Last week’s TVNZ Poll asked voters what they thought of race relations in New Zealand.
14% said race relations were getting better, 35% believe it’s about the same, and 47% say race relations are getting worse.
Add into this the ramifications of a post Covid community where the sacrifice was unequal in an unequal society alongside crime and economic anxiety mixing angrily with social media hate algorithms, and we have a level of wrath towards one another that borders on the Springbok tour.
This election, no one wants to build bridges, they only want to burn them and erect walls.
The vitriol spat out at one another on social media has created echo chambers of opinion that goes feral and turns malicious.
We have allowed the worst angels of our nature replace good will and common ground.
Politicians whip this anger up, social media companies manipulate us for our attention outrage and the resulting political landscape brings little but a harvest of spite.
We have lost good faith and allowed furious resentment to replace it.
In the community, in the real world where people need to work together there are still the bonds of basic humanity that bind us: Food Banks, Marae, Churches , Community Centres, RSA – all are places where the milk of human kindness can still be found, but those rivers are trickles now in a bleak social environment of subjective rage.
If we can not find the common ground between us, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
This election isn’t just about power, it’s about the very soul of us as a people.
First published on Waatea News.
This can sheet those poll results directly to this government, both Arderns and Hipkins. Entirely predictable.
And who destroyed convention politics during CovidCult. Ardern’s lasting legacy will be the partisanship of NZ politics.
So true Martyn!
But as Billy Joel said: We didn’t start the fire!
It was the current government that used their one-off victory under Covid to drive through a race based (therefore fascist) agenda against the will of the people. For that they will pay the penalty in October.
Andrew this country was founded on race-based policies, assimilation, land alienation (theft) racist and discriminative practices upheld for decades by government departments and their Pakeha workers. Forbidden to speak one’s language and strapped if one did so (as a child) Indoctrinated by education systems based on one culture ideology, unfair justice system (unequal access to good legal representation) Redistribution policies unfairly administered (state housing allocation and areas allocated to live in) Benefits for Māori war veteran’s and land ballots unfair to Māori.
The pakeha stopped slavery and the endless wars that were going on between tribes. Look at what happened to the inhabitants of the Chatham Island. Who is going to give them their land back .
Much of what you say is true but it is true regarding any race beaten by an invader.
The history of England is littered with invaders robbing and killing then trampling on the rights of those beaten .Eventually they settle down intermarry and become a new country.. This happened throughout Europe and Asia and the Americas . NZ pakeha leaders are attempting to rectify some of the wrongs of the past and move on together .Those that allow the hurt from the past to stop the healing need to rethink where they want to finish up .
Really Trev? Europe has settled down? All of it? Have some parts really stopped smouldering? Even the Scot’s have second thoughts about a United Kingdom. Entire football stadiums singing “ you can shove your coronation up your arse” doesn’t sound quite so harmonious
Shocking Leadership unfortunately from our political leaders the only cause.
Consider the out come if race relations becomes the deciding issue for the coming election. For some and we know not how many, it will be the issue that determines their vote.
Then hypotheticaĺy 47% is shared between Seymore and Peters,
Luxon, the man in neutral going no where takes the 37% and parties of thee Left, labour Green and Maori scrap over the rest. Far fetched maybe
BUT
There is a message in this poll, a massive swing to the right is inevitable, the only question is how big?
Unless Hipkins has a rabbit in a hat then centre left will strategically vote for the kiwi handbrake.
For sure Winston is back.
The traditional Labour voter who finds Labours pro Maori policies abhorent, pkhave two choices:
Stay at home and not vote (as they did in the Hamilton bi election and Auckland Mayoralty)
OR
Vote NZF
1996 (failure to reign in) -1999, 2005 (a more moderate right) in 2008 and 2023.
Yes, and not because of anything written above about it.
Stalinda’s reign over this country has divided & eroded democracy, driven a wedge between those that are of different skin pigmentation and to top it off sunk the countries economy although I lay the blame for that one squarely at the fat oxygen thief Grant Robertson .
Nz is going to get the most right wing government it’s ever seen thanks to these idiots in Labour .
The brain drain to Australia is going to be the largest toll going forward and I know that the wokesters in Wellington who have cuddled up to the Maori Elitists will suddenly find themselves on the chopping block wondering and naval gazing as to “how did this happen” .
Wellington is the problem and will always be the problem with this country
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