Jacinda Ardern says co-governance is key to upholding Treaty of Waitangi obligations
The prime minister says co-governance arrangements are not something to be feared, and described them as key to upholding Treaty of Waitangi obligations.
Many pundits can’t understand why Labour are so set on passing the 3 Waters legislation.
3 Waters has been sold by the Right as a capitulation to Māori interests who will then steal all the fresh water and stop cracker from ever drinking clean H2O ever again.
What’s funny about this right wing trolling is that a cow has the faecal load of 14 humans, we have 10 million cows, that’s the equivalent of 140million humans pissing and shitting into our waters every single year, so the fresh water the Right claim to care about isn’t actually that fresh.
The racism that has erupted over co-governance is less a dog whistle and more a canine trumpet. People don’t understand why this is being done and are jumping to really racist conclusions driven by negative egalitarianism and the weaponisation of one person one vote rhetoric.
The recent Auditor-General report critical of 3 Waters, wasn’t doing so because of Co-Governance, but because the systems being suggested are too vague and it’s not clear who will ultimately do the work to provide the fresh water and fresh water infrastructure promised by 3 Waters.
There is a lot for us to chew over here regarding our water, especially on a super warming planet!
There are 2 main reasons Labour has politically set in concrete this 3 Waters legislation.
The first is their personal history, the second is Key’s legacy.
Punters fail to understand the full impact of Helen Clark’s Seabed and Foreshore land confiscation on the Left. Here was a cherished Labour leader who was confiscating Māori land rights to pacify the rednecks of NZ
Jacinda, Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson all worked in Helen’s Office in the wake of that land confiscation and saw the internal damage stealing Māori land had on the Left. Helen’s confiscation of Māori land rights saw the birth of the Māori Party who sided with National for a decade which helped lock Labour out of power for 3 terms.
This current Labour leadership know full well the political damage of stealing from Māoridom.
The second reason that has cemented Labour’s response is Key’s legacy of privatising the hydro-assets.
Māori had politely not pushed their water ownership rights when water was being used in the national interest, but the millisecond Key put a value on that water by privatising hydro assets, Māori interests were immediately triggered.
Māori went to the Tribunal in 2012 and the Tribunal agreed that Māori still had water rights which the Government must take into account now they had privatised 49% of the hydro assets.
These two events, Labour’s confiscation of Māori foreshore and seabed rights and Key’s privatisation of hydro assets have combined to cement into place Labour’s 3 Waters.
Rather than risk Māori going back to Court to force the ownership issue again, Labour carefully constructed a co-governance model that would give Māori the legal rights they have already won while rebuilding the water infrastructure.
While the legislation opens the possibility of privatisation, a position TDB has pushed and argued against, the belief within the power making decision while conceding that privatisation possibility, point to Māori never agreeing to sell as the ultimate hand break to the creation of 3 Waters.
This ultimately is the lynchpin of the entire 3 Waters framework. Yes water could be privatised by a simple 51% Parliamentary majority of ACT and National, but the expectation is that as Treaty stakeholders, Māori will never sell.
We are ultimately, once again, forcing Māori to be the backbone of any privatisation resistance even if National and ACT win and attempt to privatise the water.
That seems like a lot of heavy lifting by Māori with the barest support from Pakeha Government.
Despite the co-governance and co-management models being designed by ACT and National, the racist backlash that 3 Waters has inspired is simply too attractive for the Right and even if they win next year’s election and dismantle 3 Waters, it’s an almost certain bet that Māori would immediately lodge another Tribunal claim and an equally sizeable chance the Tribunal would be incredibly damning of National/ACT robbing Māori of their already confirmed legal rights.
At that stage, National/ACT would either need to pass legislation removing Māori water rights altogether, or they just have to agree with 3 Waters.
No one seems to understand why 3 Waters is here nor what happens if rednecks stop it from being implemented.
Can you imagine redneck fury the moment they hear it’s going back to the Tribunal for another public spanking of their ignorance?
Happy Days.
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Why are People so angry about it.
Answer: For the last 40 years all we have seen is a significant transfer of cash and assets to Iwi with no meaningful change from it. The bottom 40% of Maori get poorer every generation whilst the Iwi elite get wealthier. It also has been performed (largely) away from the electoral cycle and instigated through the courts and public institutions with no debate or rigor on whether actions are a). appropriate and b). will deliver actual improvement.
Caution got you stuck. There’s like one, maybe 2 Maori who could go at a long dive interview debating constitutional mater’s. How do I know? Because every single Maori hate on me for mentioning constitutional reform they just don’t understand it rather think it’s the “language of the coloniser” and reject it out right. Willie Jackson could give it a good go if he goes up against low IQ individuals like seemore.
The issue so skillfully conceded is oversight of public funds and countering the dreadful scirge of “the gravy train.” Something that has now been superceded by the trauma lead intervention narririve.
And would that be like you Sam going up against the late Moana Jackson aye!
Just like you poaching our good players
Remind me please Frank the Tank, how much did we taxpayers bailout South Canterbury Finance back in 2011? Was it $1.775 billion? Maybe you could provide a bit of proof to back your inaccurate generalisations.
And I was against the bailout of finance companies now as I am then. Working in property finance during those years I knew it was a hose of cards propping up a ponzi scheme but that is what you get when you fund people with no assets behind them.
Tainui own the largest shopping complex outside of Auckland yet 10 minutes up the road in their spiritual homeland most are well below the pover(d)y line.
Significant transfer of cash with no return, or a pretty good deal for the amount of land in question? Guess it depends on how you look at it.
Significant transfer of cash with no return, or a pretty good deal for the amount of land in question? Guess it depends on how you look at it.
No one understands because our government have done a non existent job OF explaining it. You can see this is quicksand in Jacinda’s eyes, so best not spoken of.
The moment David Seymour raised the He Puapua report, Jacinda freaked out like her fingers were caught in the till, nervous grin and deflected to something else, nothing to see here, la la la.
You want people on board, then tell them what it’s about and justify why people of one race get half of what is publicly owned assets and why that’s a good thing.
Otherwise leave the information vacuum as it is and wonder why there is so much angst!
They never really got the chance to explain it before the narrative was spun by the tightyrighty lot into a racist diatribe which you seem to have swallowed XRAY.
And they are the most hypocritical of the lot. After 9 years of co governance from JK and The Patio Maori in the naked pursuit of power they now have the fucking nerve to trot out their racist shit and fucknuts like you lap it up like thisty dogs in a meat works.
Its all very well to shout racist shit but look what happens when minorities are suppressed, eventually the worm turns.
Bet you don’t mind JK still sucking up to the Chinese. Different though isn’t it because you perceive them as wealthy and educated but you do not think that in percentage terms there are probably more successful influential Maori people in Aoteoroa than there are the so called superior white class. As far as Seymour goes, what will you think when your taxes are paying for the extra 100000 people he is going to put out of work. They won’t be the bottom feeders, they will be the so called middle class that feel hard done by right now. Consider how much that will crush our Country, mortgagee sales, mental health issues, increase in crime, less tax for health, education etc.
You stick to your racist views and admit in 2 years time you helped to really fucked y country and it’s people over big time.
Or maybe if we are really lucky you may only have to admit that Seymour and Luxon are finally found out to power hungry megalomaniacs who actually cannot do what they were voted in to do because they are full of bullshit and never really intended to carry out what they said.
Hi Mike, nice monologue racist abuse, fucknuts!
As I said, radio silence from our government means others have filled in the gap. Read what I said. People don’t understand it because our government can’t be bothered explaining it!
Racist that and fucknuts this rant, what are you? Anyone who dare question thus is shut down with the full deck of race cards. It’s always on thin ice at that point, ain’t it?
Nice comeback XRAY.
You miss the point about the racists monopoly on our media but would rather blame the government.
If the pro 3 waters people were given as much airtime as the antis, people might have a different view. When the antis spend most of their time on race aspect it shows that they have no idea of the purpose of the legislation or how it may be implemented. Instead they focus on the irrelevant race card.
As an example our Council has decided they are opposed based on a “survey” of rate payers . This survey was advertised on the council website and once in the local paper.
So immediately it is not random as it is only available for those who were either on the council website or bother to subscribe to the paper.
This narrows the field considerably in terms of socio economic factors.
The other survey was completed via a random mail drop of 170 ratepayers. 170 out of 40000!!!.
The only ones who are going to respond to this type of surveying are not going to be your average Joe Public but those who feel affronted in some way.
The only reason I saw that the survey was underway was because I went online to register the dog.
If I hadn’t I would have not been aware of it.
Hardly democratic but emphasises my point about the antis getting the better treatment.
If you recall the interview of Her Highness by Jack Tame, in explaining 3 waters she exposed her total ignorance in how it works. This is now the subject of legal action.
So why are they pushing 3 waters?
> Because the Labour caucus has been hijacked by the Māori grievance crowd
> Because Jacinda is a lightweight who has lost control of her own government
> Because a select few iwi leaders sense an opportunity for a power grab
Because Andrew is a feral tribal right winger who will find reasons to suit his narrative, like every one of his posts.
To be fair this Labour govt have been the most transformational government in the history of NZ.
1. 3 Waters co-governance
2. Maori Health Authority and new mega NZHA
3. Te Pukengi-the Mega polytech merger. That document out for consultation currently, proposes 4 mega regions, each governed by two CEO’s. One CEO to be focussed on the traditionally underserved learners (Maori, Pacifica and disabled) and will ensure the “decolonisation” of the delivery of the education curriculum (among other roles).
This is all progress, but there will be a huge number of issues to be discussed and understandably some will be apprehensive about this rapid change. I think we need to take all NZ’z with us on this new journey of shared governance, particularly when so many struggle to make ends meet. It’s hard to be excited about a new future when you are on the streets.
Ghosting the lived experience of those dissenting voices is not the way to go, as we may see this arvy with the ongoing mandate protest.
It’s been pissing down with rain here in Taranaki for the past three months and the local council’s big response is to install water meters on every house and privatise water. After two hundred years of public water management and ownership in the region these geniuses suddenly want to make money on water, billions of litres of which has flowed from the land into the ocean in recent weeks. If they were serious about water preservation the council would have assisted every household into water storage and sustainable usage solutions instead of wasting money on surveillance. If the council wanted to generate money from the public to pay for infrastructure then they should have done so over the lifetime of the project for all users in the past, not in the last five minutes for current and future generations. If local government were serious about co governance water management with Maori and all people then they wouldn’t be privatising something as fundamental as water and handing over our future to big business and corporate fanatics.
These fanatics complain about 3 waters and co governance, all the while local government( of which don’t want their tithe taken away from them) screw the taxpayer to death.
3 waters can’t come around fast enough.
I see the roads are disintegrating in the region as well as the water pipes. I wonder if the geniuses will bill residents for their new $100m sports stadium as well, there seems to be public money available for that.
Three waters=no more ‘boil water’ notices in Blackball=good times
Nobby Clark, Invercargill mayoral candidate:
“He told the select committee the Invercargill council had the best credit rating of councils in the country, had very low net debt, have already invested well over the past decade in water renewals, and had enough money put aside for its 10-year and 30-year plans for further investment.
“So why would we be forced into an entity where we will be forced to cross-subsidise other councils that have not delivered on that?”
He told the select committee that the Invercargill council had advice from a managing consultancy firm that stated it would be better off out of the reform. However, that was now not option because it had been mandated.
“We would opt out if we could,” Clark said.”
I am against three waters for numerous reasons and the Maori ‘rights’ issue is lower down on my list.
A major problem is that the government have not dealt fairly with people on this issue. There has been a lot of propaganda but no real information about the whys and wherefores. The model is flawed for many reasons but the government doesnt want to educate people and get them behind the solution because they may just need to compromise and as we have seen with parliamentary protestors and so many things, Jacinda never compromises.
90,000 + people submitted against this but you havent seen it reported anywhere (One of the biggest responses on any issue in NZ) . The govt is allowing a small window of time to consider the responses whilst merrily filling all the positions yet it consulted with Maori twice over this but no other NZers as far as I am aware.
10,000 people asked to be heard in person so the Govt allowed a whole 4 extra days to travel to see them and allow them to be heard. (Anyone want to do the maths on that?) Add to this, the Govt forced people to submit physically so they didnt have the amounts of submissions they might have had if they allowed email submissions as has always previously been the case prior to this year.
This government is repressive with absolutely no ability to read the room or any respect for democracy or ‘taking people along on the journey’. Intellectually as well, they appear to be dumber than a bunch of rocks with none of the brains trust of the previous labour government. They really believe that ideological tampering will solve all problems.
Now I could be wrong on this(Apologies if I am) but I read the Maori King had effectively told the Govt to pull their fingers out, stop politicking and start delivering houses, health and education. Hoo bloody ray!! At least someone can see the practicalities beyond the ideological bullshit. Maori, Pasifica and a good proportion of other NZers need help now but Ardern fiddles while NZ burns.
Three Waters is an ugly, ugly thing. Economically and politically its a disaster and it will be a cross for Labour to die on.
Nobby sounds like someone you’d spend a lot of time with. Nobby and Tommy, hilarious.
Putaruru has 3 Water Bottling Plants operating and we are GIVING these companies the water for free.
A litre of Pump Water (Coca Cola owners) is dearer that petrol.
A few years back when the western side of town flooded residents had sewerage through their homes yet our Council are against 3 Waters – CRAZY.
I believe 60 out of 67 councils are against the 3 Waters proposal as it is .All agree money needs spending but not at tge cost of sign away assets to a government board 50 percent made up of Maori voices and the other 50 percent drawn from local bodies .Many of council are left leaning with Chch and Auckland mayors ex Labour ministers so if they cannot be persuaded then there has to be something missing.I believe for many this could be the tipping point for many as tgey see Labour as not the party looking after their interests
I keep wondering – does it stop it being privatised? Maori have already had a failed venture in Northland. And I think it was led by a Maori. We must make sure that we citizens of NZ/AO can’t get hornswoggled! Good citizens can be led into alleys and quietly strangled as someone said about good ideas coming before a committee. And look what the UK could do with their huge population over Brexit, completely change direction with the help of 3+ per cent of the population.
Anyone who is wary is well founded on that. Especially when there is a phalanx of middle class women behind it. The new Goddesses of Wisdom. Helen Clark, apparently sure of herself, good for holding a holey Labour government together, but then turned into a holy icon. PM Jacinda much the same. I don’t trust we-know-best; looking at the outcomes from past action in the last few decades is disquieting and now disorienting.
A tsunami of comment. Tends to support the thought that this could be an election decider next year.
In fact, dividing the country’s water assets into four vast regional entities increases the risk of privatisation massively. The 67 independent fiefdoms we have now are impossible to privatise in any significant way.
The cry that “Maori would never sell” is fine in theory but if one of more of the Water Services Entities goes belly up (as is very likely given the billions that will be borrowed and a complicated and unwieldy governance structure) we will be thrown into the tender embrace of distressed asset hedge funds, which specialise in bleeding their victims dry.
As one leveraged finance lawyer told me, these hedge funds will make Goldman Sachs and BlackRock look like the nice guys.
It’s not about ownership of water, it’s ownership and control of the country’s collective plumbing…
I agree, Jack. It is not formally about ownership of water; it’s about control of the plumbing, and very people understand just how complete the control being handed to iwi is. It’s not just a matter of co-governance at the top-level of the Regional Representation Group, but also the requirement for those selecting the WSE boards, and the boards themselves, to have collective knowledge of matauranga Maori, tikanga, te ao Maori etc.
This will make it very difficult for any non-Maori to be selected (and certainly if any do they will have to be onside with a particular view of Maori rights).
And at the ground level, so to speak, iwi and hapu will have the right to make Te Mana o Te Wai statements over any body of water in their rohe (S.140 of the WSE Bill) that the WSE is bound to follow.
And that’s before we get into the business of Tipa Mahuta, as chair of Te Puna, having the right to direct Taumata Arowai, the water regulator.
Not a single MSM writer has grasped the magnitude of the power grab — or if they have they’re not telling.
Such comprehensive control, will, however, be indistinguishable from ownership in practice.
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