WAATEA NEWS COLUMN: Māori Party will be punished for offending white settler privilege
One would have thought that with the voting down of the extremely controversial Treaty Referendum Bill that Parliament would be focused on repairing that damage.
One would be wrong.
The Priviledges Committee is promising fierce retribution against the Māori Party and their righteous Haka, not because it was a threat to Parliament, but because the Māori Party and other Māori Politicians had the temerity of embarrassing and offending white settler privilege.
That mighty haka was seen over a billion times globally, and when you expose the sins of the system to that level of uncompromising scrutiny, you get punished for shaming that system.
The Treaty Referendum Bill was the most protested against piece of legislation in NZ history.
300 000 submissions, 90% of them against plus an over 80 000 strong Hikoi onto Parliament all highlighted the immense disgust, contempt and total repudiation of everything the Bill stood for, and in such an incredible moment, the Haka in Parliament should have been accepted as the price of democracy.
Instead, those who have been shamed by what they attempted to do to the Indigenous culture are instead lashing out and attempting to punish.
The State hates being shamed, so expect no justice, only white settler privilege at the Privileges Committee.
Whether they like it or not, it was excellent t.v. drama! A brilliant opportunity to feature some of the country’s top scenic tourist destinations, captivating audiences worldwide with a skilfully woven script of political intrigue, cultural thrills, police chases, kiwiana etc. etc. in a twelve part series.
Ah the Westminster System!
With Party whips!
With Public schoolboy canes!
In those days when only the right sort of bowler hatted people(white, wealthy and male) used the ‘House of Representatives’ to increase their private wealth.
When ‘ten pound poms’ hear the word ‘ Westminster’ there is an immediate tugging of forelocks and bowing of heads( in their nostalgia totally overlooking that those of ‘Westminster’ only use cheap pommy immigrants to wipe their arses with).
Only members of the British Royalty produce a similar reaction.
Newsflash, this is Aotearoa, not Westminster.
Ka whawhai Tonu Matou
ake! ake! ake!
I look forward to the day when someone performs whakapohane to the coalition.
Maori bludgers
Ah yes but we should be gearing about the privilege committee judgement in racist and aggressive comments from NZ First leadership alongside this case. Presumably they also would be in breach of the wonderful Westminster rules. The House being bound by “Westminster” rules indicates a bias in itself.
Glaciers melt, sea levels rise, nations go to war, the world economy is threatened and New Zealand Parliamentarians devote time and energy to storms in teacups.
Exactly how many people are injured by a haka performed in parliament?
Just sometimes I wish we had a parliament like Taiwan.
MB – I absolutely agree with you, yet Winston and Shane Jones get away with racist comments without so much as a blink from the speaker.