Government dumps law threatening Māori wards, halts petitions
The Government will dump council Māori ward laws that Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says created an “almost insurmountable barrier”.
The changes mean petitions to overturn Māori wards around the country won’t be worth the paper they’re signed on, as the changes kick in ahead of the 2022 council elections.
Mahuta said the Government will draft “transitional” legislation upholding council decisions to create Māori wards.
The wards can currently be overturned in public polls triggered by petitions that gather 5 per cent of council voters. Nine councils are attempting to run council wards in next year’s elections.
The evil Mr Tummins, the cloven hoofed one, the National Party lickspittle, the Gríma Wormtongue of Welington- David Farrar, has sent out a Taxpayer Union fundraiser email that is so panicked, so race baiting and so hyperbolic in its claim of the end of Western Civilisation if Māori gain representation in local councils, it’s a reminder that Farrar would use any Trumpian tactic of toxic polarisation to push his right wing propaganda.
He’s getting shrill on Kiwiblog…
This is a constitutional and electoral outrage.
The Government is going to ram a law change through Parliament under urgency to take away the vote from residents and cancel legally triggered referenda because they think people will vote the wrong way.
The Government thinks that voters can’t be trusted to make the right decision on Maori wards, so it is going to legislate away the right for referenda under urgency.
This is beyond disgusting.
…I don’t remember Farrar having much to say about how National misused urgency to ram through mass surveillance laws when it was the State robbing our collective rights, but the second Māori attempt to remove the racist barriers to them having a say, it’s a constitutional and electoral outrage is it champ?
If the majority is constantly defining the rights of the minority, that’s not democracy, that’s majoritarianism and when that minority are the indigenous people a treaty has been signed with, that takes on even more obligations and responsibilities.
Allowing local Māori to have a say on local issues is how we go about repairing the damage caused by stealing land and live up to the promise of the Treaty, there is nothing to fear by giving Māori this voice and including them in decision making! To pitch this desire for legitimate representation by blocking racist inspired petitions as a disgusting attack on the constitution is ironic given the Treaty is our constitution.
Stopping redneck banjo twanging crackers from abusing local council process by triggering cross burning petitions to deny Māori a voice isn’t an electoral outrage, it’s how you flush out Don Brash MAGA incel honkies!
The Taxpayers Union is rapidly becoming a shrill voice for white privilege that is prepared to jump on any dog whistle for political relevancy.
it’s ugly, it’s inflammatory and it should be shown the contempt it deserves.
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I agree with your assessment of the situation. I would like to point out however, that you bring banjos into disrepute by aligning them with Mr Farrar and his toxic views. Banjos are a minority instrument but they too deserve to be free of majoritarianism…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb2uciHpe4U&list=RDKb2uciHpe4U&start_radio=1
Actually if you watch carefully, there’s a young Sean Plunket and Josie Pagani in among the good time boys and gals that went on to become the Trumpians
Don’t know why you categorise Don Brash as an incel. Seems to me he’s had no trouble pulling in les femmes.
And apparently he’s not some fossilised old racist either, because some of his best friends ……….
Last census in 2018 Maori made up between 16-17 percent of the population.
Why does anyone think allowing sixteen people out of a hundred a little concession will lead to that minority dominating the other 84 individuals?
It would be like gypsies taking control of the United Kingdom. Native Americans overthrowing the government of Canada and the United States. Palestinians taking control of Israel. Uyghurs and Tibetans overthrowing the People’s Republic of China. Australian Aborigines overwhelming the Federation of Australia.
All right – enough said. BUT the British better look out for increased political agitation from Cornish people.
C’mon Uncle Tom…er Ben. Blood Quantum as a means of assessing racial dynamics can stay in Alabama.
Aotearoa NZ as it is now, was founded by armed takeover and British Imperialist force, and land theft and other dubious land transfer methods. It was hoped by the head colonists that Māori would soon enough be wiped out or assimilated, did not happen, and there is a renaissance now decades long just to really piss off those sitting on such land.
Also there is the small matter of Te Tiriti O Waitangi–which is the underlying constitutional type reason for implementing Māori Wards in local Govt. Ratepayers do not get to second guess Council decisions on anything else bar Māori Wards by petition triggered Referendum, this indicates bias and institutional racism yet again. I am a class left person politically, not an identity fan. This is about justice, respect for minorities, sitting on white supremacy, and most importantly honouring Te Tiriti.
Plus 1 to that comment and agree 100%.
Yes
If this is about “justice, respect for minorities, sitting on white supremacy” you will need to explain why there is no proposal for Asian wards. Or Polynesian wards. Etc.
Any group I suppose could apply for Local Govt. Ward Status to be considered, but they would be pushing the proverbial up hill because, no other ethnicity as far as I am aware, has the special relationship with the Queen, Crown and NZ Govt. that Māori do via Te Tiriti.
A main reason for Wards is giving Māori people a voice which they have largely not had in Councils dominated for decades until recently by–yes–white businessmen. It took decades to get the Whangārei District Council to even consider spelling local landmarks correctly! Water was given to commercial interests without properly consulting the Māori OWNERS. In the Far North the FNDC sells Māori land it only had a caretaker role in, to commercial interests without consultation. This is repeated all over the country and it is time to address it in a way that the Māori perspective is able to be presented with authority.
I don’t believe any of you really want Council Wards for other ethnicities–rather you just don’t want Māori Wards.
I don’t want wards for ANY people group based ethnicity. Maori do have a special relationship with the crown, but Maori exercise all of their rights under the Treaty via our representative democracy. Seperate Maori wards is an unwarranted and frankly racist intrusion into that democracy.
Spectator: Do you consider the constitutional provision which ensures that the Head of State of the Realm of New Zealand will always be a person of British descent to be “unwarranted and frankly racist intrusion”?
Or should we allow exceptions when such privileges are granted to persons of your race?
The Treaty was signed by Maori with the head of the British empire. The monarch’s representative in NZ has been a variety of ethnicities, including Maori.
A fair question, and the answer must be that in a democracy any person should be free to choose their own constituency – in other words to say what constitutes their community – and then to politically participate as part of that community, and to be represented through it. So Maori constituencies or iwi constituencies (which are not the same thing), Indian, Chinese or South African if you wish. Personally I see little merit in race based constituencies, but if that is where people are at, then let them work it through in a constructive and constitutional way.
Let’s face it, the Realm of New Zealand is a race-based state in which the Head of State must be British, Maori are to have certain rights in accordance with the Treaty of Waitangi, and people of other races are more or less assimilated into this system.
That is far from ideal, but you can’t have your cake and eat it. You can’t reasonably say you don’t want Maori representation while maintaining the supremacy of the British race through the institution of the Crown.
The institution of the crown does not ensure British supremacy. Quite the opposite. It is the essentially Westminster system of democracy that has given us the democratic rights we all enjoy. We ALL enjoy.
Ben, sorry you cant pass as a white man – with a Maori name the cops and society will only recognise you as a Hori mate. I also have white blue eyed whanau (and wife) but they and their offspring are proud of their Maori roots and having a whakapapa, marae, etc. I’m also proud of my Maori origins. All I know of my pakeha side is that there were traders who arrived via Australia/Tasmania/NZ wars in from places unknown – men of no consequence. I know a lot of my tribal links going back to Rangiatea (Havaa’i) Hawaiki and have a lot of respect for those great Rangatira from the old days. Its unfortunate that the old colonials disrespected and lied to the great chiefs and focussed on stealing their lands. You cant forget these events as the information is readily available in detail by way of research and documentation.
How’s that Nikorima – a Maori who isn’t blaming everything on ‘colonialism’ . . probably just getting on with life and making the most of it.
And no Pakeha like me won’t see Ben as a Hori but instead just another NZ’er but without a chip on his shoulder.
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