WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Government quietly strangles off Treaty references
The Government’s desire to quietly strangle off Treaty references is a realisation on behalf of NZF and National that Māori bashing may have met its political ceiling.
This Government have excelled in using Māori as a political punching bag for their reactionary angry white voters, but as the Government meltdown in the polling begins, I think there is a quiet realization that bashing Māori won’t gain them any extra votes and could in fact spark the kind of resistance we saw during the Treaty Principles Referendum.
The Government are hiding their review of 23 pieces of legislation to erase the Treaty from legislation and they are keeping the latest reviews as quiet as possible because appealing to their reactionary angry white voter base won’t help them win the election as the tide changes from sheer demographics.
35% of Māori voted for National, ACT and NZF at the last election, they wouldn’t have known just how extreme the policy position against Māori was and I suspect many of those Māori voters have marched away from ACT, National and NZF.
The future is younger and brown, this Government’s anti-Treaty and anti-Māori agenda has a fixed shelf life before it turns against them.
At the beginning of their term the Political Right roared and celebrated their attacks on the Treaty, now they are quiet frightened field mice desperately hiding it.
