I was really pleased to see the response from all the Maori Party supporters over the last couple of days with my comments about the Foreshore and Seabed.
On The Hui show on Sunday, I said that most Maori don’t care about the Foreshore and Seabed issue anymore and care more about housing, education and health – this is an undeniable fact.
If you’re living in a car, can’t get access to a warm home and your kids are failing badly at school or have been thrown out of school, then whether we own the Foreshore or not is the last thing that our people are thinking about.
How do I know this? Because I’ve worked with thousands of our people over the last few years, I have seen first-hand their suffering – their shyness because they can’t talk Maori; their embarassment because they can’t look after their families ‘properly’, these people who condemn them for not caring about Maori rights don’t walk in their shoes, and don’t walk beside them.
So all those silly Maori Party people and their academic mates that love talking to themselves on Facebook need to wake up and realise what the real priorities are, and the real needs.
Do I think that our rights regarding the Foreshore and Seabed are important? Of course, absolutely without a doubt! I marched on the Foreshore and Seabed protest in Wellington and ran and lead the Radio Waatea coverage. Also, I was probably the most vocal Maori media commentator on this issue; and I would march again tomorrow, because Maori rights have been rights that I have fought for all my life.
However, I accept that my priorities are not the same as most Maori who are struggling. So many of our people have to get off their high horses and realise that before they scream their silly outrage and abuse at me on Facebook.
Sadly, 99% of Maori and Mana Party supporters don’t understand what I’m talking about – that’s why they lost the Election so badly.
However, I know that most of our Labour supporters understand completely what I’m saying, or have I got this wrong? What do you think?
I think Mana party supporters fully understand what poverty is and how it affects people and whanau.
Maori have many issues to deal with, Willie. But you do not speak for me when you say the Seabed and Foreshore is an issue Maori no longer care about. It is. Why can’t all issues be important? Is there an unspoken limit to the number of issues I can care about? Are you enforcing yet another quota? You represent Maori now, Willie. Act like it.
A lot of Māori in top positions of power, business and politics today are the descendants of the sell outs who ages ago joined the crowns lust for land on promises of citizenship and enlightenment. These people delude themselves into thinking they’ve joined the winning side. No matter what government is elected wether it be a left or a right or anything else. They follow exactly the same greasy lustful land grab policies. Because they have no role in setting policy. Policy is set by deepstate apostles in Wellington under the shadow of Westpac. So it doesn’t matter what people think. And there are examples. Not so long ago Metiria meekly suggested that welfare policy ought to be radically reformed. She was denounced almost immediately across the spectrum. Every one denounced her life style except for about 6.4% of voters. Now how could you dare ask the population about what policy ought to be. In Wellington we know now that policy has to be set by bureaucrats under the shadow of Westpac.
Not sure that I am qualified to comment being neither Maori nor poor (now) but I do feel that whilst the foreshore and seabed is not on the agenda because of other pressing needs, it has not been resolved satisfactorily. I do not believe it belongs to everyone or no one. Socialism proved that if you do not have guardians then polluters or thieves remove access to a public resource. We need to codify guardians to all our precious resources and stop leaving it for the rich to Hoover up the nice and leave us with the clean up.
Willie claims that it is only possible to prioritise one of the two issues, Maori rights or alleviating/solving poverty). But it’s not as if a government can only focus on one issue at a time. That is why we have ministries.
Isn’t it more the same old question of what is possible within this coallition with NZ First, and what is acceptable to “middle” voters?
No hes not saying that, and you have completely missed the point.
That sums it up. All to do with priorities.
Socialism proves that everyone owns the resources and guardians that actually protect those resources are the people that speak for all New Zealanders, brown or otherwise.
Marilyn Waring was a perfect example of a (white) woman (I forgive her for being a Nat) who knew the value of everything but was stymied by those that only believed in the profit of it. She tried to tell us that the value to GDP was more if a ship ran aground than the values of air, water, children were. Now water has been recognised as priceless, we are being raided for it, and pure mountain air is being canned and sold. Perhaps, under PM Ardern we have finally come full circle and recognise the priceless value of our children and we will finally protect their futures. That can only be good in the world of greed, which NZ has embraced for so long.
Metiria Turei will be recognised as a real guardian of all New Zealanders’ wellbeing, yet we must all fight against the ‘deep state’ which seeks to grab back its power. I thought it would be aligned to ANZ, as well as Westpac, given its neoliberal choices of staff…
Excuse the commentary I just don’t know how to say it any other way.
Marylin Waring like all National Party MP’s are economic illiterates. GDP is not like a ship. It’s just a number to borrow aginast through a complicated process that gets recollateralised on the bond auction markets. And like any bond you have to pay it back. Which is why the government has a conflict of interest in keeping interest rates down. And that’s open the door to banks like Wespac who can create money out of thin air. And it’s exactly this type of money creation that the new industries, water bottling and the rest are built on. And this has a terrible effect on people who want to save the natural beauty of New Zealand that our economy is so dependant on. Then it might be safe again to park your cash in banks instead of watching them blow up the economy a la 2008 American Crises, Greece, the Great Depression and so on.
Raise interest rates and this false economy disappears.
I think Winston summed it up so well, “Capitalism has failed us”
I THINK WE CAN VIVIDLY SEE THIS GRAPHICALLY NOW, AND THE TIDE IS GOING OUT ON THE RICH.
We will see the return of a more shared society as time goes on now.
Kia ora Willie, With all due respect, you talk a big game about ending poverty and homelessness and families sleeping in cars. You and your party now had better be able to match your actions to your words.
But remember this, the Labour Party’s desire to maximise the exploitation of the seabed and foreshore and impoverish the environment, came from the same monetarist desire to maximise the exploitation and impoverishment of the strugglers you talk of.
To end poverty in this land of plenty Willie, will require that you and your party are prepared to face down the powerful corporate vested interest that seek to grind down and impoverish our people, the same corporate vested interest who seek to do the same to the seabed and foreshore.
You use the excuse that prioritising ending poverty, prevents you addressing the rape of the foreshore by foreign seabed miners and deep sea oil drilling companies, returning kaitiaki to the Tangata Whenua.
I suppose we will see at the end of three years if there are still families living in cars and garages, and kids still going to school hungry, to be able to judge the rationale of this strategy.
To properly address poverty and homelessness in this country, will require the same level of ambition and determination from this government, needed to oppose deep sea oil drilling, seabed mining and the removal of Kaitiaki from Maori.
To use either one as an excuse, to not do anything about the other, is a poor start.
Well maybe not
What is worth noting about Martin Luther King’s statement about the time is always right to the right thing. Is that it was made at the height of the civil rights struggle in the US.
Despite the all consuming nature of this struggle for black civil rights, and against terrible pressure and threats, including blackmail to wreck his marriage, King bravely, took his words to heart, and at the peak of the high public profile given to him by his leadership in the American civil rights movement took a stand on a completely different issue. Despite being warned that if he did so it would undo all his work on civil rights and against poverty.
The time is always right, to do what is right.
Likewise the confiscation of the seabed and foreshore is either morally right or morally wrong.
If it is morally wrong, in King’s words, it is always the right time to oppose that wrong, to not put off that time is an act of moral courage, that speaks to his determination to carry out his work on civil rights.
The point of course is that you either go along with injustice, or you stand against it. There is no middle ground, no putting it off for political expediency to some future time. For King to have done so, would have undermined, not strengthened his work against poverty and for civil rights.
The same for you.
One of the Great thinkers of his time Martin Luther King. Also came to similar realisations as Willie. Both questioned the validity of equal rights. What is the point of equal rights when the people can’t even enjoy the economic benefits of a sit down meal. On the regular. Deciding who gets to eat and who gets to eat well is a cultural tradition with in many colonial states. Most McDonalds workers can’t even afford to eat in there own restaurant after costs of living. These are question of should decision of production and manufacturing, what happens on the shop floor. Be out of public control. And me agreeing with Willie. When policy reflect the will of the people then propert rights will have been enabled.
Very well said Jenny.
I have been buoyed by most of the replies to Willie’s strutting around like a bantam rooster.
Start skiting after you’ve succeeded Willie, not before.
Labour has a long way to go to make up for it’s post 1984 track record.
On the matter of ‘kaitiaki’ – it is not the privileged preserve of Maori.
It is a duty and service of EVERY citizen and guest of this country – and THAT needs to be put into the legislation, social, cultural, and economic rights, and the best rules of the game.
The eyes of all are needed. The voices of all who speak for the lands, waters, creatures, ecologies and precious things such as the soils which produce our soil foods and the estuaries that give shelter to spawning marine life, are needed and must be heeded. Given precedence over short term money making.
We people have more than enough ingenuity to create employment and income without spoiling the present and future.
The moment care drops on one set of shoulders only, the others skip off free. Basic human nature.
Absolutely agree, but I’m fairly confident as a white af Green Party voter you’ve little interest in my opinion. As a homeless human being, born in New Zealand, with a Maori ex husband and two Maori children, all of whom have attempted suicide, I feel I have a great deal of insight to bring to this conversation. For my family it’s is critical that this government make good on it’s promises regarding the issues you have addressed here.
NO, you have NOT got this wrong Willie and I think you are spot on.
“If you’re living in a car, can’t get access to a warm home and your kids are failing badly at school or have been thrown out of school, then whether we own the Foreshore or not is the last thing that our people are thinking about.”
Exactly, that’s what its all about, PEOPLE and how they are living right now today and the help they desperately need. So the arrogance of the Maori and Mana Party supporters that are screaming their heads off helps no one, particularly those in need.
I think who cares what the Maori party voters think they didn’t care when they were in power with the gnats. Now its a major issue well we
(Maori) have many issues the foreshore and seabed is but one of the many but so is the number of immigrants that have been allowed to flow into our country. Now I know we need immigration and I don’t have a problem with that as we have low birth rates like many other western countries but its the devious way its been done and the type of immigrants that have been allowed to come here. Also do we truly know the number that have been allowed to come here as so much of everything the gnats did was all about money for the rich and powerful and not about people.
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