Tim Selwyn – Land Back and Other Maori Nationalist wishes for Election 2026

Political parties are now daily announcing their 2026 election policies and it is difficult to keep up with the volume of activity. Below are some of the policies I would like to see enacted in the next parliament, that parties will probably not have thought of. I will be checking in to see how close parties are to the following list of irritants that need sorting out. Most of it will be familiar to readers of this column as a Maori nationalist agenda of decolonisation (plus some random kites that need flying).

AOTEAROA

I agree with Winston Peters broadly on his concern with the modern usages of the Aotearoa name. Aotearoa refers to the land and the native things on it – not to a political entity. This is why the naming on the banknotes are quite acceptable: one side says Aotearoa and features the land and native things on it, while the other side says RBNZ etc with people and things. It is because the difference is understood and honoured that it is tika. The free interposition of Aotearoa with NZ of late however is ignorant – and Winston has a good point. We should not be using Aotearoa when we mean the political entity, so previous governments and ministers, like Nanaia Mahuta when she was Foreign Minister, were wrong to keep referring to the New Zealand Government and state as Aotearoa. She didn’t understand what she was doing. She was using Aotearoa as if Maori had consented to everything being done – which is false: Maori were not consenting to all the things that New Zealand was doing. Maori never consented to her flushing the Treaty of Waitangi down the lavatory with the UK-NZ FTA for example. This was her squalid conceit – that she represented all Maori and could say things on behalf of Aotearoa. She never had that mana; and she was useless. We can only change the name of the country if Maori say so because Maori own the term Aotearoa – it wouldn’t make any sense to do so if the Maori electorates voted against it (Maori were overwhelmingly against a replacement flag in that referendum). Eventually we will have to grapple with the name change and the country codes if it is AA or AAA or ANZ etc.

CONSTITUTION

Constitutional Affairs portfolio – that’s the neutral term; the more loaded framing would be Minister of Constitutional Reform or Constitutional Development. Anything big would involve a referendum at the next General Election not just legislation.  A new Constitution Act and new G-G’s Letters Patent to specifically include Realm nations would be something to aim for in this term. Phil Twyford has signalled the Constitution Act may be reviewed, so Labour are contemplating an appetite for cleaning things up.

Let’s deal to the Commonwealth: CHOGM, Commonwealth citizenship, British Subject status and the Statute of Westminster 1931. The NZ Government to support a conference of the Westminster nations in 2030 to dissolve or reform the Statute part of the Commonwealth, which would need legislation from all. Commonwealth citizenship status should be abolished, it means nothing in most other Commonwealth nations. British Subject status should be like with the Anglo-Irish Treaty in that it may be retained if the person wants and will be the basis for sharing a form of citizenship between Realm countries. The Commonwealth now that Rwanda and whoever has joined is a farce. Having English as an official language is enough to qualify – the shared history and values are just non-existent. What is the point of it?

National emergencies of more than 10 days should result in a state emergency cabinet that includes the Leader of the Opposition plus others from the Opposition parties being sworn in as ordinary members of the Executive Council without portfolios. The warrants will last for the duration of the emergency being across the whole of the nation. The leaders sworn in become part of the collective responsibility for cabinet’s decisions. The Covid outbreak would have been under an emergency cabinet, however the Christchurch earthquake may have been designated a national emergency in 2011, but it was essentially regional so would not have required an emergency cabinet.

The Attorney-General be outside of cabinet. This is the situation in the UK. David Lange was A-G outside of cabinet after he stood down as PM. The role suits that arms-length from the cabinet table required to fulfil the duty they must discharge sometimes against the interests of the government that they are part of.

Ministers cannot ask questions in Question Time. The executive questioning itself is absurd and is against the very point of examining the executive. This practice of phoney questions from within the executive itself makes a mockery of accountability. I’ve never seen this in the UK or Australia. Matter for Standing Orders Committee.

Abolish multiple votes for Ratepayers in different local government areas by ending the ratepayer voter roll. This is a feudal landlord voting rort that should have ended with the last Labour Government, alas, most of them are landlords themselves and of course they will be taking advantage of it so they don’t want to look like hypocrites. That’s right: Labour was pointing this out during their last term but no one did anything about it which makes them look like hypocrites anyway.

CITIZENSHIP

MP’s and elected officials to be Citizens only of New Zealand and to have been NZ citizens for minimum 7 years, and renounced foreign citizenships for 1 year before taking office. Winston Peters eat your heart out you soft cock wannabe.

Citizens only to own land. Wah wah Australia and wah wah Singapore – they are the only two countries whose citizens will loose out, so wah wah for them. We would need to break a clause in the Singapore FTA to do this, so be it. Only British Subjects could own land – but they changed that because they were greedy and wanted to inflate property values and attract foreigners so now the housing and land situation is an international market. But won’t this tank house prices? Catastrophic! Won’t this dissuade immigration? Calamity! Wah wah wah – meanwhile… affordable housing and land prices for the citizenry.

Citizenship by grant is to be through legislation or a disallowable instrument so that parliament authorises it directly. This was the way naturalised British Subjects were granted in the Colony in former times – every name was public and could be queried. If someone on the list was a character issue anyone could nark them out. No Johnny Foreigner sneaking in under the radar anymore.

IMMIGRATION

Set a maximum annual intake of immigrants. Winston is saying put a number to a referendum – I’m not sure it needs that, and after all if 30% of the population is an immigrant then they might be able to defeat it.

Clean out Immigration NZ and stop the outright corruption that has happened in our faces for the last thirty years. Scam after scam after scam and everyone knows it’s a scam – it has corrupted the public service, the private sector and everyone. It’s degraded education at the senior levels certainly. It’s degraded the wages and conditions and job prospects of local workers – yes it has Lefty no ears, yes it has! Without immigration there is no colonisation – it stops dead. The sooner we stop immigration the sooner we can have a nation that isn’t divided into separate, competing, clashing communities while the national standards and values erode under the pressure or forced pluralism.

POLICE

Inquiry into the “Roastbusters” West Auckland teen rape gang and total clean-out of the IPCA. An inquiry into the Roastbusters would bring down West Auckland detectives, their adult children, and probably High Court Judge Simon Moore KC the former Auckland Crown Solicitor at the time too, so no one in the country wants to go there. Marama Davidson had six years as a Minister to prevent sexual abuse and she did nothing at all. No one in this country wants to know and it makes you all a pack of first-rate arseholes who say “shhhhh, forget it happened, don’t upset everyone, boys will be boys, this is our secret.” Davidson went to a Mongrel Mob convention, but what did she do about this? As the song goes: and the world turns. Every judge in charge of the IPCA has perpetrated wicked injustices so that no cop ever really gets punished and no victim ever really receives redress. Decades of getting away with it has resulted in the police force we have now: an executive leadership riddled with bad apples. Bad apples that are truncheon deep into 4k bestiality.  The Greens, from memory, argued to add the word Independent to Police Conduct/Complaints Authority in some hope it might turn out to be so, but this was another woolly-minded mistake because they are not at all independent of NZ Police and it was a nonsense deception to have misnamed it. I had cause to telephone the IPCA once and the former cop I spoke to was aggressive like a meth-head – the most unprofessional and disturbing conversation ever with a public servant by a mile. He was threatening. I’ve never dealt with any official before on the phone whose demeanour was threatening. Like he was sucking on a crack pipe as we were speaking because the paranoia was pure crystal meth. The IPCA looks like the bully arm of the police to shut the victims up. Read their insane reports of the most insane police bungles where people get killed and then see them wash it all away – it is sickening. Should the former IPCA chairs be executed in a revolution they must remember that had their own executioners been NZ Police they would have exonerated them. What do you call people who let people get away with murder? You call them the Chair of the IPCA. They deserve no respect for perverting the course of justice as they do, they are the white, dehydrated husk of a dog turd. The system is rotten and the IPCA must be staffed by professionals to have any credibility. I dislike that foreigners take official positions, but in this instance the best thing to achieve real independence is to have an outsider come in to head the IPCA and outsiders staff it too. The current government’s idea of an Inspector-General of NZ Police is something good internally if it is the right person, but it will not address the external issue of when they go and kill someone as they do.

TRANSPORT

Driver licencing driver practical test to be by way of two NZ citizens who have held a full licence for more than 10 years certifying the learner driver and being guarantor for 3 months. There is no need for driver testing instructors – it is another case of their hustle and your hassle. The two referees can attest to a JP they have attained a sufficient standard and issue a provisional licence on the spot, post the certificate and LTNZ can issue the full licence using the learner’s data. There is no need for these middle men/gate-keepers. National getting rid of the second test was a concession that it is an unnecessary and parasitical situation. Same thing with the rego’ – the system is designed to lapse quickly and be expensive and exhaustive to reregister which serves no one but the parasites clipping the ticket.

Let people ride a bicycle without a helmet. Within 3 years of introducing this Karen dork law the number of cyclists halved – it deters people from cycling. If cyclists are sticking to the cycle lanes and not being knob ends like they are in Auckland (by all accounts) then why do they need helmets? It was sold as being to survive a car strike or canning off on the road – so why do we need it if most journeys by bicycle are done in cycle lanes where there is little danger?

ANIMAL CONTROL

No Dog Licensing. People are entitled to kill dogs that stray onto their property. Dog licencing is a feudal hang-over that is nothing less than a pre-ransom. The actual rationale for it and how it is done is just a con. Does the microchip stop a dog barking or biting or straying? – no, it makes it easier for the ransom to be sent to the owner. Farmers who should be paying double for their dogs get it at half price – a total inequity.

MEDIA

A receiving device levy to fund broadcasting, with voting rights to the board. The hated TV licence fee was abolished by the Shipley government – the only good thing that motley menagerie ever did. However, the government of the day directly controlling the funding to broadcasting was the result. I recommend instead a levy be imposed on any device that can receive broadcasting or internet when it first enters the NZ market, ie. when imported, to be paid by the supplier/importer. The purchaser of the device is buying the device, eg. a smart phone, with the levy already paid. The levy – at say 5% of device value – would reap as much or more than the current NZ On Air funding. The purchaser would then lodge their receipt into the NZ Media Fund website and be enrolled to vote for the board for the next 7 years (the average device lifespan). The device owners – mobile phone users – would therefore be electing the board which pays out their levy. This accountability is a populist approach taking funding away from the politicians in parliament. Once again: go suck it, old man, eat your heart out – that’s democracy in action, Winston.

FTAs

Labelling IP protection for all Iwi names and Iwi geographic names. Everyone talks about Manuka honey getting FTA protections, but MFAT doesn’t show any interest in protecting the identity of the Maori. Remember “Maori” brand cigarettes from your favourite, genocidal, only democratic state in the Middle East  – would any of the FTA’s prevent that? – None that I’ve seen. The Mahindra Tuhoe coming to a showroom near you.

HOKI WHENUA MAI – LAND BACK

Maori Land to be protected by the guarantees of the Treaty – exclusive and undisturbed possession, meaning: no public works taking, no creation of user rights over the top etc. The blithe Pakeha response that Maori rights can be extinguished as long as reparation (“proper compensation” according to Doug Graham) is paid is a pernicious fiction. Without consent there is no right to take at all. There can be no overwhelming “public” necessity that can abrogate the Treaty protection – none. All the court rulings on this merely parrot the same self-serving settler mumbo jumbo of their greed and money being able to shit over Maori and the Treaty. Customary rights cannot be extinguished except by the voluntary consent of the rights holder. Legislation or the judiciary cannot extinguish them. Enforce the Treaty!

Maori fisheries to be protected by the guarantees of the Treaty – exclusive and undisturbed possession. Repeal the paternalistic customary fisheries legislation that says you need a chit to go fishing and only if it is something at the marae. Kupapa hoha. Recognise Hapu-appointed kaitiaki.

Restore native title recognition of the waterways as default not Crown (Coal Mines Amendment Act 1904 etc.)

Crown to buy back confiscated land from General Land owners in the rohe of each tribe with the same amount in total that the tribe settled for. For example, Ngati Awa in 2005 for $42m, so all the confiscated land within Ngati Awa’s rohe will have to be bought back by the NZ Government for a total of $42m. The current value would be billions, but it is only worth what the NZ Government is legally able to pay in compensation for the cancellation of title. Unfortunate, but that is reciprocity, that is fairness, that is equity, that is equality. The NZ Government valued the loss of that land at $42m, so the valuation of the loss to the General Land holder will also be $42m. This is a long term policy to implement because the basis for the white man’s dominance will not be wrestled off him quickly.

Confiscated land and any other land the Waitangi Tribunal has judged to be wrongly acquired will be subject to a freeze on all transfers of General Land and any change of status of Crown lands.

Every Hapu will operate a Lands Trust to be recognised by Maori Land Court (MLC) – already provisions for this in the Ture Whenua Act 1993. These Hapu land trusts will receive the land that has been returned by default – rather than given to Iwi entities as of right as if it were from a settlement. Some overlap areas may require an Iwi entity. A determination of ownership can then take place by the MLC if there was a Hapu decision to divide the land into whanau ownership.

Maori Customary Land is the proper status to be obtained at the end of any transfer process. Once the situation is normalised, the MLC has a record of the title and the owners are identified the block can be removed. Having the customary land being excluded from the Land District it was in would be a further step in ensuring it cannot be given a title in the land transfer system at all – a fundamental protection taking it outside the jurisdiction of the survey.

Empower the owners of Maori customary land to protect it themselves by ending the disability of trespass on Maori Customary Land. For over a century the legislation has been that if Maori wanted to trespass someone from customary land they needed the Maori trustee (now called Te Tumu Paeroa) to do it for them, but having Hapu land trusts recognised would mean there is no need for Te Tumu Paeroa to be involved.

All land to default to Maori Customary Land if not of a defined status.

The MLC to have a registry for each Iwi rohe. The shenanigans of the court where people can put things into a court in one area that is for a block in another is a typical trick by sly applicants wanting to avoid having a hearing locally. Having things done in the wrong court fixture is messy and it makes things difficult to find and the court should reject these applications, but they don’t and it is a major problem. A separate registry for each Iwi rohe would mean all records for the land in that rohe are held in that rohe under one minute book and no one can avoid a local hearing.

The MLC to only accept sketch maps that are on top of a survey map. The acceptance by the court of completely inadequate freehand drawings by complete amateurs on random pieces of paper must stop. The inaccuracies and differences with the map and the written description leads to all sorts of downstream problems and it is largely avoidable if only their drawings were on top of the actual survey map of the block so there is no doubt about boundaries etc. So simple, and yet they don’t care – a really third class system that speaks to the complacency and low standards for Maori that non-Maori would not tolerate. The amateurism in that court is amazing.

Stop alienation of Maori Land. The so-called safeguards to stop Maori land being alienated is a widespread misconception – it’s not true. I’ve been in court and seen Maori Freehold Land at Te Kaha turned into General Land because two guys claimed they needed the money and one of the sections on this block had been turned into General Land earlier, so the judge just waved it through – I couldn’t believe it! The safeguards are bullshit and people who say otherwise aren’t living in the real world. The right of first refusal should go all the way down to the Hapu land trust so they get a chance to have it before it goes to General. Or ban it’s transfer totally is the obvious end point on this. Let’s be real: people selling off the land are disinheriting their own descendants, inviting in people who have no interest, and ripping everyone else off who can whakapapa to that land. Anyone who sells is a scab, scum, a kupapa. In the old days we would have executed them as the traitors they are. The least we could do now is chop their hands off and chop off the hand of the judge who signed that order – chop-chop! Chop-chop!

For all rating purposes Maori Freehold Land to have a land value at zero, or at a standard nominal rate, eg. the original standard 20 shillings ($2) per acre. The improved value, ie. the capital value, will still apply. This will affect most local authorities except those using the rental value method to assess.

All Settlement legislation and other legislation to be uniform to the highest degree. The national settlements will give all Iwi the same as the highest level of a settled Iwi in each clause. For example: other tribes will be eligible to have Crown land returned in the way Tuhoe got the Urewera National Park decommissioned.