The Darkest Day in NZ Democracy: Winners, Losers and Conclusions
The NZ Government voted to pass unprecedented punishment against 3 Opposition Māori MPs last week in what was the darkest day in NZ Democracy.
The 7 day stand down double punishment handed out to Hana (she had already been punished) and the 3 weeks to Debbie and Rawiri will be damned by history as blatant racism masquerading as Westminster principle.
The speeches were extraordinary and highlighted the insanity of what was being debated.
Labour, Greens and Māori MPs spoke with passion, anger and deep sadness at the total abdication of responsibility Luxon has caused here.
The ACT, National and NZF MPs who spoke disgraced themselves with their vile putrid pettiness. They should forever be held in contempt for their comments.
Winston said the most racist thing he has ever uttered in his entire career and I genuinely wonder how much damage he will cause Māori supporters of NZF.
National, NZF + ACT figuratively lynched the Māori Party and we are a far uglier place for it
WINNERS:
Judith Collins – Judith Collins is a hate politician who manifested a spite judgment against opposition politicians.
Her entire vibe has been, ‘respect my authority’, and rather than bring a judgment that was reasonable, she instead opted for revenge.
Her dirty politics record is far worse than the supposed crimes of the Māori MPs.
Allowing Judith Collins to rule on ethics is like a panel of leapers judging a beauty competition.
She brought a ridiculous punishment that had no fairness in it whatsoever, it was her revenge fantasy and she was able to do it while pretending to are about due process.
Māori Party – Their martyrdom for the cause has ignited a radicalism within Māoridom that Cracker should be getting nervous about. Where the real power of this moment and this cruel disproportionate punishment by the smug right will erupt from is the Māori none-vote which is the deep well that the Maori Party are drawing from.
70% of Māori are under the age of 40, they have grown within kaupapa education and they know their history and they won’t be treated like second class citizens in their own country any longer.
The none-vote in NZ is mostly young and brown, they are activated in ways we’ve never seen before, this punishment just pushed the Māori Party to 7%.
Willie Jackson – Gave the best speech of the night.
Thanked the Maori Party for standing up against the Treaty Referendum Bill, while also asking them to reflect on the tikanga of Parliament and asking them to focus on working together rather than attack everything.
He quips if Hana had said the C word she would already be in prison!
Jackson is Labour’s greatest asset, he has the ability to reach out the white working class with a message off solidarity and working together.
The radicalism of the Maori Party can be frightening to some pakeha, but Jackson, whose entire career has been built in the Union movement, always saw class above identity and he is the bridge not only to the Maori Party but also to the Labour working classes.
He remains one of their greatest orators.
Chris Hipkins – Chris Hipkins gave one of the best speeches of his career yesterday as he eviscerated the Government’s decision to punish the 3 Maori Party MPs with the most extreme punishment ever meted out in NZ political history.
Chippy articulated that if we were to banish 3 opposition MPs from Parliament, we were at risk of doing terrible damage to our Democracy because banning Opposition MPs from Parliament is the sort of thing Banana Republics do!
Banning indigenous Politicians during the Budget or the Regulatory Standards Bill would be an egregious act that would permanently bruise our collective mana.
Chippy’s argument was so powerful, it saw the Government freak out and suspend the vote.
He is showing values that Luxon is exposed as not having.
LOSERS:
Winston Peters – Jesus wept, Winston’s insult towards Rawiri in Parliament during the debate on the Māori Party MP punishment was the most racist thing I’ve ever heard him say in Parliament:
“The Maori Party are a bunch of extremists. The one in the cowboy hat.. The one with the scribbles on his face..’
WTF?
“The one with the scribbles on his face” that’s a direct quote, he said it and the term was so racist and offensive the Speaker forced Winston to stand and withdraw but sweet Jesus, “The one with the scribbles on his face”?
Even for cross burning, redneck, dog whistling Winston, “The one with the scribbles on his face”, is jaw dropping!
I’m not sure the conservative Māori electorate he likes to appeal to will look at those words with any pride.
“The one with the scribbles on his face”?
If any whjiote person had said something so racist, they would face an immediate demand to stand down, Winston plays his favourite game of being the Māori basher that old white Volk love and he gets away with it.
“The one with the scribbles on his face”?
Even for Winston this is a new low.
To mock his own people that way?
Wow.
Just, wow.
I thought the anti-vax, climate denial, anti-trans malaise was bad enough, but “The one with the scribbles on his face”?
Wow.
Māori voters who support Winston have to take a long hard look in the mirror.
“The one with the scribbles on his face”?
That’s on Māori who vote NZF.
Chris Luxon – You know who is really to blame for the Māori MP banishment fiasco?
Luxon.
Luxon because he has shown no comprehension what he is allowing to manifest by letting the Treaty Principles Referendum advance as far as it did, and then once he got tricked, he refused to show any leadership. He could have easily reached across the aisle and agreed on a proportional punishment for the Māori Party MPs, but refused to.
He is a coward and a bully.
We deserve a better Prime Minister than this.
ACT Party – The Champions of free Speech ACT Party all stood to make the most vile of points in the debate for the Māori Party MP punishment. David wasn’t there because he was too busy losing the Oxford debate. Their sudden drop in the Polls highlights they’ve pushed their luck on the culture war front.
Let’s not forget, this Haka happened because of the deeply racist Treaty Referendum Bill their Party brought to Parliament, that’s why there was so much righteous fury!
They brought a racist bill to the very heart of NZ Democracy and then wanted to whine about why they were getting so much heat for it.
It’s like an arsonist demanding to know why you are so upset with the fire they lit.
Casey Costello – How dare she pretend to claim Parliament is sovereign and that she is here for that sovereignty when she is a paid pimp for the Tobacco industry! Her loyalty is to Tobacco, it sure as Christ isn’t about her loyalty to the Crown!
Nicole McKee – Listening to McGee complain about process when she is trying to ram gun change through would be laughable if she wasn’t so dangerous. Listening to McKee complaining about finger guns when she is trying to deregulate real guns is a fucking joke.
Parmjeet Parmar – Had the audacity to play multiculturalism to justify why she wanted to imprison Māori MPs. She then claims the race card by claiming the race card is being played.
Privileges Committee – By weaponising the Privileges Committee and breaking the bipartisan compact, National, ACT and NZF have turned the Privileges Committee into a weapon for political revenge.
Karen Chhour’s Karen Tears – She cried Karen tears and begged why everyone can’t work together, while then calling for the most extreme punishment ever handed out.
CONCLUSION:
The real c word in Parliament is Colonialism!
Hana, Debbie and Ra-wiri were handed an outrageously severe punishment for having the temerity of performing a haka in Parliament.
Now.
Everyone must feel safe and secure in Parliament, no one is disputing that.
But the context here matters eh?
The Political Right brought a deplorable race baiting piece of legislation to the very halls of our Debating Chamber in an outright declaration of war upon the Treaty.
Every Māori in that chamber had an obligation to Haka against this deplorable scumbaggery!
Remember, it only happened because David Seymour played Chris Luxon like a fiddling fiddler on fiddling day!
If you don’t want angry hakas in Parliament, don’t do things that provoke angry hakas in Parliament then!
That Hana, Debbie and Rawiri have faced the harshest punishment in NZ Political history for performing resistance to a deeply corrosive and malicious bill is an audacity too far.
Over a Billion people watched the power and majesty of that Haka.
History is watching and it’s a very white settler privilege from the Privileges Committee that history is seeing.
National, NZF + ACT figuratively lynched the Māori Party.
This is NZ Democracy’s darkest day.
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The TPM chose to be disruptive and then refused to attend the inquiry so now they have to face the consequences. It will enhance their standing to some Maori but will turn off many swing voters from going for Labour who may need them as a coalition partner.
Yes Martyn, it is indeed our CoC/country’s darkest day and so over the top that the world will be laughing at us. Thx Jackson & Hipkins for your input. I am disgusted to the core with the attitudes of many in NZ to Maori and sad to boot. Who said white people are superior – was Jesus white? I am descended from settler stock – my g/g/gf arrived as a Fencible to fight Maori and while I believe he was a decent man, it will never sit well with me! At the end of his service he committed suicide so what does that tell you? Decent folk recognise the right everyone has to be treated fairly in the country in which they were born. I also attended schools where Maori and Pakeha mixed together with none of this nasty BS. So if you were not born here, then keep your racist comments to yourself; it’s nothing to do with you, e.g. Indians ‘not born here’, go back and sort the horrible racism in your own country and show some respect for our indigenous people. And the ugly, self-entitled Kiwis – you need to show respect too – most of you originally came here as migrants. Haven’t you already horribly ripped off our Maori? They now only own 6% of land in NZ – so much has been illegally taken it’s disgraceful – so back off!
The Maori economy is $ 126 billion so whike some are protesting and saying how poor they are others are doing well. I
Spoken like a true Pomme living in our country.
Perhaps Trevor thats why the COC is so anti Maori. Their business is doing well. Compared to Fonterra, Fletchers etc they are proving to be far better business managers.
How ever as we well know the trickle down effect is a fantasy and Maori in general have far more years of disadvantage to overcome than white New Zealanders, hence the need for government to spend on their health and education and housing to enable those disadvantages to be overcome.
Nothing will be achieved other than more state dependancy with the COC running the show. They are even showing callous disregard for all those middle to lower income amongst us regardless of ethnicity.
You keep introducing irrelevant facts to the discussion, the tribes have grown the pittance of a treaty settlement that they were given and you imply that they can look after their own, I have never seen you apply the same logic to the mostly European/US corporate sector that is worth trillions yet they keep getting tax cuts instead of paying a fair share to support society, in particular health and education.
The Maori economy should be 100 times that.
Thanks to the 94% land theft they aren’t.
Though out history land has been conquered and taken by tribes fighting each other or a nation that has invaded with a better army. It happened to England many times upmto 1066.
The invaders marry the localx and a new normal is created. If the English had not come other European countries would and history shows they were tougher on the locals than the English were. That said the Maori were hard done by and it is good moves have been taken to rectify the situation in some small way allowing Maori to regain some of their mana over the land
‘The invaders marry the local and a new normal is created.’
Yes that worked so well in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Typical arrogant English bullshit!