ACT is accusing Labour MP Willie Jackson of “perpetuating a victimhood mentality” for saying we have “institutional racism” in “every area of New Zealand society”.
Appearing on Newshub Nation on Saturday morning, the Māori Development Minister said Māori have been singled out, underfunded and sidelined.
“It’s not just in the justice system – it’s been in the health system, we’ve talked justice, we’ve had Oranga Tamariki, it’s in the media – we’ve been sidelined in the media,” he said.
“So in every area of New Zealand society, we have institutional racism. It’s one of the reasons I came into politics… I got sick and tired of our people being singled out.”
But ACT’s Social Development and Children spokesperson Karen Chhour calls these “inflammatory comments” which will “only perpetuate a victimhood mentality”.
“Constantly blaming racism for the problems faced by Māori is wrong. We can’t move forward as a nation if that is our only response,” she says in a statement.
“Rather than using such divisive language, our Government should be uniting New Zealanders behind good ideas that lift everyone up.
“Jackson’s comments also promote a narrative that all Māori are the same and that we don’t have our own individual aspirations.”
Where does this nothing nobody from the tail end of the ACT Party cavalcade of political circus freaks get off claiming there isn’t institutional racism?
Don’t get me wrong, I totally expect ACT’s Social Development and Children spokesperson to be a foaming eyes glazed over raving redneck fanatic, but it’s so early in the electoral cycle to already be devolving into race baiting.
ACTs policy on children feels like it all revolves around being able to harvest their organs for the free market.
What’s most egregious is being lectured to on race by a Party who hate Maori!
Look at their policies…
- Cut and freeze the Minimum wage
- Interest back on all student loans
- No Kiwsaver subsidy
- Cancel winter energy payment
- Dump all climate crisis legislation
- no more best start payments for families with new borns
- cut welfare payments
- no tax credits for research and development
- cuts to working for families
- $7b a year cut in public services
- Abolish Maori seats
- Abolish Human Rights Commission
…being lectured on no institutional racism existing in NZ by a Party, who if we adopted half their policy platform, would lead to a race war in NZ is like being lectured by Trump on consent.
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‘ it’s so early in the electoral cycle to already be devolving into race baiting.’
Denigrating Maori is disgusting to people who read TDB but it is orgasmic for ACT voters and Karen is quick to show herself as the mistress who can slowly wank off her supporters.
There are ten ACT Members in Parliament now. Strange as it may seem I hope this popularity will cause the party to fail.
It is no good appealing to ACT voters by saying their party’s philosophy is racist and vicious. They know that and revel in it. ACT voters are people who thought National was too ‘liberal’ and that the present Labour government is ‘communistic’ ( I wish)
The’ freedom’ ACT desires is the freedom of predators to prey upon the vulnerable. The hyenas of politics.
However that very same feral nature results in a lust for leadership that will draw them into a struggle for dominance and Karen hopes to emerge as the Hyena Queen.
This attack by Karen will force David Seymour into a more radical position if he is to stay leader of the pack. Look for accusations that Jacinda’s baby is the offspring of her and Satan and Jacinda is leader of a world conspiracy to make black people lards of creation.
It’s all so laughable. She’s maori herself. These grifters who have to bullshit there way into parliament are never accepted by these hot head conservatives. This whole thing dies with seemore.
We used to call them members of the cargo cult in days gone by. There’s a fair bit of it about unfortunately. I was hoping that retail politician Shane was the last of them but there are still one or two lingering around in the public service riding on a bauble or two and the promise of a promotion and fancy title.
Fuck it – some things need saying
“This whole thing dies with seemore.”
The same was said about Prebble, and Brash, and Banks, and Hide… ACT is a revenant zombie party. You just can’t kill it.
It’s inflated with swing voters. Eventually that runs out. That’s the type of party that takes shortcuts.
Stevie: “Denigrating Maori…”
Karen Chhour isn’t denigrating Maori. She’s calling out Willie Jackson’s claim that there’s “institutional racism” in NZ.
She’s correct: there isn’t. Anyone who claims otherwise must produce evidence.
The fact that Maori are overrepresented in poverty, poor health, crime and welfare stats and so on, isn’t evidence of institutional racism. It isn’t exclusively Maori who feature in negative stats, after all. And the driving factor is class, ie poverty, not ethnicity.
And she’s also correct to say that Jackson is perpetuating a “victimhood mentality”, and implying that all Maori are the same. That simply isn’t true: Maori are as diverse in their worldviews and aspirations as anybody else in NZ.
I’d add that Jackson’s solution to what he claims is racism is to set up by-Maori for-Maori services of various sorts. Such services would by definition be racist: this is what apartheid-era southern Africa and pre-civil rights US looked like. And it was my generation which campaigned successfully against those pernicious systems.
In general, I’m not a fan of ACT’s policy platform. However, I agree that the HRC needs to be abolished, as does the Maori electoral system, which meets the definition of institutional racism.
And the working for families scheme needs real scrutiny. How the hell has it come about that the state is subsidising middle class, middle-income families?
“….black people lards of creation.”
Lards? A Freudian slip, if ever I saw one.
Well said and the policies listed are great. Nobody is owed these things, they are bribes from previous governments hanging around long after the vote buying politicians have been forgotten.
“… ACT’s Social Development and Children spokesperson…”
That reminds me of a radio skit they had a while back on student radio called, “Dad’s Tips”. A macho male character was the Minister of Women’s Affairs and Horse Racing. However she isn’t wrong about the portion of maori who are already “aspirational”. They definitely exist, mostly in the National camp. ACT are pretending to not know that a spectrum of life circumstances exists. As long as they stay wilfully ignorant, their ideas can be viewed as possible through lack of context. Poor people remind them that their world view is false. An average person wouldn’t usually mind if poor people existed while they were rich. If they weren’t actively involved in preying on the powerless, why would they be so annoyed? Add race, culture or group identity to the mix and it becomes the worst of all worlds: people who identify as maori, arguing about the nature of “true maori”. A nasty game. ACT are poison.
Chhor provides a definition of institutional racism while simultaneously arguing against it’s existence “Jackson’s comments also promote a narrative that all Māori are the same”. I think this is the problem Karen. To achieve the aspirations you talk about Maori require equal access to fundamental human rights as a starting point rather than the privilege via victimhood you imply. You can’t choose your ancestry but you can choose how you treat individuals from certain groups.
It’s the intellectual giantism of Jordan Peterson fan boys gone full tilt.
If it’s not the cultural Marxists own the media, to feminisms is victimhood (now they saying it’s Māori). They are nothing more than one line puppets protecting the interests of their donors’ and bugger the rest of us.
The bit that really gets me is these dumb ass act Muppets can’t even lie straight anymore.
Mind you what do you expect from people who rely on an ideology of – pull the ladder Jake, up I’m alright.
Equivocating “personal responsibility” with “sex” and “race” is a hilarious move. You’re a moron, Roy. Happy to wreck you at your pleasure.
Not the sort of policies that would win an election but good enough to get enough seats to be the tail wagging the dog if National was to its coalition partner
ACT represents the interests of the individual, Maori culture and tikanga are more of the collective. The problem is that people who adhere to the policies of the individual seen unable to understand that collective and individual can act in concert with each other.
Yes well said; and in a time of a crisis (like covid) the strength of the collective is centre stage in dealing with it, individual ambitions must take back row seat.
She wont be in parliament for long and the fact she is in the Act party says a lot about her and what she stand for as she is sitting on the opposite side of the majority of our Maori people. I would like to see a debate as she will get shown up and so will some of those other clowns in the Act party.
Yes she might be Maori herself Sam but she is representing her constituency and most of them aren’t Maori. We all know Act are all about individualisms meaning everyman for himself.
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