chief Judge James Prendergast as a “simple nullity”, in the Wi Parata v the Bishop of Wellington case in 1877, a judgement which has never been overruled. Our true founding document is Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter of 16-11-1840 which separated us from New South Wales to be a British colony in our own right, also giving us our first constitution, English law and our own flag which is older than Australia’s in spite of flag change propaganda. This became operative when it was ratified on 03-05-1841, a day which should be celebrated as our National Day. If this was brought to light all Apartheid law in NZ would crumble and “all of the people of NZ” would be shed of this burden. | George |
| No way — what the hell did people vote for this communistic party aligned to the looney Greens for. Plus of course Winston who I voted for once but never again. We need parties that are going to get rid of any apartheid policies planned by this Government. | Alan |
| Its an absolute disgrace, how they can lie with a straight face beggars belief | Carolyn |
| It’s just more apartheid | Peter |
| No I do not support this. | Greg |
| Racist | James |
| Certainly do NOT support race-based funding by governments. Government funding should be on a needs basis and not a race basis. | Keith |
| Most NZers are vehemently opposed to the continuing and increasing largesse by successive governments to Maoris, with no sign of letting up. They are all equally guilty | Graeme |
| Absolutely not! | Albert |
| Definitely not we are supposed to be one people | John |
| I go along with Neville the sooner they end it the better. | Clark |
| Race based funding is, by definition, racist, and therefore an abomination. Funding should be based on NEED, not ethnicity. | Les |
| Work..study….don’t waste the chances you are given and Stand on your Own 2 Feet. | Neville |
| Disgraceful. Where are we going with all with all this bias. ????? | Melva |
| When will all this bias stop. Its a disgrace and New Zealand’s voices need to be listened to. | Melva |
| NO NO and NO In the case of Winston and the Winston First Party plus Shane Jones they are only trying to purchase votes | Robin |
| Emphatically NO! By all means help the disadvantaged but with “TUFF LOVE.’ President Clinton made it work. | Doug |
| wake up new zealand | whitty |
| Racially divisive yet again | Graham |
| It is racist. | John |
| Oh another attempt by Labour to placate Maori, as the writer said take a walk through Huntly, where is or has all the money gone? | Fraser |
| they are trying to buy the Northland seat. Corruption! | irvine |
| Absolutely not .. race based anything is racist!! This and the previous govt need to get a grip! | Maddi |
| if you always do what you’ve always done, you will ALWAYS get the same result. | Dick |
| Most definitely not. It is down right racist to even consider it. All mention of race should be deleted from legislation and we should all be treated the same under the law. We are all New Zealanders and no ethnic is better or more deserving than the rest. To date those of Maori ethnicity seem to think we ‘owe them’. We don’t and it’s time they stood on their own two feet, gained an education, worked hard and aspired to better things. They would then succeed by their own efforts. | Helen |
| The fact that it continues year after year is scandalous | Max |
| It does not help the Maori who are struggling but it does help the Lawyers and advisers who are faking in the dollars | Arthur |
| Probably the greatest political tragedy in this countries history, was replacing Dr Brash as leader of the National Party, with the racist, globalist John Key. We now find ourselves, after signing the UN fraudulent, indigenous peoples agreement, {MAORI ARE IMMIGRANTS LIKE THE REST OF US} heading rapidly toward joint government with elitist Maori. Maori have had two hundred years to move on from their stone age existence, to a civilized society. Many have & despise the division that the racist elite promote. As long as BAD Governments of all labels, continue to hand out, instead of giving a helping hand up, the people of all ethnic back-grounds, trapped in the lower socio-economic circumstance, will remain there. But lets not kid our-selves, that’s exactly what Socialist & or Globalist Governments want.. | A.G.R. |
| Off course not, but National were just as bad. The vast majority of politicians are only interested in retaining their position the next election. | Brent |
| We are all New Zealanders and cannot change what happened 160 years ago. Most treaties have a very short life span and the locals could only be relieved that it was not the Russians or painish that were the dominant settlers | alan |
| We are one people. The Maori are the racist people of this country. | Chris |
| Sucking up for buying more racist votes in a very biased Govt? | Ian |
| No good can come from discrimination between New Zealanders, solely on the basis of race. There is already a significant schism between Maori and the rest of us, this being deliberately fulled by the socialists (i.e. Labour Party) and separatists (racist Maori). Dr Brash is vilified by these groups because they recognise that he expresses himself on the basis of carefully considered reasoning; they know that they have no rational counter-argument, so they shout him down. Unfortunately, the majority of New Zealanders seem to be either uninterested in such things, or too poorly informed to make a fair evaluation of the respective merits of the two sides to this argument. The present government knows this only too well, and shamelessly trades on it. The hypocrisy of our Prime Minister’s claim to be fair and open-minded is breathtaking. | Graham |
| I support equal rights with equal responsibilities. | Robert |
| Absolutely NOT, another attempt by socialist labour to patronise the maoris in seeking their support at election time, anyone can see through adern and her comrades tactics, betrayers of true democracy and blatant racism, the maoris will be delighted with their $200 mil package all due to their skin colour and claims of privilage which no one else has, adern should return to her fish and chip shop job, something she would be well suited to. | David |
| Race based funding is racist and racism of any kind is deplorable | Richard |
| Maori have a dependency mentality. | David |
| Absolutely not. Reverse racism. | Jacky |
| No way, completely irresponsible use of public funds | David |
| Equal rights for all. | Elizabeth |
| Absolutely NOT. | Fiona |
| No race based preference is acceptable! There should not be any reference to race in any legislation or funding | Brian |
| Treaty settlements need to fund a development bank for Maori run by Maori with independant board members from banking industry, treasury or charted banks. Maori fund their own economy with trickle down effect | stj |
| Apartheid by another name, interesting that a party (Labour) who were such outspoken critics of the then South African government are now such hypocrites | Jn |
| blatant racism | Donal |
| But will any Govt, National, Green or anything else you like to call them, have the guts to enforce use of the Treaty money in benefiting Any one other than those at the very top of the maori ladders? | Maurice |
| This has been very clear to me for a long time. All of it. i am part Maori and proud to say I have lived a life believing in equality and to have been shown how to take responsibility for my life …and to pass that on to my own family. | Peter |
| Such a policy is doomed to failure, as history has already shown. | Ian |
| It Has not worked up to now,so why think it will work from now forward.Far too much Maori privilege . | Peter |
| Lack of education a problem? Put them into a course that spells out WHY they are disadvantaged so that they actually understand that it is their INDIVIDUAL actions and choices to make their lives better, not cash, from politicians. | vic |
| It,s time our ELECTED mp,s are HELD to account.It,s NOT their money it,s TAX PAYERS MONEY & it should ONLY be spent on things ALL N.Z. needs. | Cindy |
| had a complete gutsfull of giving to maori just to get their vote | Graeme |
| This is political racism and yet this halfwit PM will then parade the world stages preaching equality and ‘wellness’ for all | Don |
| A full Maori (now deceased) told me that his father had told him that “the implementation of social welfare benefits, would bring about the demise of the Maori race” Why why are we still doing it. | Maurie |
| I am against against anything based on racial grounds. Th especially so when it it blatant pork-barrel vote buying. | Aunty Podes |
| Just another case of robbing Peter to pay Paul – for purely cynical political purposes. Money (funding) for nothing has no value except “this is great; just GIVE me more – and more and more.” Then I wont have to do anything – for ever! Yep! lets all do this! It’s too good to be true! | Stuart |
| Race based funding is racist but Labour will do anything to keep the Maori seats and their support .At the same time this hopeless inept prime minister will parade the world stages for ‘wellness’ and equality for everyone.She and her Government represent no more than a sick joke unfortunately for reasonable thinking and active Kiwis | Don |
| The Maoris have already received much more money that can be fairly justified! | Cyril |
| Maori have had too much and it hasn,’t helped the majority !! | Ross |
| The Maori seats need to go but of course if labour didn’t have all 7 they couldn’t have formed the COL | Trevor |
| I support help for people of all races to improve education and poverty. | Douglas |
| I want 6 employees. Will they send some of those words unemployed maori down to me? | Brian |
| Definitely no, racism at its finest. Maori are not indigenous a simple DNA test can prove it! | Mike |
| We are all one people | David |
| No as it sends the wrong message. | Warren |
| Absolutely not. This weeks summary by Dr Muriel Newman is in my view the most accurate summary of the current situation in NZ that I have read. Its a great pity that some of our major news papers won’t have the courage to print it And for the record it is not Maori bashing it is simply fact. | Chris |
| Agree with your comments and Dr Brash’s so-called address. | Phil |
| when will the non-maori lower socioeconomic people of NZ wake up to the aparthied fiscal policies of successive governments pouring their tax dollars down the throats of Maori Elite. And say enough is enough, whilst we starve. | Stewart |
| Totally repugnant! | Colin |
| This is getting ridiculous. | Ben |
| What next?! | Cam |
| A socialist Government tipping more and more Tax-payers money down a Vote gathering Hole which is a precursor for supporting Maori Sovereignty. There should be a change to the Wording of ‘We are now one People’ to , ‘We are now two people’ !! | Geoff |
| Definitely no | Kevin |
| Unacceptable. One law for all is the only way forward. | Stuart |
| GROSSLY UNDEMOCRATIC. MARXIST IN PRINCIPLE | Bryan |
| How much more do we need to give our local native population for them to waste and keep the few “clever” top native bludgers in their flash cars and high end credit cards while the rest of the “poor” drug and alcohol fuelled natives keep their hand out. | Ken |
| More racism should be one law for all | Gareth |
| it’s racist and not working. | Kirke |
| Get race off our statute books forever – and don’t let the socialists bring it back – which BTW includes maori seats. | Derrick |
| Only one way to stop this unrealistic throwing money away is to get rid this labour government once and for all | Johan |
| The foregoing is the thinking of stupid people and does not help this country to move forward | Tom |
| I live in Nelson. That say it all. Every colour here can get a job, what about the ones in the north ? | Barbara |
| Time to make Maori responsible NZ citizens. What are they doing with Treaty settlement assets to help their own? | Willy |
| It is criminal. | Tony |
| Just to get more votes and try to get NZFirst a seat. Other wise they are OUT | David |
| wasteful,unjust, divisive and deceitful. | Ken |
| Don Brash speech- ain’t it the truth! | Marianne |
| To do so is pure racism = favouritism over ethnicity. | Nick |
| I do not support any separative moves by any party, I think we have been let down and duped by them all. | Barbara |
| Race based funding is totally unacceptable and welfare handouts are very disincentivising for Maoris | Brian |
| What a fiasco dishing out money to be just wasted the 100 million to farming is a total cop out there will never be agreement with so many owners sad 15% of the population can hold the rest of the country to ransom | Russell |
| It horrifies me that most people seem to ignore or don’t see what’s happening, and has done for years. NO government has the balls to do something positive, and the voters don’t have the understanding or the balls to back them. | Graeme |
| This is yet another appalling misuse of taxpayer funds! Taxpayer billions spent on “full and final settlements” seem to have been turned into Maori corporations supporting the Maori elite, rather than assisting all tribal affiliates. Now this “government” is spending more taxpayer dollars on supporting spurious schemes supposedly to assist “Maori and Pacifica development and well-being”. Naively I thought that in a “democracy” the government was elected by popular vote to look after the development and well-being of ALL New Zealanders. I can conclude that: 1. We are no longer a democracy; and 2. If you and your family are not part of the /- 15% of the NZ population then “development and well-being” are your own responsibility, without any taxpayer funded support. This equates to racial preference by decree. | Andrew |
| The Maori have had enough from the taxpayer. | Chris |
| You rightly infer that Adern will do almost anything to appease Maori electors. Was Sjohnkey any different, better?? | Alan |
| Ask Winston why he now suddenly seems to support the APARTHEID in NZ that he used to denounce. | Geoff |
| This is apartheid in reverse . What we need is a proper definition of a maori . I think it is rubbish to be able to claim you are a Maori just because you feel like one .If there wasn%u2019t so many benefits and money available there would be a lot les Maoris . Most people claiming to be Maori are less than 1/4 . It is ludicrous to claim to be a Maori when you are at least75% other This is a well orchestrated. plan by the far left .. | Jock |
| No, I do not support race based funding. A better approach would be to set a time line, for example 20 years out, after which access to most forms of welfare would need to be qualified by proof of attainment in education. Other criteria could be set. | Peter |
| A waste of money that winds up in the pockets of an elite few. | Robbie |
| One country, one race, the human race. | Leonard |
| NEVER – It’s just another move to remove the European influence from the country. Part of the indoctrination, Part of the removal of control from New Zealanders and putting it in the hands of a few who call themselves Iwi. | Bruce |
| Absolutely NO! | Graeme |
| Accepting responsibility for your own problems is the first step to solving them… 179 years of ‘Entitlement’ brain washing by NZ politicians and ‘iwi’ this Nation is a disaster well in progress. | CHowes |
| No. I do not! | John |
| Apartheid policies | Peter |
| Cannot stand racism | Bryan |
| It should be spent on helping all NZers who need help and yes in that case Maori’s would get the most but also any other race would have equal op. to receive help as well | Cherryl |
| This whole article should be published in every public paper in NEW ZEALAND | William |
| The treaty made us all New Zealanders under the same laws | Terry |
| No, I Definitely do not support any raced based funding – it is the start of entrenching apartheid by stealth | IanBP |
| No, and it’s a national disgrace. | Ray |
| Just a fecking waste of money! Moaris need to get off their fat arses and demonstrate they can utilise their land profitably WITHOUT another round of gimmegimmegimme. Retards. | Mark |
| Its racist and divisive | Liz |
| When will the gravy train come to a halt? Both govts have promised a halt but have not the guts to make it happen | David |
| Of course not because it’s race based. Your report on the money given to the Nelson area highlights the massive inequality of government assistance between Maori and the majority of the people of New Zealand. | Terry |
| Entrenched racism by the government. Pork and puja politic by Cinderella | Jeff |
| Very sicking to see and listen too when will this stop there’s more than just Maori just live here | Jimmy |
| Nothing should ever be based on race. | Alan |
| You’re preaching to the choir. People who read articles in the NZCPR already believe the way you do. We need to get out there and spread the message, write to our parliamentarians, write to our newspapers, (although mine cut me off from writing about Maori issues…no freedom of speech there.) | joyce |
| Ignore the signs of hidden agendas at your peril. This is a Socialist Government, going about ensuring increasing numbers of the population are buried deep in welfare dependancy. | Grahame |
| I thought we are one country and one people. | Jan |
| It an affront the every New Zealander NO matter their race or creed….. | Carl |
| It’s terrible & typical of Labour | Graeme |
| National weren’t much different. | Sharen |
| Maori are not the only race in NZ, and shouldn’t get unfair advantages | Kevin |
| Absolutely NO!! What the hell are these outrageously obscene treaty settlements meant to be used for. Base payments on need,…and let’s not call it race-based…it’s just an exclusive continuance for the Maori grievance & entitlement industry. | Tony |
| It’s racism and must be stopped | Greg |
| entrenched guvmint stupidity | Collin |
| It’s a blatant disgrace and it moves against every single ideal the Treaty ever intended – or would have fostered. | Jim |
| Why do they “Deserve” so much more over and above any treaty settlement? | Garry |
| Because they have had lots on money and still have not helped them and this won’t either | Anne |
| It just goes on and on. NZ First say they’re against race-based privilege but they’re at the forefront of this largesse | Rayward |
| The sooner Labour are out, the better it will be for most NZ’ers. | John |
| Any funding based on race seems illogical to me especially in this particular situation | Pete |
| What can one say? It stinks | Bill |
| Hypocrites and deluded. | David |
| It’s been going on since the Lange years. Nothing new about this nonsense. | Raewyn |
| Race is a political construct. We are all one race – the human race. No to all race-based funding | Brian |
| Absolutely not – funding based on race has no part in a modern society. NZ should follow the lead of Sweden and remove “race” from the statute books altogether. | Ros |
| No No No to racial differences. | James |
| Funding based on race doesn’t work. It only makes the contractors – in this case iwi corporations – richer. The whole “by Maori for Maori” campaign was a clever way of removing all other competition for contracts. Perhaps its time the Commerce Commission looked into it in the context of ant-competitive behaviour. | Simon |
| Race-based funding is racist. the sooner we all started calling it out for what it is, the sooner the Government will end it as they will not want accusations of racism to stick. | Neville |