Co-governance with Māori is preferable to Co-governance with Corporations (but 3 Waters is still a problem)

The Qanon level conspiracy theorists proclaiming Co-Governance is a secret plan to steal NZ for the Maaaaaaris would be hilarious if it weren’t so stupid.

When Elizabeth Rata coined the phrase ‘Ethno-Nationalist State‘ to describe attempts to share power with Māori as promised by the Treaty, every right winger wanting to be racist found glee in the shielding of their bigotry by the pretence of intellectualism.

What is most hilarious about Rata’s claims of Ethno-Nationalist State is that she is 100% right, it’s just that she’s right in a way she doesn’t want to admit to, which is NZ is an Ethno-Nationalist State, it’s just a White Ethno-Nationalist State.

Our systems of power and control are all white, our dominant culture is white, our benefitting from colonialism is white, our purposeful laws aimed at taking more Māori land were white, our confiscations are white, our dominant narrative is white.

So sure, NZ is an Ethno-Nationalist State, but for white people.

Any attempt to rebalance the damage caused by taking 90% of Māori land in less than a century and any attempt to live up to the promise of the Treaty must be denigrated and appallingly decried as apartheid.

The backbone of the economic success story that is NZ, is in stealing Māori land and NEVER paying the full price back alongside a low wage economy that exploits migrant workers.

Forget the Māori’s, what about NZs co-governance with the Greedy Banks, Greedy property speculators and Greedy low wage exploiters?

Māori Co-Governance is a symbolic gesture where as NZs co-governance with the Greedy Banks, Greedy property speculators and Greedy low wage exploiters is literal!

Why is it that Māori co-governance is supposedly so much more dangerous than the current co-governance with Greedy Banks, Greedy property speculators and Greedy low wage exploiters?

Why is it that the co-governance of NZ by the Greedy Banks, Greedy property speculators and Greedy low wage exploiters is somehow invisible and never debated while it’s attack Māori co-governance every single day of the week?

Agreed, there are serious issues with 3 Waters, the question politically is would any Iwi attempt to maximise the new powers they’ve gained under 3 Waters to cut deals with Chinese water interests instead of local interests because that would be seen by many Kiwis as treason.

Interestingly the preamble of 3 Waters is all about the obligation of the State to protect Iwi expressing their interest in water – which includes their ‘right’ to sell their interests to who they want.

If New Zealanders saw Iwi using 3 Waters to cut deals with Chinese Business interests, all hell is going to break loose politically.

This money generated by trade with China comes with so many fish hooks there’s more hook than fish.

In 2017, Infrastructure NZ led a delegation of 33 senior New Zealand public and private representatives to the UK. The purpose of the all expenses paid delegation was to investigate Scotland’s infrastructure innovations since devolution, especially their water system which ended up being the structural basis for 3 Waters.

Criticism of the financial structure of 3 Waters raises serious questions about the ease with which a failing water entity could be privatized.

Under the current 3 Waters legislation, the new water entities cannot be ‘bailed’ out by their council ‘owners’, and the entities are also empowered to sell assets if they can retain the capacity to exercise their duties functions and powers. The ‘owners’ can’t prevent this, nor can the Regional Representative Group or the appointment board.

Infrastructure NZ comprises of the China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Bank of China. These are the domestic pimps for China’s Belt and Road project so why are we allowing Chinese interests to influence our infrastructure?

The Pacific is the new friction point between America and China, NZ would be naive to believe we aren’t on the chessboard and only raises more questions about the need for neutrality.

 

 

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