Subversion- and the strange story of the Maori Princess.

Then and now?
https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/02/subversion-within-new-zealand

Why the strange propensity of our governments to pay annual homage to Ratana, and what of Princess Te Puea’s reported attempted bargain with the Japanese in World War  II?  To find out more, check out the link above.

We are all now pretty well aware that the majority of our left-wing mainstream media journalists are pushing their own barrows. Having sold out their integrity by agreeing to the agenda behind the Public Interest Journalist Fund,  they have the new coalition  government in their sights, and are more than sympathetic to the tiny core group of radicalized Maori activists apparently obsessed by one part only of their genetic inheritance.

Although this certainly isn’t the case with all reporters, too many  have long ditched the journalists’ code of honour – i.e facts are sacred – to indulge in warping these, quite openly mischief-making. A striking example is with regard to misrepresenting ACT leader David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill – (with its intent to give New Zealanders the chance to at last examine what the supposed “principles” of the Treaty of Waitangi actually are) – as an  attempt to do away with the treaty.

Seymour  proposed nothing of the sort, and given that National’s leader Christopher Luxon (recently obligingly putting in an appearance at the  Big Gay Out festival) is now increasingly seen as weak when standing up to activists’ pressure, and saying National will not support the bill past its first reading, it’s going to be an interesting time ahead.  However, the Prime Minister’s reason for saying this -that ACT’s bill is  divisive, is regarded is feeble. Every piece of legislation can be regarded as divisive when it is promoted by one faction, and opposed by another. His was a silly statement.

Moreover, many think with reason that the Treaty of Waitangi, its intent and provisions now reinvented and distorted, should indeed be consigned to the dustbin of history. Seymour is right in emphasizing that  people have had enough of race-based rights, which was never the intent of the treaty. On the contrary.

Luxon is seen as also being far too dominating in dealing with his own party members, seemingly with a propensity to see himself as ruling over a corporation (as when he was former CEO of Air New Zealand) instead of simply primus inter pares – temporarily leader of a political party composed of individuals of varying degrees of intelligence –  some far more aware, for example, of the whole CO2 climate emergency scam so much costing us all, more than even in economic terms.

What our present Prime Minister also doesn’t seem to realize is that he is not the ruler of this county. The final say on this issue should be up to New Zealanders, and if they obviously wish ACT’s bill to be taken further, then so it should.

Most importantly, both the Prime Minister and the MSM seem to have no idea of the fact that by far the majority of part-Maori, getting  on with their  lives like all other New Zealanders, are utterly fed up with this splinter group of near fanatical extremists who are  by no means averse to twisting actual facts and making false accusations. Both ACT’s leader and Winston Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister and highly intelligent leader of New Zealand First, are themselves part-Maori. Luxon would be better to step back, talk less and listen to them more.

As for the Maori Princess…. Facts are facts. Te Puea, herself  part-European,  a woman  of extraordinary talents,  was  greatly respected during her lifetime  and undoubtedly  worked indefatigably on behalf of her own Tainui people. She was  opposed to  government conscription during the first  World War and dissuaded the Tainui men from volunteering during World War 11. She was known in her youth to be impulsive and exuberant, involved in number of relationships, including one with a European – broken off at an uncle’s  request. Were these a clue to an underlying volatility which may have made her actions as reported above more understandable –  if she thought the country at the time was going in the wrong directions?  But they remain a huge puzzle.

© Amy Brooke

Check out  www.100days.co.nz  and join us to help in the fight back against undemocratic governance – and to support this much-needed initiative to control all our political parties.

You can also order my book, “The 100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.”

It is available through my  BOOKS page at www.amybrooke.co.nz –  or at Amazon’s Kindle.

We need your support – please help us get our  message further out –  see the DONATIONS page www.100days.co.nz  And thank you very much those who have already done so!

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www.100days.co.nz

-- 

War against New Zealanders?

We should make no mistake: it’s gloves off for our left-wing media, our bureaucracy and the fringe groups of part-Maori radicals.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/01/war-against-new-zealanders

Far from conducting themselves fittingly as citizens in a democracy, very  possibly disagreeing with, but acknowledging that the majority have spoken and made their wishes plain, what have become the fifth columnists of the mainstream media, well- paid to toe the line under the previous Labour government, are making no secret of the fact that they are intent on kneecapping the coalition of the three parties that New Zealanders voted into power.

Apart from the sheer nonsense of complaining about “the tyranny of the majority” (it’s called democracy….i e. what most people want…)  they would like to see this replaced by what would be a real tyranny – that of a minority intent on getting their own way, regardless of what most people want – or of the optimum way forward for this country. A path back to a peaceful Eden of Maori tribes happily living side by side, eschewing constant internecine warfare, slavery and cannibalism, is seemingly the pipe-dream of today’s minority-only of radicalized part-Maori sporting anachronistic facial tattooes, off-putting to so many in what until fairly recent years we would have regarded as a civilization.

Moreover,  sheer hypocrisy is involved in this grouping of extremist activists  (often by far predominantly genetically European – even to the extent of being, like the wily Tipene O’Regan, apparently only 1/16 Maori – or even, as with others, with merely 1/32nd  Maori genetic inheritance)  finding it convenient to act as if their European heritage does not exist. Apparently, it’s fine to disrespect one’s ancestors on one side of the family tree – insulting these forebears, and essentially the majority of New Zealanders, if it is far more lucrative to posture as victimized, and continually claim more funding from taxpayers on the grounds of racial disadvantage.

In fact when the constant mantra of Maori disadvantage is chanted, it’s past time to point out that most-part Maori, as with all other New Zealanders, have their heads down, working to provide for themselves and their families. Where there is obviously an underclass, this fact can often be sheeted home to a lack of personal responsibility,  no work ethic, and less than adequate parenting –  all disadvantages by no means felt only by some part-Maori. And New Zealanders have long made it  plain that they want genuine need to be addressed, where exists – but not on racist grounds

Shame then on National’s Dr Shane Reti, one of the National Party’s more respected members, deciding to award $30 million  to Whanau Ora. To whom? Most New Zealanders haven’t a clue what this phrase means,  and  isn’t it time that what was proposed pre-election  (thanks to Winston listening to New Zealanders) actually happened, in the interests of transparency and accountability? So far only the NZTA is doing what New Zealanders have asked for – restoring the original English names to all our institutions so we can see what they stand for and scrutinize their activities – paid for by us all.

Apparently, the media have also not got the message, with our Television news teams and front-persons, including weather forecasters, gabbling away about Aotearoa, together with the puerile virtue-signalling of gabbled, incomprehensible, supposedly Maori greetings. The Met Service persists in thinking the country is called Aotearoa – as do  too many other services that still haven’t got the message.

The fact is that a radicalized attempt to take over this country is causing us all enormous damage, sowing division and partisanship, when the healthy way for any country to prosper is to promote inclusivity, as Captain Hobson advocated in his “We are one people ,” which is what most New Zealanders want – not today’s push to  tribalism and identity politics.

One of the most time-wasting directions into which New Zealanders are being pressured is to embrace te Reo  which is almost a complete waste of time. It is now overwhelmingly completely inauthentic Maori, the original language, of necessity, environmentally restricted,  apparently containing about 1900 words – i.e. less than 2000, recorded by the missionaries. As English has approximately  170,000 words in common usage, what those pushing te  Reo have done is make up supposed Maori words for the difference between the 2000 and these 170000 words.  Hence we get the supposed Maori for Inland Revenue, Accident  and Emergency Department, Public Library Lending Rights, Business Class tickets to Dubai – and on it goes. But it is not Maori. 

To determinedly supply claimed “Maori “words for the English words in common usage, means that 98.88% of words in today’s te Reo are not authentic at all  – they’ve simply been made up.

Although all languages borrow from others,  to simply reinvent supposed Maori words to the tune of 150,000 produces what is obviously a largely inauthentic,  i.e  a fake language, bearing minimal resemblance to its ancestor. And given that this is not, with good reason, spoken anywhere else in the world, it can be well  maintained to be a complete waste of time to be compelling teachers, school children and others to learn it, regardless of Christopher Luxon’s enthusiasm, when there are so many more really important subjects our now vastly under-educated children should be learning in school.

Details of  how our self-serving bureaucracy has been white-anting the interests of our democracy, are in the Spectator link above – a magazine well worth support by New Zealanders. And for the attack on the wishes of the majority by the left-wing media, it’s hard go past commentator John Campbell’s  complaining abut the “kind of resentment populism ACT and New Zealand First  are increasingly experimenting with”.

 No, they’re not, John. Moreover, “populism” is the  accusation the Left love to throw around when they dislike the fact that so-called ordinary people have spoken – making their wishes known.

But of course we can’t have this, when our self-important media celebrities think otherwise. Hence Campbell’s apparent resentment of the fact that most New Zealanders, disliking the radicalized hijacking of the long-understood English names for all our government departments and institutions, don’t want to come across utterly unintelligible,  fabricated “Maori “ names providing neither transparency nor intelligibility. They are essentially a power push by radicalized part-Maori supremacists, intent on getting their own way, and always only too available for the media spotlight.

Campbell, however, inveighing against this, claims that this now inauthentic  substitute for genuine Maori  “is a unique and precious language, grown here, spoken only here. It’s completely and utterly ours.” It certainly is. And it’s certainly unique. It’s also certainly an almost complete waste of time learning it, when there are far more important things to do. But then, Campbell regards this as the “new colonialism,”

Somebody should tell him to stop insulting New Zealanders.

©  Amy Brooke

Check out  www.100days.co.nz  and join us to help in the fight back against our undemocratic government – and to support this much-needed initiative to control all our political parties.

You can also order my book, “The 100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.”

It is available through my  BOOKS page at www.amybrooke.co.nz –  or at Amazon’s Kindle.

We need your support – please help us get our  message further out –  see the DONATIONS page www.100days.co.nz 

And thank you very much those who have already done so!

It is also very important to LIKE or SHARE  us at –

https://www.facebook.com/100daystodemocracy?ref=br_tf

Visit my homepage and best books website: www.amybrooke.co.nz

www.100days.co.nz

What when it’s largely now simply made-up “Maori”?

What when it’s largely now simply made-up “Maori”?

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/made-up-maori/

So why is a demonstrably inauthentic language being foisted off on all New Zealanders? Isn’t it time to stand up to the race-obsessed activism constantly draining off more and more multi millions of taxpayers’ money?

No wonder our hospitals and the health system in general, serving all New Zealanders, are so constantly cash-strapped.

© Amy Brooke, Convenor, The 100 Days.  See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through my  BOOK Page at www.amybrooke.co.nz, or at Amazon’s Kindle.

The witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

The Witch-hunt against Allan Titford?

COPYRIGHT © KAPITI INDEPENDENT NEWS

July 24, 2018  

Amy Brooke believes that 24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford by Mike Butler exposes judicial failure in both the district court and the Court of Appeal.

Some justice at last?

At last, thanks to Mike Butler and Tross Publishing, some justice for a man who has basically been framed?

As a socio-political commentator at the time, I recall being increasingly concerned at what looked very like a loaded gun, metaphorically speaking, which had been pointed at Allan Titford.

I was horrified at the charges that had been levelled against him on the flimsiest of evidence – much of it based on accusations which simply should not have carried weight in a genuine court of justice.

Questions about the Waitangi Tribunal

Equally shockingly has been the utterly undemocratic, and indeed arguably corrupt, processes under which The Waitangi Tribunal has  been allowed to operate.

Much of this is detailed in my book –

“The 100 days – Claiming back New Zealand – what has gone wrong and how we can control our politicians.”

Flawed from its inception, the tribunal has been granted far more respect than it deserves, and, biased in its findings, it has basically brought itself into disrepute.

That our political parties have given far too much credence to its findings, and that there is even provision for its findings to be binding on government is completely unacceptable.

So is what has happened to Allan Titford, with an almost unbelievable sentence of 24 years of imprisonment!  More than for committing murder…. utterly incredible!

That this whole saga is an indictment on our justice system is an understatement. It is more than time for these issues to be addressed. And it is time our government fronted up.

Mike Butler explains how corrupt our justice system has become in 24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford.

Uncovering the truth

In 1987 Allan Titford was being driven off his farm by people who claimed that part of it was Maori land. His story captured the hearts and minds of many New Zealanders.

However, in 2013, when he was jailed for more than 24 years, he was called “a slave driver, a monster and a liar”.

This book tells how a treaty claim took private land against the will of its owners despite evidence that the claim was unjustified.

It also analyses how Allan Titford was jailed for such a long time.

The record jail term is bizarre considering that 12 charges relied on the uncorroborated testimony of a person who admitted to perjury.

Moreover, many of the 53 charges against him were hardly tested in court.

It also shows a hidden parallel story about how the justice system was played for financial gain.

This book exposes judicial failure in both the district court and the Court of Appeal.

It asks whether the process used against Allan Titford is standard practice in the New Zealand justice system and how many more victims have been locked up by using these methods.

See the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uQamj01Paw

Ross Baker, Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc, wrote:

“I have just finished reading 24 Years and as I have been very involved with Allan and Susan Titford since the “false” claim was place on Allan’s freehold titled property at Maunganui Bluff, I can confirm this is a true and accurate accounts of the events that ended with Allan being jailed for 24 years because of our corrupt justice system. A must read”.

(24 Years, The Trials of Allan Titford by Mike Butler is published by Limestone Bluff. It has 339 pages, is illustrated and is available from www.trosspublishing.co.nz or at a good bookstore near you for $39.50.)Bottom of Form

 

Susan Devoy, this won’t do. High time she resigned?

Susan Devoy – this won’t do. High time she resigned?

Sociopolitical commentator Lindsay Perigo has recently made some very timely points about the attack on free speech in New Zealand. And it’s getting worse.

Many now regard Susan Devoy as contributing to this, seemingly very much out of her depth with regard to comprehending what her constant stirring of the supposed  “hate speech” pot is leading to.

Devoy’s  credentials for ever being appointed to her position as Race Relations Conciliator in the first place are a mystery,  and she is now understandably regarded by many as very much unsuitable for the position she holds.

Far from being  seen as an objective, properly neutral government employee, she is perceived by concerned New Zealanders as very much lacking judgment. Her school-marmish, disapproving attitude towards those concerned at the divisiveness now caused by the promotion of what is  increasingly seen as a radicalised, Maori supremacy movement in this country – which many, far from extreme part-Maori individuals also object to – is unreasonable.

For example, her statement below is completely unacceptable to all concerned with fair and balanced debate – and is basically quite shocking! *

She also seems  ignorant of the fact that the ongoing attempt to actually replace New Zealand as the name of our country with “Aotearoa” – never even historically justified – is  very much part of the power push by the radicalized Left.

* “Anyone  who complains about te reo Māori being used and celebrated in this country needs to get one thing straight: this is New Zealand. Aotearoa New Zealand – so get used to it,” Devoy said.

Susan – this sort of intemperate, even bullying statement will not do. Time indeed to step down…

As Lindsay Perigo has pointed out, Devoy, “—who dismisses anything she disapproves of as “stale, male and white” (hate speech?!)—is campaigning to make existing legislation more draconian. Not for her, “I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it”.

Are we coming closer to, rather, “I disagree with what you say and will have you thrown in jail for it”? In her own words:

“I believe online hatred is something we can get better at calling out. I believe we need better restrictions when it comes to the online forums, comments sections on some media outlet websites as well as their social media accounts. I am keen to see our Police begin to gather hate crime statistics – at the present time this is not something they collate when responding to call outs.”

So much for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights legislation stating:

Article 19. “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

For Susan Devoy to be in essence seeking to undermine this right under the umbrella excuse of the recently invented “hate crimes” is totally unacceptable.

Is it high time to remind ourselves that our forebears fought against this sort of creeping, virtual totalitarianism that  eventuates when any government, through its representatives and officials, starts on the path of laying down what we can or cannot say…

And what about the famous reminder that “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom…”

What freedom?

Amy Brooke

Wasn’t it a pledge, Winston? And why scientists are fed up.

Before the election, Winston, you were reported as saying that if New Zealand First was part of the next government, you would let the public decide whether to abolish the Maori seats (and cut the number of MPs in Parliament to 100.)  According to Radio NZ and other authoritative sources, you said Maori seats send a terrible message (they do) and vowed to hold a mid-term binding referendum on the two matters.  “The fact is that Maori don’t need to be told that they are not good enough to be equal, or that somehow they should be handicapped, or that somehow they should be pigeonholed…When did you ever hear Buck Shelford say “Don’t tackle me too hard, I’m a Maori…. or all those women playing in our netball team or any other team … When have you ever heard them say, “Don’t hit me too hard, I’m a Maori? Maori don’t need the Maori seats. They don’t need any more tokenism.” 

Quite true. And what did you do about this, Winston? All those probably thousands of New Zealanders who voted for you because they are fed up with the thoroughly racist policies more and more incrementally introduced under the recent National governments, in particular, feel thoroughly let down. Is it true that you did not even bother to raise this matter with Labour or National? We’d like to know, because as one correspondent sees it, the people that supported New Zealand First’s policies feel utterly left down. And that’s putting it very politely.  He was far more direct… 

Removing the utterly unnecessary, race-based Maori seats (given that there are now 29 part-Maori MPs in total, spread across our political parties) has been rightly viewed as a first very important first step to take against the race-based preferences now invading every aspect of government policy-making. These are more and more being inappropriately forced on children in schools, on students throughout our universities – and in all other institutions. There are now very well-paid government apparatchiks whose jobs centre on constantly forcing on us – and extending – these racist policies – including a quite fake “Maori” language – which bears probably about 10% relationship to the genuine Maori language. For example, how do you say, “The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment” in Maori? We need to start contesting this farcical situation. 

But meantime, we want to know what happened. It is true that you looked thoroughly exhausted at the time of the election. Some are wondering if you are well. But you have had enough energy to now bring up the issue of “dirty politics,” filing charges against the Opposition leader Bill English and three of his lieutenants in relation to the apparently deliberate leaking of information about the mistakes in your superannuation payments which were turned into an election scandal. Mistakes are just that. However, few would doubt that what should have been a privacy issue within a government department was used in an attempt to discredit you and reduce the percentage of New Zealand First’s votes.

It very probably succeeded, as earlier polling showed much higher support. But whether New Zealand First will now survive at the next election – given the abandoning of your own bottom line undertaking to put the issue of the Maori seats to the public – is another matter.  The fact that your promise has apparently not been followed up will probably be the last straw for many who felt that you at least stood against the corruption of the political scene and its throwaway, pre-election undertakings. Public cynicism, if not disgust at the way politicians let themselves and the country down has probably never been greater. Time for NZers to claim back this country, indeed. We should have learned by now that nothing will ever change, otherwise!  

The media groupies whom the public similarly have little time for have, however, raised an interesting question. Given that you had been intending to file charges against members of the National Party hierarchy, did you intend at any stage to throw the support of New Zealand First behind National – or was all the drawn-out bargaining simply to get the best deal from the Labour Coalition? This may have been a clever tactic – but when was the issue of what we all understood to be your non-negotiable promise – the abolition of the Maori seats – actually raised?  If not, why not? 

What so many concerned New Zealanders have now realised is that the National government hasn’t given a hoot about the growing push towards actual separatism, very much encouraged by the long tenure of former Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson, viewed as highly sympathetic to smoothing the way for iwi and hapu making the usual, never-ending financial claims against all other New Zealanders. Moreover, letters to this Minister, and indeed the former Prime Minister  (both are long-time close friends) either get ignored or hit enough of a nerve,  in the case of Finlayson, to receive a tart reply. This is not good enough, given that the utterly fraudulent issue of the supposedly “partnership” between Maori and the Crown is increasingly pushed at us all. 

The importance of the undertaking you apparently reneged on is because abolishing the anachronistic Maori seats would have removed a focal point for that radical activism which seeks constant media attention – and financial gain. There are no longer any full-blooded Maori – many of those making most of the fuss are predominately European  – or Euro-Asian –  and how much of their constant centre-staging is due to an inordinate sense of self-importance  –or simply greed… for the gravy train to provide more –  certainly raises the issue of some sort of moral/spiritual crisis  among individuals who make a part of their ethnic inheritance the most important thing in their lives – and pass on the same dead-end thinking to their children. 

All this posturing is completely removed from the lives of most New Zealanders of part-Maori descent. Doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers, lawyers pilots, builders, farmers, fishermen, plumbers, contractors, chefs, truck-drivers…individuals with part-Maori ancestry – right across the professions and trades –  are living fulfilling and worthwhile lives, without  the slightest interest in obsessively focusing on  a part-Maori inheritance.  Many based or travelling overseas are glad to be away from it all. Far more worthwhile issues centre on their families, their jobs, and the commitment of the majority of most NZers to serve this country – while faithful to the democratic principles of respect for all individuals – regardless of colour, gender, race or creed. 

However, the bureaucratic push to centre-stage the issues on which radically activist part-Maori are basing their agenda is spreading its tentacles throughout every possible area of our life in this country. It’s coming from a very determined minority pushing hard to influence policy-making within government, local councils and wherever it can cause damage to our social cohesion.  

If we follow the allocation of money we find particularly egregious and damaging examples –  apart from the clamour for the universities and schools to now show “cultural sensitivity” – that is to prove that they regard suposed part Maori concerns as needing to be prioritised above all others! 

For example , we all know that government attitudes to science funding and innovation have been more than parsimonious – they have long been below the level New Zealanders should be able to expect to help advance our country’s interests, and our contribution to today’s world of discovery. Science funding for this reason has become hotly contested – and scientists have been turned into quasi-businessmen, forced to skew research interests to submit funding applications that follow strictly PC and racist lines.  Where the universities once valued and acknowledged the importance of pure research,  and paid their scientists accordingly, now the latter largely have to generate their own funding through business interests – as well as satisfying radicalised iwi. Their demands have brought about the situation whereby their race-based interests come first.  

 However, imposing racist criteria on funding applications is a disgrace. Few would disagree with the notion that scientific research should apply to part-Maori no more – nor any less – than to any other population group in New Zealand. 

This explicit or implicit requirement is found right across areas of government grants.  Vision Matauranga is a very good example, or rather, a very bad example of the recent National government’s politicisation of these and capitulation to these areas. The Endeavour Foundation of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), distributing a total of $58 million, has a mission statement – “To support research science or technology or related activities with the potential to positively transfer New Zealand’s economic performance and sustainability and integrity of our environment to help strengthen our society (meaning?) and give effect to Vision Matauranga polices.  

The latter is spelt out in a jargon-ridden, 52 page, pompous doorstopper which not only prioritises supposed Maori interests but what are supposedly “authentic Maori voices”- whatever these are. On the face of it, “authentic” apparently means the views of those who wrote this tedious document.  What is simply inexcusable is now requiring ALL applications for research-funding from the MBIE to consider Vision Matauranga nonsense. Previously, apparently one was able to states that one’s research didn’t have such relevance. Now, chillingly, a scientist must” provide evidence if he/she thinks that Vision now Matauranga isn’t relevant!   E.g.” If you think Vision Mātauranga is not relevant to your research, you should test this assumption with independent advisors with relevant strategic Vision Mātauranga experience. You will need to provide evidence to explain why you consider Vision Mātauranga is not applicable.” 

As one scientist notes, the twisted logic of this requirement is so outrageous that it almost sounds as if it could be challenged legally. Given the threat to his or her job or position, what scientist  is going to have the courage to do so?  And this is just what whoever drew up this outrageous demand relies upon. We are now living in a country where so many, trying to survive in a highly competitive workplace feel it is too risky to speak up. We now have reached a valid comparison with the former USSR – where, as the Russian poet Yevtushenko told us, to simply speak the truth had become an act of courage. 

There are numerous examples now of this shockingly divisive move to push separatist and racist  policies on this country. Minister Chris Finlayson, for example, should answer to the public for getting it very wrong in relation to the foreshore and seabed legislation. Opening yet another can of worms, the National government has allowed “customary  title” and “customary rights” to be contested by iwi, either in a new high court process –  or through direct negotiations with the Crown. Yet we have already seen how much damage has been done where iwi, in other areas, have been able to avoid due court process to deal with apparently partisan  Crown negotiators. Well-based evidence from reputable researchers has been simply ignored by this past National government – in  favour of virtually rubber-stamping  various dubious claims which should have been put to far more rigorous investigations. 

To establish customary title, this apparently naive government assured the public that very few claims would be relevant – that iwi would need to meet a number of tests, but that few would be able to meet the criteria for seeking customary title as they would have to demonstrate uninterrupted occupancy of the area claimed.

Both John Key and Finlayson claimed that very few iwi would be able to meet this criteria – so very few claims would be relevant. Were they just naïve – or were we misled? What has happened, of course, is what most of the country thought would happen. These pseudo-tribes have now laid massive claims for all of the foreshore and seabed – right around the coast of New Zealand. Even worse, it has been estimated that mounting even a single objection to each claim “could cost the public some $60,000 in fees – to say nothing of any costs involved in having objections prepared.” And inexcusably (given that the Maori economy is now worth $50 billion, reportedly “each Maori claimant is being offered thousands of dollars to prepare and file a claim…rightly regarded as only grossly inappropriate and utterly unfair.” 

It is not the first time that iwi claims against all other New Zealanders have been compulsorily funded by the public.  This ongoing process has been well and truly supported by this National government – one reason why so many New Zealanders have been glad to see it forced into Opposition – even in the face of considerable misgivings about various Labour-Coalition policies. 

It is in the light of these flagrant examples of what can well be regarded as cultural bullying that so many regard Winston Peters as having let us all down with his failure to keep his word.

 

© Amy Brooke, Convener. See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through www.amybrooke.co.nz, Kindle, or HATM Publishers.

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Open Letter to Winston – Jacinda is way out of line

Dear Winston –Please don’t shift your ground on a promise you made – and yes – it wasn’t an If…or a Maybe. It was an unequivocal undertaking. So many have trusted you. That’s important. So, as you know, is your integrity. So is public perception.  To now reportedly hint that it would be fair enough to back off your pledge to abolish the divisive Maori seats in Parliament,  because the Maori Party failed to win any, this recent election, is imply not good enough. You will be well aware that as long as the provision for the Maori seats exist, in law, they can be contested again, in a coming election.

This is an open letter to tell you how dismayed, even betrayed, so many thousands of New Zealanders will now feel if you shift your stance on your pledge to call for a referendum on at last removing these anachronistic seats in parliament. You know they are racist.  You gave your pledge as a bottom line. And as far as so many of us are  concerned, you were  actually promising what was long recommended, so that the country can at last say – We are one – or at least strive for equality for all, under the law.

Remember the democratic principle so very conveniently sidelined in recent years – as the white-anting of our New Zealand society has undermined our foundations?  This was the founding concept of modern democracy – pledging fundamental and equal rights to all people in law, regardless of colour, race, gender, or creed.  Any whittling away at this fundamental principle of a genuine democracy diminishes us all.

Recent vote-buying governments, persuaded by now very wealthy and powerful iwi, have backed away from keeping their word – as National did, to its shame. This breaking of a social contract, a pledge given to voters by a party leader, was not only regarded as an act of betrayal. It also lessened even further the respect in which politicians would like to think they are held. Equally damagingly, it takes away from so many the hope that New Zealanders try to hold fast to – of a country in which they once more count, a stable, undivided, peaceful society, respecting the values of those who fought to make this a better country.

 But we’re going backwards – not forwards. And retention of the outdated Maori seats, giving special advantages to those with even the very smallest part-Maori, genetic inheritance (Why?) is contributing to a growing push now towards promoting anything touching on Maori as inherently superior. Again – Why? The whitewashing of the realities of pre-European settlement country, of never-ending internecine tribal wars, of the barbarities of a ruling priestly and warrior class inflicting the cruelties of slavery, barbaric practises and the horrors of cannibalism, are no reason for regarding it as desirable that throughout the country, local government and statutory boards should be forced to kowtow to the supposedly superior insights provided by any individuals with even a sixteenth or  a thirty-second genetic inheritance from  the past.

You will be aware that the Auckland Council is seeking a legislative change to make an elected Maori councillor role compulsory. Incredible!  Even though Auckland councillors themselves have voted 10 to five against introducing a Maori ward. As one commentator has noted, the council’s attitude now equates to (with deeply Orwellian logic…)We can’t trust the majority of the public to vote for what we want – even though we’ve relied on them voting for us – so we therefore will subvert the democratic process…”

All around the country, the opposition to forcing local bodies and government liaison committees to grant special voting rights to unelected individuals on the basis of a part-Maori inheritance has been overwhelmingly rejected, as you know. Yet not for a moment has this past National government taken any notice of the wishes of the majority.

New Zealanders are not fools, and we now have a total contradiction of democratic values and freedoms by an overbearing government, pressured by the now immensely wealthy iwi (the Maori economy now is estimated at about $50 billion dollars. Most of this has been successfully withheld by the rich tribal corporations, with their tax-free status – (Why?)  – from an underclass of their own people in desperate need.

Removing the Maori seats in Parliament is a hugely important move – the very first step towards dismantling the new apartheid we have created – by which some are now more equal than others. And because of this and the vested interest these extraordinarily wealthy iwi have in promoting their own position and influence, and obtaining even more economic advantage for themselves, you will be under considerable pressure to walk away from that promise you gave the public.

You will also be under pressure because the present Labour Leader, Jacinda Ardern, is trying to manipulate you into giving in to her ill-thought determination to ignore the wishes of the country and have her own way  – with regard to preserving the seats.

Her attitude is inexcusable, given that able Members of Parliament of part- Maori descent are now to be found across the spectrum of political parties in Parliament. Labour itself has part-Maori members, National others. There are reportedly now 29 part-Maori MPs in total – strong proof that there is no discrimination against individuals of Maori descent winning  a place  in the House. 

Your own credentials as leader of New Zealand First and of part-Maori descent, long recognising the damage being inflicted on the country by the retention of Maori-only seats, are considerably superior to those of Miss Ardern. She is compromising herself intellectually by refusing to acknowledge that, given a part Maori genetic inheritance is no barrier to becoming a member of Parliament, there is no possible excuse for maintaining the Maori seats. This is doubly so, given that, to date the interests of this racist party have been to wrest even more provisions from the majority of New Zealanders.

Jacinda needs to drop her born-to-rule assumption, and acknowledge that it is not up to her to decide whether or not the Maori seats should be abolished. We’ve had to put up this sort of high-handed attitude from our MPs for too long. The decision is one for the people of New Zealand – not a handful of her Labour Party insiders. It’s time for her to take that on board, not arrogantly refuse to acknowledge that the decision does not belong to a politically-motivated group completely out of touch with most New Zealanders’ objections to this racist provision.

I sincerely hope you yourself have been misreported. Because if you renege on your commitment to put the abolishing of the Maori seats to the public at large in a binding referendum, then so many New Zealanders who have put their trust in you on this issue will loathe you. They are fed up with politicians promising one thing and doing another. Moreover, your stated intention to do this will certainly have meant a rise in the number of voters looking to your party.

The feeling of anger at the maintaining of special privileges, special scholarships, special treatment given in nearly all our institutions to those with even a claimed smidgen of Maori genetic inheritance, is now widespread  – with good reason.

What you were reported as saying in the National Business Review at the time will have given heart to so many. I quote:  “The fact is, Maori don’t need to be told they are not good enough to be equal, or that somehow they should be handicapped, that somehow they should be pigeon-holed,” Mr Peters said.

New Zealanders have taken this to mean that this referendum will be put to the whole country. To confine it to Maori alone – as you then seemed to subsequently be considering, would hardly be logical. It would be like asking the fox to vote for the abolition of hens.

Furthermore, any move to confine the referendum to those claiming to be Maori could be challenged on legal grounds.

There is no longer any definition of Maori. The former logical definition was done away with in the mid-70s by those with their eyes to the main chance – i.e. their ability to  include others  in their number who were, and are, predominantly European (or of other descent) as “Maori”  – in order to show a greater numerical strength  – aware of the political pressure they could then wield.

But it is obviously legally possible to challenge the definition of “Maori” – when those with less than half a Maori genetic inheritance claim to be basically Maori – although they obviously aren’t – by any scientific assessment.

Canadian Judge Thomas R Berger travelled around Alaska in the late 1980s to interview the people, Indians, and Inuit, who lived in the villages. When the ANCSA (Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act) was reviewed, the cut-off point for declaring oneself of aboriginal (native) descent was a generous one. One could still be considered aboriginal (Inuit or Indian) if one had a quarter (25%) genetic inheritance. Below this, one was regarded as being predominantly not aboriginal, and therefore unable to claim this.  So why are we allowing this farcical situation in New Zealand?

Many of the most vociferous claimants to disadvantage – (or, contrariwise, of superior insight) because of a purported Maori genetic inheritance – are in fact not even one-quarter Maori. Yet we have allowed them to queue up for special benefits, courtesy of the taxpayer – which is basically a rort. Moreover, the Anglican Church has been silly enough – as have others -to say that one is Maori – and is entitled to be regarded as Maori, simply- if one “feels Maori”.

This is a nonsense. If I were deranged I could possibly regard myself as an Arab – or an Australian aborigine…or even an animal of some sort. But any “feeling” I might have would be at odds with the reality that I’m none of these. .

If you change your mind, and kowtow to the present Labour leader’s claim that she will not allow the discussion in relation to your undertaking to put the future of the Maori seats to the public at large to decide (and the country had no doubt that you meant a referendum binding on all) to be part of any discussion concerning a possible coalition, then she is not only being very foolish – but you would be honour bound to reject her terms. Nor should any referendum be confined confined to Maori only. Such a proposal would face formidable legal challenges, given that there is no longer any actual definition of Maori – all of whom are now part-Maori only.

Furthermore – it is also not accurate to say that such a referendum would be relevant only to part-Maori.  All other New Zealanders have been required to contribute financially  to supporting the Maori seats – and so, too,  the Maori Party…a prime example of the cost to the country at large of this ongoing movement to give one sector of the community special rights – at the expense of the majority.

I’m sure you personally are well aware that prioritising identity politics has been destructive and divisive to New Zealand. The only ones to benefit from it are those well and truly milking the system – at the expense of us all.

I’m afraid, Winston, that if you do not want your integrity to be doubted by those who have long supported you – because of your much-respected commitment to a unified country, it will not do for you for you to renege upon, or equivocate about, your original promise to mount a binding referendum – to be put to all the country.

Many New Zealanders have consistently supported your stated aims and defended you against your detractors. They will not want to continue to do so, if you break your word. And you would deservedly lose the respect in which many hold you for your long stand against the inherent corruption of race-based politics. We must trust you on this.

Kind regards

Amy

 

© Amy Brooke, Convener. See my book “100 Days – Claiming Back New Zealand …what has gone wrong, and how we can control our politicians.” Available through www.amybrooke.co.nz, Kindle, or HATM Publishers.

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