Partnership – Dream
Yes it seems to be a dream of many of the so-called IWI elite to have it recognised that the Treaty of Waitangi created a partnership between the Crown and Maori.
But unfortunately for them it is nothing more than a bad dream or to put it another way a nightmare!
The Treaty itself has only three articles and nowhere in any of them does it mention a partnership. It is simply a contract signed by many that ceded sovereignty over New Zealand to the Crown and in return the Crown guaranteed that all citizens would be granted the the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property with the Crown being given the exclusive rights to purchase when the owners decided to sell. It also granted that the people of New Zealand shall have all the rights and privileges of British subjects granted to them.
So when Sir John Key got up and spoke at the National Party conference last weekend he was wrong in fact and was guilty of leading the party astray with his claims of a partnership with Maori.
A claim of 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.
To make the claim that it is racist to oppose the implementation of policy that enshrines rights by way of a person’s ethnicity is just wrong and if it was not wrong then I should definitely be called racist as I firmly believe that we should all have the same rights irrespective of ethnicity.
Key made the statement that “we are all New Zealanders and that everybody wants to live in a place where we can respect one another, get along well and foster a better New Zealand”.
But in fact that will not and cannot happen whilst there is a section of the population which is claiming superior rights based solely on their ethnicity and an erroneous belief that they are indigenous to New Zealand.
Maori by their own historical claims sailed to New Zealand from Hawai´iki which just makes them immigrants the same as the other races that have migrated to these shores since that time, certainly not indigenous.
He stated that “You should always treat race issues carefully because, in the end, we all want to live in a harmonious society. Māori are the indigenous population of New Zealand and Treaty partners, so you have to treat them with respect and care”.
Giving in to special interests is not a sign of respect or caring.
We should all share a vision of New Zealand where everyone is equal and where no one is given special rights based on their ancestry or skin colour.
If we respect the value of all New Zealanders, we must discuss any moves to weaken our democracy.
The electorate in 2023 voted for change and currently they are not getting that change. In fact if we look at the current government’s actions we can see that instead of change we are actually getting more of the same race based legislation that the electorate voted against.
An example of this being the Treaty Principles Bill being promoted by the Act Party which the Prime Minister has said he will not support past the first reading in parliament.
At the nationwide Hui held at Turangawaewae Marae in January 2024, there was much discussion around the leaking of a so-called advice paper from an un-named official in the Justice Ministry which claimed to supposedly warn that the proposed Treaty Principles Bill was “highly contentious”, failed to consult with Maori, and would will likely breach relevant international standards and obligations.
All of this advice for a Bill that did not exist at that time and; which the possible content of hadn’t even been debated by Cabinet.
There is no mention anywhere in the Treaty of Waitangi, of “Principles”.
Parliament made the decision to include in the 1975 Treaty of Waitangi Act legislation, the word ‘principles’.
In that legislation, ‘principles’ referred directly to the meaning, value, and purpose of the Articles in the Treaty of Waitangi. The word ‘principles’ was tied to the Articles. It had no referent outside those Articles.
Parliament did not provide a meaning of the term “Principles” in that Act, and such vacancy of meaning, opened up opportunities for those with vested interests to insert their own meaning.
In inventing and consolidating their version of “Principles”, advocates for a partnership-based co-governance structure have used traditional ideology to provide an almost spiritually authorised quality to their interpretation of the term.
The inclusion of the term “Principles” into legislation without knowing or describing what it meant was an unprecedented failure on the part of our political representatives of that time.
The coalition government was voted into power by the electorate on the basis that the voters wanted a change in direction from the race based decision making that had been the basis of the Labour government’s regulatory changes and it would do well to remember that fact.
Act had as a major part of their election manifesto promised to have a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi Principles, yet many opponents including most of the mainstream media are saying that they believe it will not get past the first reading at the select committee.
A Curia poll held in October 2023 showed 45 per cent support for holding a referendum yet there has been little commentary in favour of this proposal.
The fact that there is no partnership requirements contained in the Treaty still does not mean that we shouldn’t work together in a co-management role as has happened in the past. And in actual fact work together in good faith to achieve the same desired results for all.
What it does mean is that we should jealously protect our democratic systems of governance for the equal benefit of all New Zealand citizens from the approximately 190 different ethnic groups that make up our population.
Taking the above into account and given the recent history of New Zealand (post the 1975 Treaty of Waitangi legislation) and the ill-informed interpretations of the Treaty document, it is definitely time we held a referendum to identify the meaning of the term “Principles” as it applies to the Treaty of Waitangi legislation.
Key also talked at some length about the position of the National party in political polls. The latest Roy Morgan political poll for July 2024, released after the National Party conference, showed support for National had dropped 2.5% points to 32.5% - their lowest level of support since last year’s New Zealand election, but support for ACT was up 2% points to 11% and support for NZ First increased 1% point to 6.5%.
The National party has set a goal of climbing back to the mid-40s in the polls, after sticking at about 38% since the election.
Key said he was confident that was doable. “And I think the government and the Prime Minister is giving the party the best chance we can to get those bigger numbers by demonstrating they’ve got a plan, they can execute the plan and they’re focused.”
Given the results of the latest Roy Morgan poll which were released after the conference, showed that National had suffered a drop to 32.5% I believe that he is wrong when he says that it is doable.
I do not think that he is reading the attitude of the nation’s voters correctly, and in fact if the current coalition government led by National don’t start to make some changes in the race based legislative mess left behind by the last Labour government then I believe that National will not see any rise in support and in fact will start to see a very serious decrease in the levels of support from the electorate.
An example of the feelings out in the electorate may be seen in the result of the latest Kaipara District Council meeting where the council voted to disestablish its Maori ward.
In his closing speech, the Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson said the idea of a Maori ward was condescending to Maori.
"If you are the best candidate, no matter who your ancestors are, you will be elected. This is well-proven in the history of our nation's local and central government.
"To name a few, Mayor [Tania] Tapsell in Rotorua, Mayor [Tory] Whanau in Wellington and Moko Tepania in the Far North District Council - all Maori mayors. We have famous politicians - Winston Peters, Shane Jones and David Seymour - as leaders of our coalition government."
Jepson said it harked back to something Martin Luther King said about wanting children to grow up in a nation free of discrimination.
"I think we live in a society right now where we actually value that."
The establishment of Maori wards relied on a false narrative, he said.
The National Party may have a plan and they may be focussed on executing that plan but if the plan is not the one that the electorate wants, execution of it will only lead to more misery for the party and defeat at the next election.
Given the current moves within the National Party to focus control of direction and policy within the Parliamentary arm of the party at the expense of the full party membership, it is my firm belief that this is a major reason why they are not reading the state of the nation correctly. They have become so focussed on convincing themselves that they are on the right track, that they have lost touch with the reality out in the electorate where people are really struggling just to survive.
It is my belief that until they decide to actually do what they promised and return New Zealand to a democratically ruled country rather than one where ethnicity is the guiding factor, they are rapidly heading for another defeat at the next election.