WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Government quietly strangles off Treaty references
The Government’s anti-Treaty agenda may have hit its political limit. After months of weaponising Treaty references and Māori issues for culture war votes, the coalition now appears to be quietly backing away as polling softens and resistance grows.
The Government’s desire to quietly strangle off Te Tiriti references is a realisation on behalf of NZ First and National that Māori bashing may have met its political ceiling.
This Government has 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 realisation 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.
Has the anti-Treaty backlash reached its ceiling?
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.
The future is younger, browner, and less forgiving
35% of Māori voted for National, ACT and NZ First 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 NZ First.
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.
The 23 examples so far of the strangling of Treaty references is not just a govt desire but a “racist obsession” being followed by our evil, corrupt CoC who have no moral fortitude. Who is pushing this and who are they trying to appease – it doesn’t make sense. But then nothing this sneaky lot do makes sense. You just have to listen to struggling PM, Luxon, to see that. Most of these Treaty Rights have no material value for Maori. They were there as a mark of respect for the Treaty signed by Maori and the Crown 6/2/1840 [Maori ver as English ver has not been translated correctly]! Shame on this govt for this ugly, unnecessary behaviour. Hope it backfires on you – in fact it has already started to!