NZ Centre for Political Research

Excerpt from ‘Marching through the Institutions’:

The Neotribal Elite and the Treaty of Waitangi
(First published in Sites, December 2005

By Elizabeth Rata

"Conclusion

For over two decades a group of neotribal leaders have controlled the shifting interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi.

That control has, through complex brokerage processes, led to the group’s own emergence as a self-interested political elite. The elite’s ‘strategic march through the institutions’ is now at the final constitutional stage. Mason Durie’s (2003: 105 - 116) recommendations for a new constitutional framework would create two separate socio-political organisations based upon race origins and justified according to culturalist beliefs that ‘race causes culture’ (Rata, 2004a).

The neotribal ‘side’ will be organised according to non-democratic principles of kinship, race heritage, and hierarchical leadership. Its policies and practices, justified by the neotraditionalist ideology of revived and romanticised communalism, will conceal the self-interested class character of the ruling elite.

It is difficult to see how, given the incompatibility between the non-democratic race-based neotribal structure and the democratic institutions of the New Zealand state that both forms can be accommodated within the one nation. Yet that is the implicit assumption behind the idea of a treaty partnership and the brokerage of the treaty principles into legislation. "

http://www.nzcpr.com/Rata%20SitesFinal.pdf

Save our Constitution, sign the 'Declaration Of Equality' Petition here >> http://www.nzcpr.com/petition_EqualRights.php

'Independent Constitution Review' website >> http://ConstitutionalReview.org/

'Constitutional Review' Facebook page >> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Constitut ... 3163665243

It's excellent, Yogi7, and should be shown as widely as possible.

Globalisation and Constitutional Development

By Rod Deane 7-04-2000

C Treaty of Waitangi

– New Zealand should not go down, or at any rate go any further down, the path of racial pigeon-holing and of different laws for different races.

– One rule of law for all is not a reactionary, oppressive ideal. It has been a crucial constraint on the ability of rulers or majorities to oppress minorities, for which many people throughout history have fought and died.

– In practical terms, this country needs a political consensus to move soon towards a settlement of valid grievances and reassert one set of rules for all. The essential requirement is to put an end to state-imposed racial distinctions, not to entrench them.

– 'Partnership' as a concept appears to be a judicial invention and a complicated and ambiguous one at that.

– The Treaty itself is too short, general and indeterminate to be included in a written constitution as a higher, Entrenched law. Doing so in this simple form would run the risk of handing arbitrary and unwarranted power over to the judiciary.

http://www.independenteconomics.com/ass ... tution.pdf

SAVE OUR CONSTITUTION - sign the petition here >> http://www.nzcpr.com/petition_EqualRights.php

INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW website >> http://www.nzcpr.com/ConstitutionalReview.htm

'CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW' Facebook here >> http://www.facebook.com/pages/Constitut ... 3163665243

SPREAD THE WORD - wherever, however

The Littlewood Treaty ~ & NZ's Treaty of Waitangi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PE-j9ZOhrg

What an excellent paper from David Round. We really must be successful with this Declaration of Equality.

Constitutional Review & Declaration Of Equality

By David Round

"The Maori Party’s avowed aim in this constitutional review is to put the ‘principles of the Treaty’, as they and their judicial friends will understand them, into our constitution. Thereafter the special status and privilege of those of Maori descent will be guaranteed for ever. It would be impossible to undo such an arrangement, for any attempt by Parliament or anyone else to do so would thereafter be ‘unconstitutional’. If the Treaty gets into our constitution, therefore ~ if there is any mention of it which an unscrupulous judge can use ~ then the majority of the people of New Zealand will become second-class citizens in their own country. This must not happen. If it does happen, then our increasingly unhappy, impoverished and divided country will be irrevocably stuffed.

There may well be room for debate on other aspects of our constitution. Members of Parliament no longer seem to consider themselves properly responsible to the people they serve, and we may want to think of ways in which that responsibility could be restored ~ by making citizens-initiated referenda binding, for example, or creating some mechanism whereby the voice of the people recalls unpopular legislation and requires Parliament to reconsider it. No-one would want to see judges subject to political influence, but some judges have obviously forgotten that their independence is part of a bargain, and that the price of their remaining free from outside interference is that they for their part stick to deciding legal disputes and do not indulge in political adventures themselves. Incredibly, it is judges themselves who are failing to observe this separation of powers; and once judges ~ who are, after all, just unelected officials ~ start to behave as politicians, they must expect to be treated as such. To expect anything else would be pure hypocrisy on their part.

On such matters, and others, we can have legitimate debates. But it is utterly out of the question that our constitution should recognise and enforce racial distinction and condemn our country to racial division, with all that that entails, for ever. But if the Treaty gets into our constitution in any way, that is what will happen.

If you feel strongly about this ~ and we believe that you should, and that most New Zealanders do ~ then we ask you to sign this declaration, and to get your family and friends to sign it also. We must stop the separatists entrenching their hold over our country. We must change New Zealand’s course. It is now or never.

We, New Zealanders, having founded our society in the equality of comradeship, and living here at home in the land we have made, utterly oppose any laws which establish or promote racial distinction or division. There shall be one law for all. We have had enough of official and legal racism. We do not request the following items, we demand them:

We refuse to accept any reference to the Treaty of Waitangi or its principles in any constitutional document.

We require that such references be removed from all existing legislation.

We require that race-based Parliamentary seats be abolished.

We require that race-based representation on local bodies be abolished.

We require that the Waitangi Tribunal, which has outlived any usefulness it may have had, be abolished.

And we pledge ourselves to oppose and resist all those of whatever rank or degree who, whether by force or the devious processes of the law, attempt to impose the fetters of racial inequality on the free citizens of New Zealand."

'Declaration Of Equality' can be signed here > http://www.nzcpr.com/petition_EqualRights.php

Read David Round's informative article here > http://www.nzcpr.com/guest302.htm

'Independent Constitutional Review' website here > http://www.nzcpr.com/ConstitutionalReview.htm

Winston says it all.

Beware Of The Constitutional Review - Older & Bolder column
19 March 2012
Rt Hon Winston Peters

In December 2010 the government announced a ‘wide-ranging’ review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements. The purpose was to ‘stimulate public debate’. There has been little public debate and the issue slipped under the radar during the election campaign.

In reality, this review should be setting off alarm bells throughout New Zealand. It does not spring from public demand. It is the result of political horse-trading between John Key and the Māori Party. The majority of political parties were never consulted about this and that is why New Zealand First declined a recent invitation to take part.

The review is stacked and the results are already decided. They intend to create a constitution that has the Treaty of Waitangi as its cornerstone. The so-called ‘principles’ of the Treaty will creep into all laws that shape our existence.

The two men responsible for overseeing the review, Bill English and Pita Sharples, have been silent on the matter since last August. That was when they appointed a ‘Constitutional Review Panel’ to initiate public consultation and make formal recommendations.

Members of the panel are worthy individuals in their own right but do their qualifications match the enormity of the task? Any review of our democracy requires the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, the faith of Abraham, the insight of Daniel and the courage of David!

Although the terms of reference for the Review Panel state that it will consider a wide range of constitutional issues, from the number of MPs, the length of the term of parliament to the Bill of Rights Act, these do not disguise the fact that its main focus is on the Treaty.

In particular, the review is going to explore ways that ‘Tikanga Māori’ (‘the Māori way of life’) can be incorporated into our legal system. For the Māori Party, this is the main purpose of the review. They hope to force their irrational psycho-legal-babble about the Treaty of Waitangi principles on to the rest of us. No one can accurately define what these principles mean yet these meddlers are prepared to corrupt our political and legal systems with them.

As of March 2012, the Key government is yet to announce plans for the promised “Information and Education Programme” and public consultation process that were supposed to begin early this year. Whether this is due to stonewalling or administrative incompetence, we deserve to know what is going on behind closed doors.

Sooner or later, though, public submissions will open. When they do it is important that people see the process for what it really is - a sham.

If there is to be a review of New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements, then it should be through an open and transparent process that is free from political bias and narrow sectional interest. As it stands, the ‘Consideration of Constitutional Issues’ negotiated by Pita Sharples and John Key is nothing short of a Māori Party think tank.

Remember George Orwell’s Animal Farm? “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

http://nzfirst.org.nz/article/beware-co ... der-column

Are we one or two?

By Dr Muriel Newman

Masquerading as servants of their people, an elite group of tribal leaders have persuaded governments to give them public riches that they do not deserve. Today they are claiming the ownership of New Zealand’s water. Last year they were given the right to make secret deals for the ownership of our mineral-rich foreshore and seabed. Before that, the Clark Government gave them a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum – hardly something that tribal leaders could claim they “owned” at the time of the signing of the Treaty...

Read full article here >> http://www.nzcpr.com/weekly336.htm

New Zealand Constitution - why iwi have got it wrong

By Elizabeth Rata

There is deep disquiet throughout the country about iwi claims for water rights.

However by focussing on the resource itself; previously the foreshore and seabed, this time water, next time airwaves, geothermal energy, and so on, we are in danger of overlooking the source of the issue, of overlooking why such claims can be made in the first place. To find the fundamental flaw in the tribes’ case for the ownership of public resources such as water we need look not only at what is to be owned but at who is claiming ownership. The essence of the tribal claim is that iwi represent a separate ‘public’ – the Maori people - and are therefore entitled to own the resources of that ‘public’...

Read full article here>> http://www.nzcpr.com/guest298.htm

Thanks, Amy, and you were right. My blood pressure is sky high. Why can't they just get it? 'Maori' of today are not the people who signed the treaty either by ethnicity, or actually being there at that time. They are now a blend of many cultures and many are more 'other' than 'Maori'. The Treaty has done it's job - far more than it was ever intended to and for far longer - and should now be consigned to history but the Grievers are going to cling to it as long as it is of use to them. They will flog its very small intentions to death and squeezen ever more from it that was never ever there. Denis O'Rorke had sort of the right idea but he didn't express it strongly enough.

I must check the TV programme as it sounds as though this is a new programme but it is going to clash with Q+A.

I watched that Think Tank programme with John Tamihere on TV3 - they had a discussion about the constitutional review.

The forces are certainly closing in on New Zealand pushing us towards a new constitution based on the Treaty as supreme law.

Watch the interview and listen carefully to Annette Sykes - then get even more worried than you might already be!

http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Think-Tank-Se ... fault.aspx

I fear the same thing, Amy. I'm sure it will be a re-run of the Foreshore and Seabed debacle and the ordinary man in the street won't be listened to. It will be a complete farce and they will just go through the motions then stick with what they want to do regardless. Perhaps I'm being a real 'Joana' but I don't have any faith at all in anything that involves Maori issues. There is definitely an agenda and it seems to be like an unstoppable train. It continues to progress their way, regardless of what the rest of us want.