Fast Track Approvals Bill & Racism
Martin Luther King made the famous statement:-
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
By and large for many years New Zealand was this type of nation where universal suffrage had given the right to vote to all citizens regardless of gender, colour or creed.
New Zealand since the passing of universal suffrage, back in 1893 when women were first given the vote, has been a democratically run country where every person has the right to vote and all votes have been counted as equal.
Unfortunately under the previous Labour government of Jacinda Ardern that system of democracy was split asunder and we are now in a situation where votes are given preference on the basis of race.
In 1981 we saw riots on the streets of New Zealand in protest at the Springbok rugby teams touring of New Zealand to play against the All Blacks. This was in opposition to the ruling Apartheid system of governance in South Africa and in 2021 we celebrated the forty year anniversary of the defeat of Apartheid in that country.
The coalition government made many promises from the constituent parties, (both before and after the election) that they would make every effort to eliminate racial preferences from government decision making, in a commitment to equal citizenship under New Zealand’s democratic system of government.
Yet we now see them intent on installing the same (race based) system of governance here in New Zealand that we fought so hard against, with the inclusion in the Fast Track Approvals Bill, of guaranteed appointments on the evaluation panels solely based on ethnicity.
When approving any projects under this Fast-track Approvals Bill it states that Ministers must be mindful of the property rights of those who could be affected by the new project.
The Fast-track Approvals Bill in principle tries in this way, to ensure that property rights are respected but in actual fact the Bill gives a much greater priority to the rights of Iwi than to the rights of other New Zealanders.
This principle should apply equally to all New Zealanders, whatever their ethnicity, but in its current format as drafted, the Bill fails to acknowledge the fundamental democratic principle of equality.
“Iwi” are mentioned many times in the Bill and the proposed four-person evaluation panels are designed to include one person nominated by the relevant local authority and one person nominated by the relevant Iwi.
This design for the evaluation panels will result in giving Maori an equivalent voice to the local authorities. Given that Maori make up only approximately 13% of the voting population of New Zealand (according to the latest NZ census) this gives them a much greater influence over the outcomes from any fast track applications above other ethnicities in New Zealand.
The proposal to have a mandatory position on the evaluation panels, solely based on ethnicity is nothing more than apartheid dressed up in a different disguise.
Their justification for introducing this into the Bill is that there is some type of partnership requirement under the Treaty of Waitangi that requires a system of co-governance to be implemented.
The problem with that acceptance is simply that there is no mention anywhere in the Treaty documents of a partnership or of any co-governance requirements.
The Treaty of Waitangi only has three articles and nowhere in those articles does it mention either Partnership or Co-Governance as you can see in the copy below;
This is the Littlewood draft, which is the final draft from which the Maori version was made.
Article one: “The chiefs of the confederation of united tribes, and the other chiefs who have not joined the confederation, cede to the Queen of England forever the entire sovereignty of their country.”
Article two: “The Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and the tribes and to all the people of New Zealand, the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property. But the chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes and the other chiefs grant to the Queen, the exclusive rights of purchasing such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to sell at such prices as may be agreed upon between them and the person appointed by the Queen to purchase from them.”
Article three: “In return for the cession of their sovereignty to the Queen, the people of New Zealand shall be protected by the Queen of England and the rights and privileges of British subjects will be granted to them.”
Any claim of a Co-Governance Partnership between the Crown and Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi is nothing more than a Lie; a dangerous, divisive attempt to gain advantage based on race, which will end in the destruction of democracy in New Zealand.
Given the level of opposition to the previous Labour governments race based policies and legislative changes it is obvious that the current coalition government has no mandate for inclusion in this Bill of mandatory appointments based on ethnicity.
There should be no mandatory appointments made under this Bill that are based solely on ethnicity.
Democracy will only prevail if we oppose moves towards legislated co-governance and policies based solely on ethnicity.