The Political year opens at Rātana with the Government gutting the Waitangi Tribunal and stacking it with redneck haters…
Minister overhauls Waitangi Tribunal membership
- Tama Potaka is replacing half of the Waitangi Tribunal’s members, including senior academics.
- Former blogger Philip Crump and former Defence Minister Ron Mark are among new appointments to Waitangi Tribunal.
- These changes are just the start for the Tribunal. The Government is promising to “refocus” its scope and purpose.
…totally coward move by Minister Potaka to gut the Waitangi Tribunal and releasing that late Friday afternoon.
Appointing Mad Dog Prebs was a slap in the face, but appointing a far right hate blogger like Philip Crumb who is from the ZB Troll farm highlights the hollow arseholes National are stacking every board with.
To place such hateful rednecks onto offical boards is like appointing arsonists to the fire department.
Luxon has agreed to appear at Rātana and can expect an enormous amount of criticism as to why he has even allowed the Treaty Principles Bill to have advanced while pushing through a referendum on existing Local Council Māori representation.
Watch for relationships between NZF and Labour at Rātana this year as friction builds between the Māori Party activists and Labour leadership.
Labour need to reforge their links with Māoridom if they wish to harness the momentum of the Hikoi while avoiding the radicalism of Māori Party.
The Rātana movement entered politics in 1923 helped seal gains for Māori and Pakeha with Michael Savage in 1936.
Savage was gifted a potato, a broken gold watch, a pounamu hei-tiki, and a huia feather as symbols of the new alliance.
The potato represented loss of Māori land and means of sustenance, the broken watch represented the broken promises of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the pounamu represented the mana of the Māori people, if Savage was able to restore those 3, he would earn the right to wear the huia feather.
It is time for Labour to earn the right to wear that feather.
What was fascinating about the Māori electorates this election was how tactical Māori voters were, once again proving why they are one of the smartest tactical voters each and every election.
Overwhelmingly Māori in the Māori electorates voted Labour Party vote and Māori Patry candidate vote and this has generated the focus on the power of the MMP Overhang the Māori Electorates generate.
The Labour Party and Māori Party could strategically work together and push a tactical voting plan that calls for voters in the Māori electorate to all give their candidate vote to the Māori Party candidate and their Party vote to Labour.
This would end up creating up to 7 overhang seats in the Parliament which would cement an enormous block that could (with support from the Greens) become an unbeatable tactic that would ensure victory.
If this new alliance could demand better material conditions for those on the socio-economic bottom, working class aspirations and Māori aspirations could combine to finally deliver the promise to Rātana made in 1936.
If Labour want to wear that huia feather, they must rethink their MMP tactics and strategy.
This hard right racist Government used Māori as a political punching bag and exploited post Covid grievance to cobble together a Government bound in their desire to hurt beneficiaries, workers, renters, the environment AND Māori!
We need a common ground policy platform that sees the State alleviate living costs rather than punish those the ruling Government’s supporters despise.
There is far more that binds us in this land and a Left wing Government knitted together at with a bi-cultural heart will be what is urgently required after the spite this new hard right racist Government is generating.
My fear is that egos rather than the people are becoming the main stumbling blocks to see that type of strategy or unity between Labour and the Māori Party.
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Martyn – The Waitangi Tribunal leadership has no one to blame but itself for this…They, the tribunal, moved away from researching possible breaches of the Treaty and providing advice to the Crown, to supporting legal cases against the Crown.
Most Maori don’t vote and there are many reasons but hopefully with the Hikoi to parliament last year will hopefully gives impetus to changing their stance
Maybe if we cut the seven Maori seats you would soon see how many Maori do vote and the change it would make in the general electorates like King Country which has been blue for ever .If the massive Maori population were voting there instead of voting in the maori seat it would never be safe again and the blues would have one less safe seat where the local MP can bludge because she only has to turn up on election day and clip the ticket for another 3 years
May I proffer a history example I learnt yesterday? I think it is relevant to our situation today.
French settlers in Eastern Canada( Arcadia)made a treaty with the British Crown that guaranteed their existing rights. The British Crown annexed Arcadia. It became Nova Scotia and the French there were described as ‘Neutral French’.
For forty seven years the ‘Arcadians’were unmolested.
THEN RADICAL NATIONALISTS IN THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT INSISTED THE TREATY BE REVISED! They used propaganda and racist rhetoric to whip up hatred about the “Neutral French’ who they insisted intended rebellion and invasion of the British Colonies( not actually, of course, producing any real evidence).
To cut a long story short this revision of an already existing and long observed treaty ended in the deportation of 14,000 people and the confiscation of their land, houses, buildings and livestock.
This made the land available for British settlement.
The Arcadians believed their treaty with the British crown would protect them.
I suggest this shows that leopards do not change their spots and Tory bastards remain Tory bastards even when they change the party name to ACT in a different location.
Yes
‘Most Maori don’t vote’ Evidence?
I am enough Maori to vote on the Maori roll if I wished to. I do not so I vote as a Pakeha.
Surely there must be other people like me and when are we Maori or non-Maori? Are we only Maori when we vote for a Maori Member of Parliament?
I agree more Maori should vote but so should more of everyone vote.
Genuine question – what counts as ‘enough Maori’? And how do you prove that – is there a test?
‘Most Maori don’t vote’ Evidence?
You need evidence Stevie, just look at the last 5-7 elections and the breakdown of voters. (Amount of maori in NZ Vs how many voted)
OR, the amount of maori on electoral roll Vs how many votes were cast in maori seats.
It’s not hard, go do it yourself….
I would say many Maori may not vote, not most as you stated stevie but it’s your choice if you want to vote on the general role as a Pakeha. Stevie you sound like you have an issue as people can vote for who they like but we are not the majority in NZ so we rely on the good will of our Pakeha whanau and the rest of NZers to vote for what is best for our country. At the moment we are in a recession, so you get what you voted for.
Just an observable fact got any evidence to prove I’m wrong paaaart maaari?
Ratana and Waitangi are in danger of cancelling themselves.
???