Waatea News Column: We desperately need a Maori Caucus solution to Parliament Lawn protest

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The biggest problem with the Government’s response to the protest on Parliament’s lawns is Jacinda’s point-blank refusal to acknowledge the protest.

That is understandable.

Many in the protest have gone beyond political theatre to outright abuse and threats of violence.

No Government can be bullied or threatened into a meeting, it sets a terrible precedent.

But while there can be and should be no negotiating with protestors who threaten violence, it is proper and righteous that a Government representative does meet with the Protest and takes their concerns to the top table. These are citizens, while their pain may have been manipulated by the far right, it is a Government’s obligation in a liberal progressive democracy to hear their concerns.

In listening and taking those concerns back, the Government sends a clear message that citizens have been heard, that those concerns will be responded to AND that they now must move this to a legal protest by moving their vehicles or having them towed.

The only ones with the mana to do this are the Māori Caucus.

When Ihumatao threatened to explode, the Māori Caucus went in to find a solution and they did.

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When gangs were refusing to get vaccinations, the Māori Caucus went in and managed to get them to vaccinate!

The Māori Caucus have the mana to speak to the protestors and to manage the de-escalation of this protest.

It’s time to send them in now.

We can’t allow this protest to become the ugly stain of political violence, and the Māori Caucus represents the best chance of preventing that.

First published on Waatea News.

59 COMMENTS

  1. I was listening to Radio NZ this morning. Their correspondent on the ground was giving her observations but the reporter in the studio kept changing what she was saying to meet the standard government response. He then interviewed one of the liaison people from the protest. He came across as calm and rational and outlined that he believed the negative incidents had been overblown and the media were using isolated incidents to paint a different picture than the reality. The interviewer however was shrill, constantly interrupting and trying to put a different slant on what the guy was saying and putting words in his mouth. It was obvious the reporter had an agenda and a stance that he wanted to get across. It was very poor reporting. As I’m not there I can’t say exactly what is happening but, listening to that interview, I know who I’d be inclined to believe and it wasn’t the RNZ interviewer. Interestingly, the protest liaison guy said they had given to the government, 4 days ago, the name of an independent mediator to meet with the government to discuss their concerns but, to date, the government has refused. Whatever the rights and wrongs, Trevor Mallard’s actions and the refusal of the government to engage in any way, despite advice from expert negotiators, has not helped the situation.

    • Most definitely agree Chris R.
      Journalist with an agenda and they wonder why people don’t trust them.
      Could be likened to inciting violence.
      Mallard is a very dangerous person and how he can continue to hold the chair Speaker of The House is baffling.

    • Chris R,

      I’m pleased they have found someone at the protest that “came across as calm and rational”. Will all due respect, much of what comes out of that protest is anything but calm and rational. The protestors and their supporters want to sell the illusion of calm and rational but the reality most people are seeing is not that picture.

      First examine the word “rational”. Experts agree that what has saved NZ from the same death tolls seen in similar size countries elsewhere is our vaccine numbers and the mandates that are needed to accompany them. We can also see we are now experiencing staggering new daily case numbers that are guaranteed to dramatically worsen. With that dynamic in play, the protestors who are mostly unvaccinated are demanding the vaccine mandate is removed immediately. In the eyes of some that may be “rational” but to the rest of the population with an intelligence quotient that exceeds their age number, it’s batshit crazy and light years from “rational”.

      Then we look at the word “calm”. I’m certain there are people at the protest being calm but there are a lot of others being abusive, intimidating and threatening. They are targeting students wearing facemasks and locals going about their lawful business. We’ve all seen and heard the evidence so the “calm” protestors must also be aware of it, yet they remain. That equates to them condoning and even endorsing that reprehensible behaviour.

      I will steal a quote from an interview I watched some years ago in regard to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

      There are one point two billion Muslims in the world. Of course not all of them are radicals. The majority of them are peaceful people. The radicals are estimated to be between 15 to 25% according to all intelligence services around the world. That leaves between 75 to 85% that are peaceful. ….but 15 to 25% of the Muslim population equates to 180 to 300 million people dedicated to the destruction of Western Civilization. On September 11th 2001 there were 2.3 million Arab Muslims living in the United States but it took 19 hijackers / radicals to bring the United States to it’s knees. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

      During WWII most Germans were peaceful people but the Nazi’s drove the agenda. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

      Same situation with Russia, China and Japan. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.

      • Not agreeing or disagreeing with you or making a statement on the rights and wrongs of the protest. All I’m saying is that of the two I heard on the radio this morning the protestor came across as far more credible. The radio interviewer came across as shrill, one-eyed and taking a definite stance. That’s not professional imho. More to the point – most of us are getting our impression of what’s happening there from what we hear and see on the mainstream media. If that media is slanting the narrative and not giving context but highlighting isolated events to make them appear the norm then that erodes people’s trust in the media and leads to people going to other (sometimes misinformed) sources. So it’s sort of an ‘own-goal’ from the media. That interviewer may or may not be the norm but he certainly didn’t come across well.

      • most germans went along because the nazis delivered for the avarage ‘acceptable’ german, poland they were worried but they overwhelmingly supported them after the fall of france, they didn’t go all stauffenburg on adolfs ass till bagration/d-day.

  2. The government doesn’t need to negotiate with the protesters collectively or individually. What it should do and would do if it was not so inept, is address the concerns of the protest and the millions (yes millions) of New Zealanders who are rightly sceptical of the case for vaccine mandates. The government should either have to make a case for the mandates (not an easy ask and something they have consistently failed to do) and use force against its critics (not easy either) or concede that there is no rational public health case for these measures, and quietly withdraw them. Instead government has decided to assert its claim to absolute authority over our people, regardless of the rights or wrongs of the case, and sooner or later that attitude will bring the government to grief.

    • So mandates are used around the World why do you think we are different here in NZ . I do not know anyone who is against the mandates but I do try to only mix with normal thinking people not religious nuts people that believe in the evil of 5G or against 1080 or believe in the forces of Chemtrails .
      I can go out and enjoy a meal or the movies without these people being near me . I do not believe there are millions against mandates .

    • Read Thinking-Man for a good explanation for the mandates. Yes, they need to go eventually but now is not the time. I suspect that 3 or so months will be a realistic time to safely make changes but prefer to be guided by the evidence instead of clowns trying to make a political point or wanting to sell something.

  3. All the right wing commentators are suddenly changing their views and know that their support of the anti labour hate Jacinda protesters is waning. No Labour supporters there, they belong to right wing Pati Maori. Luxon Waititi and Seymore still have time to get their people to piss off. I say to the police, remove the people from their cars, drag the cars to the wharfe, remove all the babies and children from the protest area for health and safety reasons and then go in and remove the nutters and trash.

    • You’ve had plenty of time to answer and denounce https://nuremberg.nz/.
      I hope you are vaccinated.
      It is a risky venture being in hospitals for surgery like yours. Getting your lips surgically attached to Steve Bannon’s right butt cheek, is wrong on so many levels?
      Then back to mummy’s basement and intercom for supper to be delivered.

    • Avoiding the denunciation.
      Who cares if you are vaccinated or not.
      That wasn’t the question.
      Right wing shill.
      You should be banned from this site for NOT denouncing your right-wing murderous site.
      Will you denounce https://nuremberg.nz/?

      • Waiting for you to email your script-writers at Dirty Politics 4.0 headquarters to ask them how to answer this simple question, simple Jeremy?
        Will you denounce https://nuremberg.nz/
        A right-wing site threatening to murder politicians and media?

        • @ Jeremy. Simple enlightening question, for a Dirty Politics 4.0 troll-shill like yourself. Do you agree with right-wing site Nuremberg.nz threatening to publically execute politicians, health experts and media?

  4. The ‘Maori Caucus’ arent stupid! They know what a turd looks like!

    Tokenism is a pakeha’s game. Sending out the Maori to do the heavy lifting or dirty work is the usual MO when the pakeha fuck things up or don’t want to get their hands dirty.

    The MC should stay the fuck away from this cluster. It’s Jacinda’s mess for her to clean-up!

    • Like National does with women Danny Boy? Ruth Richardson, Paula Bennett, Jenny Shipley and Judith Collins. Like Tories everywhere, look around for cannon fodder, everywhere except pale stale Tory males.

      Labour’s MC are great negotiators, with mana and empathy. Sounds like your alleged Paoa whakapapa is more closely linked to Hone Carter’s?

      • Denny Power (Tene Paoa) doesn’t seem to be a tory hori to me. There aren’t many hori tori’s around. Yes he must be a friend of hone kata.

  5. Wow Jezza, that tame retort took a long time to come back from your political masters.

    • No answer.
      Deathly silence from you, that’s not good.
      No denunciation of right-wing site https://nuremberg.nz/
      So, you agree with politicians, health experts and media being threatened with execution Jeremy?
      So, your deathly silence is approval of a right-wing death threat site?
      Ergo Dirty Politics 4.0, your paymasters are closely linked to this death site?

  6. There are a lot of brown faces on that hate site too.
    Is this a racially motivated hate-crime site that Jeremy supports too?
    Would be interesting to see if Meng Foon can act to shut this site down and then investigate all those that created it and track down those to actively and tacitly support and disseminate it for hateful purposes?

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