Paul Goldsmith denies breaking law over Te Papa letter
Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith is in defence mode after asking Te Papa to take down a defaced Treaty of Waitangi display.
But legally he can’t tell the museum what to do.
Protesters struck in broad daylight armed with spray paint, hoping to correct what they saw as an injustice.
“They have Te Tiriti o Waitangi on one side and a huge the Treaty on the other side in English. A lot of people probably aren’t [aware] that those two documents are different, they don’t say the same thing,” one protestor said at the time.
The defaced panel is still up, and the Arts and Culture minister is unhappy about that.
“I think most New Zealanders would expect a minister to be able to say quite clearly, ‘Look I think it should be replaced, it shouldn’t be left up permanently because it is a vandalised piece of artefact’,” said Goldsmith.
Goldsmith contacted the board chair last year.
“They were quite clear that it wouldn’t be able to come down over the summer. Well, the summer’s ended and it’s time to have it replaced. Ultimately, I cannot give them an instruction,” he said on Thursday.
In February, he followed up with a letter saying, “I would like to express my strong view that the damaged panel should be removed or repaired as soon as possible” and “I consider that the damage to the panel denigrates our nation’s founding documents and national identity”.
He told media on Thursday: “It’s important that people feel proud of these institutions so when that Treaty thing was defaced and vandalised I think it is important that it should be replaced.”
That so-called treaty thing is a matter for the museum and under the law, specifically the Te Papa Tongarewa Act.
“The Minister may not give a direction to the Board in relation to cultural matters,” it says.
Newshub showed Goldsmith that piece of the law on Thursday.
“I haven’t given them a direction, because I can’t. But I’ve certainly made my expectation that it should come down sooner rather than later.”
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said: “It sounds like a direction to me and that does go against the Act.”
“The Prime Minister needs to get a handle on the ministers already starting to breach those laws.”
Goldsmith’s boss though was caught unaware.
“I haven’t been briefed on it that’s a question you’d need to direct to Paul Goldsmith who’s our minister there,” Christopher Luxon said.
Goldsmith said: “It’s very clear I haven’t given them an instruction because I can’t but I’ve made my view clear.”
Oh, so Paul Goldsmith is now an art critic and the Chief Censor is he?
Minister’s aren’t fucking Art Critics and they can’t tell the Art Galleries what Art should and shouldn’t be on display.
So he’s an Art Censor is he?
At a time when religious fanatics are painting over rainbow crossings, when the rich are giving other rich $19billion in tax cuts and tax breaks, when this Government are attacking Queer Space, Women’s Space, Māori Space and Pacifica Space on Auckland Campus, we now get Paul Goldsmith acting as the Chief Art Censor?
This hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government rammed through their spiteful 100 day Culture War revenge fantasies without any of the normal democratic oversight by misusing urgency.
There is a creeping Authoritarianism oozing alongside this Government as workers, renters, Māori, beneficiaries, the disabled and the environment all get trashed and harmed.
The Right are vandalising the Egalitarian State and calling it perforce art!
In barely 6 months this country is barely recognisable in its values.
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Yep…’barely recognisable in it’s values’…and it’s going to get a whole lot worse…very rapidly!!
We have the blind leading the blind…a clueless rag tag bunch of crooked reckless boguns in charge..
The Coalition of Chaotic Catastrophy will be
so damaging it doesn’t bare thinking about …look at it already and they’ve only been in 5 month
The straight out lies that they are getting away with on a daily basis on National TV and radio is extraordi ary….and whilst some of the media are doing a good job in highlighting , ( Anna Burns Francis), as one example , others are just not quick enough on their feet, or don’t have the ‘bullish dectector’ fully switched on …or even worse…don’t want to, or don’t have the nous, to challenge them.
However, a nice simple one for the media to work out is, that The Coalition of Chaos’s figures don’t add up and yet finance is the one thing that they,( falsely), claim that they are the masters of…their main electioneering plank…
Well that plank is clearly a load of wank!!
Martyn – What happened on that Treaty of Waitangi panel was wrong…end of story.
Nathan – you sound as if you are an authority, where you’re anything but!
What happened at the last election is now clear, NZ got it patently wrong. National and it’s ragtag bunch are woeful and Goldsmith can’t even win his electorate… end of story.
I bet if there was another election tomorrow National would still win and likely Act .Hopefully NZF would fad away like it’s leader
Just highlights the decline in the IQ of the electorate…
…and how gullible they are to repetitive propaganda…
Backed by multi-millionares, billionares and the Chinese both National and Act have spent a fortune on propaganda…
In the end it will prove to be waste of money!!
Whatever Trevor.
Do you not know what
, end of story is?
The left block would win in a landslide such is the state National have left us in. The polite would go left to start with.
Justine Kase – Really? What are silly thing to write…
That’s a silly comment Nathan, you are better than that.
Corrupt Gnat – I was using great restraint, and not using some choice words towards Justine…
Justine must have touched a nerve, Nathan. You probably hate the idea of not being an authority. That hurts your self-esteem is my guess.
In your haste you couldn’t even get your sentence right. Woops!
But Nathan, the practicalities of removing or replacing the defaced panel, seems to be what’s at issue here, and where Goldsmith was trying to ride roughshod over the people with the knowledge and expertise to be making decisions. It’s not simply a wall hanging, but seems to be an intrinsic part of the original structure. Even if Goldsmith was just virtue signalling, preachy-preachy politicians aren’t the most constructive sort of people and they must observe legal boundaries. It’s not like Joe Bloggs spouting forth in the street, or Brian the Bish objecting to drag queens. Goldsmith’s a Minister and not allowed to meddle.
Gentle Annie – Thank you for this reply. I appreciate your message. Damaging public displays because you disagree with it…is a slippery slope.
Yes. It’s like chopping down statues and defacing art. I admit to once being tempted to spray paint a neighbour’s pre-election billboard, but I thought that I might get caught. In my local bookshop I reverse displayed books by objectionable people like Prince Harry and the odd politician, they know that it’s me and don’t really mind.
Gentle Annie – Cool.
Who wrote: “Evil prevails when good people fail to act. ” ? And it seems it wasn’t Edmund Burke after all.
AO/NZ’s become a crooks paradise funded by farmer morons who will, I bet, gather in draughty, deconsecrated churches at lonely rural intersections to be spanked by gruff, thick wristed fellows wearing Luxon disguises.
paul goldsmith strikes me as a nervy, feverish little fellow and a compulsive underwear changer. A fidgety rash scratcher who will always itch because despite his thinking he’s always correct, he’ll discover instead that he’s always wrong.
As I’ve written here and more than once, I know, because I can count better than I can spell.
First, they’ll come for the treaty then they’ll come for the sovereignty of our AO/NZ and then they’ll arrive and then we, dear Kiwi’s, will get fucked without the kissing.
Mandate voting then a public, Royal commission of inquiry up and into every atom of our politic.
The determination with which ACT and Co are going for the treaty and undermining Māori particularly, should tell us, in flashing lights, that The Treaty of Waitangi is a very valuable document to have.
There’s some reason why they want it gone. We can only surmise that it stands in the way of their NASTY foreign agenda which they have committed to enacting.
The Treaty may have faults, it may be ambiguous, it may be confused and inconsistent and old-fashioned.
But somewhere there is a good bit which is clear, concise and absolutely unequivocal, which states in no uncertain terms, that what Seymour proposes to do, must not be done.
If he gets a chance, he will water it down so badly with his own version, that we will be left high and dry with nothing between us and dangerous foreign interference.
Do not let him rewrite anything, or ‘debate’ it. He doesn’t understand the meaning of ‘debate’.
What he means by debate is that he will tell us what is says and we will have to agree that he’s right.
That is dictatorial talk and he’s quite good at it.
I know this is off-topic but everything else that comes up is a smokescreen, red herrings, distractions, to make people lose sight of the main issue.
No-one in the govt. is well qualified to do any of their jobs. They need the public service to help them understand their jobs and guide them. Therefore, to carry out their rotten agenda, they need to remove those experienced and knowledgeable advisors. Gives them more freedom to make their underhanded decisions without question. No impact statements, no deep background knowledge. Just ignorant people making stupid decisions to disadvantage the population so badly they lose hope and can’t fight back.
Well we can’t read it if it’s covered in paint…
Can you read Maori yeti cause the true version is in te reo not English that is why it got the treatment as with our true history people just don’t want to hear the truth.
Goldsmith moon dancing around on this issue and pretending to think that we, the public, wouldn’t see him as a bullying creep, was appalling. If this is the “ high standards” to which Luxon purports hold his government, then Luxon is a liar, or deluded, or both, IMO.
What’s more,Goldsmith interfering with the curators and admin at Te Papa is blundering fool. He should stick to things which he knows about, if there are any.
Nanny state verus authoritarianism
Goldsmith is a very, very suspicious character.
Mohammed Khan. Yes. I used to consider him just inept and rather wet, but he’s looking dodgy.
A right old Clusterfuxon of a government.
A proper Government getting about doing things following 6 years of thumb twiddling.
Bahahahahahahaha!
Fabulous progress by Prime Minister Luxon leader of the Coalition.
Give us some examples that would encourage us to agree with you that this govt. is making like better for NZders.
Sorry, I meant ‘life’ not ‘like’.
Joy They’re thinking about not cancelling school lunches. They decided not to pull the ground out from under people with disabilities and their carers after all. The Luxon family are role models for night attire at no extra cost. Mrs Luxon only charges $110 for ladies to have afternoon tea with her. They’re doing something about speed limits on the open road, but I’m not sure what. They express regret about our best and brightest emigrating. They are sad about underpaying the NZ Police Force. They are very philanthropic towards their former colleagues and give them handy little jobs at very generous rates .They think that rents will come down, somehow, and they provide free advertising for purveyors of crayfish. The PM is learning te Reo to show that he’s something or other. To be cont.
The gangs are facing a tougher stance
That’s it? Cheaper smokes not doing it for you Trevor. What has actually happened to the gangs beyond the legal changes that started under the last government? I have heard words but I would hardly say the rubber has hit the road.
Spot on.
On the money Bob.
afaf, Bob is as far away from the truth as possible.
‘I think most New Zealanders’ (that I know, who move in ever decreasing circles towards the plughole – anti or clockwise?) will agree with me about what I think is right etc and it should be done. Most NZs don’t know what to think and when they do don’t expect to receive timely effect by politicians. I think what Paul Goldsmith thinks will be a matter of convenience and not of moral value or correct adherence to lawful or reasonable protocol – &&&&&&&& &&&
Greywarbler This guy is Minister of Culture etc, and he could be a menace if he tells people what to think. We mightn’t be the deepest thinkers, but Paul’s thought processes aren’t the most lucid either,
and this episode did have a tinge of bullying about it. That’s what I think…