National Party vs NZ Maori Council yet again

Maori Wardens in Whanganui protect Bill English. 

The Maori Community Development Act 1962 Discussion Paper

Throughout the month of September various Hui are being held around NZ to discuss the proposed changes to this vital act.

It is often stated that if something is not broken then why change it? And that’s a fair question that needs asking when considering the Maori Community Development Act.

Presently the Acts basic purpose is to give effect and authority to the New Zealand Maori Council. It gives the Maori Council the leading role of protecting Maori interests across the whole of Aotearoa New Zealand.  And the Maori Council has been hugely successful in protecting proactively the interests of Pan-Maori concerns. In fact it has been so successful that the present government has threatened to remove some of its ability to represent its collective membership.

The latest clash between the government and the NZ Maori Council relates to the subject of asset sales and specifically those sales that revolve around water from both our rivers and our lakes.

National has pushed the usual popular brainless statement, “That no one owns water”, which goes down well with red-necks and anti-Maori groups. It’s simply the ignorant preaching to the ignorant…a typical neo liberal behaviour pattern used by semi-dictators like John Key’s National party and its weak kneed supporters like the Act, United and Maori party.

Divide and rule is a technique used by all dictatorial powers since time began and it was highly successful when used by the English a few centuries ago throughout its once powerful empire.

But now and then men and woman once free from manipulation of the wealthy created the local and national legal means to protect their heritage and traditions from a sustained attack by those who are deeply inclined by greed to take more and more unto themselves.

I thought that New Zealand / Aotearoa had grown up enough to see through the sham pretence that the British Empire once preached. New Zealand has for the most part developed a style of leadership and social acceptance than allows both Maori and Pakeha to work together to achieve fair and balanced goals.

A key acceptance is one that allows Maori Interests to be expressed, designed and practiced in a Maori context as of right and not as some sort of parental hand-me-down charity. In my view the New Zealand Maori Council is that vehicle. The evidence in this regard is obvious…Maori Opposition to asset sales linked and interlocked well with the anti asset sales views held by at least 65% if not more of all New Zealanders. The NZ Maori Council fought the good fight and saved our forestry from complete overseas ownership, The NZMC forced the Government into the area of Maori TV and Radio so as to protect and expand the Maori Language and as is clearly seen today, Maori Television is in reality the only public television left in NZ, only Campbell Live comes anywhere near the quality of what was considered good, honest public television.

The NZ Maori Council operates across the political spectrum and is not bound to outdated political neo-liberal, or fascist humbug as preached by various so-called head in the sand racists. What it is attached to is protection of Maori against the greedy financial fingers of international corperation’s.

In fact the NZ Maori Council could be considered one of the few collective organisations that offer some sort of protection for the lower paid and depressed working people of New Zealand as a whole.

The present Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples is the Minister only because the National Party allows him to be…he is there at the pleasure and whim of people like John Key, Steven Joyce, and Bill English.

At the Hui held here in Palmerston North, a young woman Veronica Tawhai stated how sad she was to see that Te Puni Kokiri was spending so much time and money on conducting a review of the NZ Maori Council structure and functions when there were so many other more urgent things that need doing. Like feeding our kids, like paying a living wage, like preventing third world medical ailments from striking down our young, like making home ownership possible, like funding the Maori Wardens, the list is endless she suggested and she was correct. Hers was the voice of modern New Zealand / Aotearoa, intelligent, bright and willing to offer a better future not only for Maori but for all who can overcome the inbuilt preconceived notions that inflicted balanced and reasoned thinking.

I left the Palmerston North Hui with the feeling that the government allowed the Constitutional Review to go ahead as part of their deal with the Maori Party and that this discussion paper was Nationals usual claw back and that claw back includes the possible destruction of the most effective force for social change the New Zealand Maori Council.