So what could a new Aotearoa New Zealand Republic look like?
I look at the racist hatefest 3 Waters and co-governance has imploded into, and I don’t think we have post Covid emotional energy or basic civility and cultural maturity to debate a Republic in the wake of the death of the Queen, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep dreaming about what a future state of the Aotearoa New Zealand Republic could look like.
For me any binding Constitution needs to have the Treaty and importantly the power dynamic of the obligations and responsibilities the Government has towards securing every citizens rights and agency at its heart.
I would envisage an Upper Chamber of Parliament 50-50 split between Māori and Pakeha who would vote on issues that impacted the Treaty and would have the power to hold up legislation akin to the House of Lords if they weren’t in majority agreement.
For me the Aotearoa New Zealand Republic would be one land, two people.
Māori, the first nation and ‘Pakeha’ who encompass everyone who came after that.
I would replace the symbolism of the Crown with New Zealand itself.
Be honest, what would we actually fight for in NZ? Our country!
Why not swear allegiance to New Zealand, this amazing land?
Why not promise to uphold this land rather than some phantom Empire on the other side of the planet?
By replacing the Crown with New Zealand, we change our entire world view and mind space.
We shouldn’t fear rebuilding our identity and relationship with that identity.
First published on Waatea News.
The language is arbitrary. We could have an English description of New Zealand, or a Maori description of Aotearoa. OR, we could have an alien description from a trillion lightyears away that says flardy flardy flardy flar.
It doesn’t matter how we describe New Zealand using language as long as it’s identities and history, present and future is protected and we need to understand how common law can protect Maori rights and interests
One land two people is not going to work. Elevating the status of Maori will simply wash all those non-maori with aspirations to power into the cauldron, leading to an imposition of te bureau-reo on all things quantifiable. Plus Martyn who is to decide what constitutes ‘maori’ per se? a committee?
It’s o.k. – Kelvin thinks he can decide what constitutes Maori….
What rights and/or laws do non Maori “need?”
Yep. A very slippery slope indeed to ethnocentric powerplays. Your rights in this country should not depend upon your skin colour, whakapapa or whether you arrived on the first waka or the last boat.
This is Aotearoa. Mana Whenua; Mana Moana, Mana Aeroplane. That is the correct order for the REPUBLIC. But to dream is all we can do as apparently it is a rather word heavy process to develop a constitution and with the general public discord it may not be the correct place in the timespace continuum to achieve such INDEPENDENCE. But yes, respect OUR right to DREAM!
Not really true to the treaty at all, which was between Maori and the British crown/monarchy. So doesn’t work to have one side represented which is Maori and then abandon the British/crown monarchy by calling everyone after that Pakeha.
The treaty was between two nations and people, Britain and NZ Maori – woke cancelling Britain/british descendants seems to be outside of the treaty.
NZ is one of the few countries to still have free welfare, free health care etc that’s from the British side.
Stop cancel culture in NZ! It doesn’t represent history or fairness.
Exactly.
“The treaty was between two nations and people, Britain and NZ Maori”
this needed to be repeated.
Will a NZ/Aotearoa have to respect the treaty as it did not exist at the time an thus was not signatory to the treaty.
And if we demand the abolition of the British monarchy, will we also ask for the Maori monarchy as they are no longer needed/wanted in a republic?
It was interesting after the death of Queen Elisabeth 2nd reading the obituaries and notes of respect of Maori leaders in our esteemed fish wraps. All of them were beautifully worded story telling that provided glimpses in to a past that at least to me was new and fascinating history, but all of them spoke of the mana that the crown brought to the table and the impact it had to Maori and their standing in society, but also to governments here as to some extend it forced them to act. Would it be wise to abandon the crown just yet?
Maori may appreciate the importance of the crown as an abstraction with only minimal political power in NZ.
First Key and now Ardern have demonstrated the need for the pomp and pretension to be located away from parliament. It seems no coincidence that Key was himself (mostly) American, as opposed to the mindless, mere sycophant who replaced him.
Because the US shows the danger of ”royalty” and politics becoming enmeshed into pageantry, Entertainment Today, and royal dynasties.
NZ is supposed to be a democracy. Maybe if the Windsor clan made more of an effort to come down under and be figure heads at rallies, feigning caring in their inappropriate clothes, our actual politicians might leave them to it, and do their actual jobs.
Nice how the more than 160 ethnic groups in NZ get grouped together as ‘pakeha’. I hate the term bi-cultural. We are a modern multi-cultutal society.
Maybe India isn’t all Indian. What do the people who are non Hindu think of their citizenship and rights and whether they are all the same? A new leader or group with strong preferences one way can make sweeping changes. Just promoting the ‘we’ isn’t a guarantee of a balanced cultural approach to society.
Like it or not, NZ was started as a bi-cultural country and just because we are flooded with ambitious or hopeful people who want to partake of goodies here doesn’t change that. Maori and pakeha or actually tauiwi* made the country what it was, up till the rapacious in Treasury, Labour and the Roundtable, linked to a sort of bi-economy between themselves.
*tauiwi: people who are not Maori, especially non-indigenous New Zealanders.
Yes of course we are RAF but our current Labour Government wants to divide us into Maori and the rest who they refer to as pakeha.
No, no. That’s just an ad-hoc argument.
The treaty inshrined British common law into the New Zealand parliament.
A better question is what relationship did the crown have with her subjects?
Sorry Sam but you lost me at “inshrined.”
I don’t think there is any realistic prospect of a Second Chamber that is 50% Maori and 50% Pakeha. Not that this is a necessary precursor to being a Republic.
If the current co-governance proposals are controversial, then a second Chamber proposal with serious legislative power would be much more so. Wouldn’t such a Chamber deem everything to be Treaty related.
One of my reasons for saying it is a non-starter is how would it come into existence? The most obvious option would be a referendum. What are the chances of that passing? The second option is simply to legislate for it. I presume this would have to be part of an explicit manifesto commitment, especially by the major party to a coalition. However, such legislation is also easily repealable, especially if it has been highly contested. Unless doubly entrenched. But can a double entrenchment be done by a bare majority?
Much more likely are incremental developments, just as have occurred over the last 40 years. For instance some forms of co-governance will stick. Especially for the conservation estate. Also specific initiatives like Te Aka What Ora Maori Health Authority.
It depends how the framers pose the question of do you want increased representation under a republic or something more aligned to how Act pose the question of a republic being Maori are is apartheid there for a Republic kiwi style has to be a non Maori one.
“Waatea News Column: So what could a new Aotearoa New Zealand Republic look like?”
Well, what’s yellow and bent and monkeys like them?
The view’s past the banana is a simple one to imagine.
There’s stars and stripes on that flag over there and it’s brought to you by every corrupt corporation known to man and Satan. Watch this. These, are the fuckers who will own you. The Corporation https://youtu.be/Y888wVY5hzw
@ Maori. Look. I try to understand how you feel. I honestly do. But really, how can I FULLY understand how it must feel to have a bunch of white fuckers roll in and take over. ( I DO know how that feels actually but I can’t write much here because it’s in a book I’m writing, with pictures too fuckers! )
If AO/NZ became a republic at this point we’d be fucked.
people still think changing a word changes a thing…how cute is that?
Yes it is what politicians have been and still are doing.
One land, two people. minority has veto powers = civil war. Whatever stupid arrangement we end up with I can guarantee that the poor will get poorer and the rich will be rich. It’s not division we need (into two peoples FFS) it’s ending the neo-liberal corporate rape that we should be fixating on. Otherwise we will be masters (a few) and slaves (the many).
Which country has made a success of apartheid? I can’t believe that Martin said there should be two people. What happened to the team of 5 million? That is already splitting asunder.
United we stand, divided we fall. Divided we f-a-i-l. Divided = chaos. From chaos comes order, eventually.
Would the treaty still be valid if Britain became a republic, given that it was between the British crown and the Maori people?
If NZ went republican I would think that a new treaty would have to be entered into anyway, since the British crown would no longer be part of the picture , and at that time any translation anomalies could be resolved, and any other modifications thought necessary could be made.I assume the Maori king would sign the new document on behalf of the Maori people, rather than having to assemble all the Maori rangatira as we did in 1940.
Republic my arse.
‘The Corporation’. Look. Listen. Learn.
THE CORPORATION is a Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary examines the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behavior towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.
https://youtu.be/Y888wVY5hzw
“…The pursuit of profit is an old story… ”
@ 56:44
“…too sacred or too essential for the public good. They were protected by tradition and public regulation….”
Let me draw your attention to the word ‘tradition’.
Even if we had our own constitution, it could be altered by a 75% majority in parliament, so the treaty, within the terms of that constitution, would not be entirely secure. At the present time I would imagine that the crown could refuse any change that parliament wished to make in that regard, given that it would seem to obviate crown’s responsibilities to the Maori people, unless the Maori people themselves signaled, independently of parliament, their consent.
If Britain became a republic and NZ didn’t, then King Charles would presumably remain our head of state. He might come out here and take up residence in government house.
Even if we had our own constitution, it could be altered by a 75% majority in parliament, so the treaty, within the terms of that constitution, would not be entirely secure. At the present time I would imagine that the crown could refuse any change that parliament wished to make in that regard, given that it would seem to obviate crown’s responsibilities to the Maori people, unless the Maori people themselves signaled, independently of parliament, their consent.
How ad-hoc do you guys have to be in order to create a non-maori republic in New Zealand! Absolutely ridiculous.
As long as there is money to be claimed from the crown, there will be no republic.
Just pay your taxes you shmuck
We should referendum the shit out of this and use this to discuss this Republic openly.
‘Lets do this’, from 2023 for a full term by governing by referendum.
Get MPs to take a term off and away from the trough for 3 years.
‘Let’s do this’ so that we all can have a better future. Ay?
If a draft for the constitution is written. I wanna see the “Vanilla” clause.
Yes but only certain people will be allowed to use it.
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