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On
Friday the Waitangi Tribunal is expected to report back on the
Maori Council’s claim for the ownership of New Zealand’s
fresh water. This deadline was requested by the government to
prevent a delay in their asset sales programme and a potential
loss of value for New Zealand taxpayers.
The
co-chairman of the Maori Council, Sir Eddie Durie, was
interviewed by TVNZ on their Q+A programme on Sunday in an
attempt to better understand the reasoning behind their water
claim.[1] He explained that “Maori law” is different from
“pakeha law” and that under the “Maori legal system”,
Maori had customary rights to water that should continue
indefinitely. Where Maori still live near water, he argued,
they should receive a royalty on all water taken by other
groups; if they have moved away they should be eligible to
draw from a compensation fund. He implied that compensation
should be available for water used without payment over the
last 150 years.
In
the interview he explained, “property rights are to be
determined according to the customs and traditions of Maori.
That’s a long established principle in New Zealand and
internationally, and we’re saying that that right which was
established in that way, through customary use, should
continue to be recognised to the extent that it is still
feasible to do so.”
Essentially, he is saying ‘Maori law’, not the New Zealand
legal system, should be used to determine the future of Maori
interests in New Zealand.
Sir
Eddie, a former High Court Judge and Law Commissioner, spent
more than 20 years as Chairman of the Waitangi Tribunal. With
such radical views, it is therefore little wonder that the
decisions produced by the Tribunal over the years have been so
outrageously biased towards tribal claimants. To expect the
Tribunal to deliver anything but a biased decision is simply
fanciful. The Government is right to ignore the decisions of
the Tribunal, but it should go further and abolish the
Tribunal entirely. That would certainly be a more honest
response than pretending it is anything but a vehicle and
gravy train for radical iwi.
It
is also no wonder that National’s foreshore and seabed
legislation removed public ownership, with the
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson appointing Sir Eddie Durie to
chair the Ministerial Taskforce on the law change!
Ever
since former Prime Minister Helen Clark changed the law to
close off historic Treaty claims to the Waitangi Tribunal in
2008, the tribal elite have been inventing new ways to
perpetuate the Treaty claims industry. John Key strengthened
their cause when he signed New Zealand up to the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as
part of a back-room coalition deal with the Maori Party.
Article
25 of that Declaration states that “Indigenous peoples have
the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive
spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or
otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters
and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their
responsibilities to future generations in this regard.”
Article 32 then suggests that governments have a duty to
undertake special consultation with such groups “prior to
the approval of any project affecting their lands or
territories and other resources, particularly in connection
with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.” It
then goes on to assert that “effective mechanisms for just
and fair redress”
must be provided.[2]
It
is utterly contemptible that John Key and his National
Government could sell their principles to appease the
separatist Maori Party.
The
bigger issue here however, is that New Zealanders are being
treated like fools by the iwi elite. For decades foolish
politicians have pranced and danced to their tune, willingly
donating endless taxpayer resources into the coffers of these
private corporations - and allowing radicals to exert
influence from within their own ranks.
We
can now clearly see the result of that track record of
appeasement - and a glaring lack of political courage – in
the rise of radical tribal activists, the rise of corporate
iwi pursuing more and more claims, in rackets and rorts, and
in an increasingly divided country where people are
progressively separated on the basis of race.
First
it was the Treaty claims and politicians turning a blind eye
to the fact that all of the remotely genuine claims had
already been settled multiple times by earlier governments.
Now
claims are becoming more demanding and absurd. For example,
Tuhoe demanded ownership of the entire half a million acres
(2,127 sq km) of the Urewera National Park - in spite of the
long established convention that the conservation estate would
not be used for Treaty settlements. What’s worse is that the
Treaty Settlement Minister Chris Finlayson agreed to the deal!
It was only the intervention of the Prime Minister - when he
realised how strong public opposition was to the giving away
of our National Park to a tribal group - that he pulled the
plug. Whether the Urewera National Park will be part of the
new settlement agreement with Tuhoe remains to be seen.
But
the tribal elite don’t stop at land. With the assistance of
the Waitangi Tribunal, iwi are claiming ownership of New
Zealand’s flora and fauna – our plants and wildlife
including their genetic material. That claim is simply waiting
for the government’s response. New claims for Mataitai, or
customary fishing areas, are now coming through, which give
local tribes the right to seize control of an area for
themselves and lock everyone else out – under the guise of
environmental concerns, fishing stock regeneration,
sustainability or some other worthy excuse.
New
claims are being lodged by tribal corporations for ownership
of the mineral-rich coastline – thanks to National’s
appalling Marine and Coastal Area Act. And let’s not forget
their successful claim to the electromagnetic spectrum.
The
tribal elite’s next claim is for the very governance of New
Zealand.
The
Maori Council and the other elite tribal groups will be
carefully watching the progress of the Maori Party’s $4
million constitutional review. If they succeed in persuading
New Zealanders that the time is right for the introduction of
a new written constitution - that enshrines the principles of the Treaty
of Waitangi as superior law - “Maori law” and privilege
will become entrenched. Non-Maori New Zealanders will become
second-class citizens in their own land.
What’s
worse is that any attempt by any future government to change
such an arrangement would be struck down as unconstitutional.
David Round, a constitutional law expert at Canterbury
University and this week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, says
that if the Treaty gets into a new constitution in any way at
all, New Zealand would be “irrevocably stuffed”.
David explains, “The present proposed constitutional review
is not just another crime against the common good in this
sorry catalogue. It is far worse; it would be the death-blow
to our country. So far, everything that has been done can be
undone. A ‘constitution’ is simply the rules by which
something is constituted and organised. We have a constitution
now. At present, though, our constitution is not found in any
one document which can be labelled ‘The Constitution’, but
in principles of the common law and in long-standing customs
and practices (much, although not all, originally inherited
from England), and in many Acts of Parliament.
“The fundamental principle of our constitution is (at
present) the ancient one we inherited from the common law of
England that Parliament is supreme. That principle is not
found in any Act of Parliament, it is simply ancient law. It
is also, of course, a principle consistent with democratic
government. As things stand at present, then, any Parliament
could abolish racial privilege and restore the equality of
citizens and government for the common good. But if the Maori
Party has its way ~ if we come to be saddled with an
over-riding written constitution which controlled what
Parliament may and may not do, and which declared that the
‘principles of the Treaty’ were a higher law which always
prevailed ~ then Parliament would not be supreme in future. If
future Parliaments were to attempt to establish and restore
true racial equality, then, its laws could be struck down by
judges who considered that those laws breached a ‘Treaty
principle’ of eternal special status for those of Maori
descent.” To read the full Charter
article, please click here
>>>
As
you will be aware, ever since the New Zealand Centre for
Political Research was first established in 2005, we have been
fighting against racial privilege. We firmly believe that all
New Zealanders should be equal in the eyes of the law. There should be no special treatment based
on race. With the Maori Party spending $4 million to convince
New Zealanders that a new "written" constitution
based on the Treaty as supreme law, is in the best interest of
the country, we are taking a stand.
Legal
and official racism has gone too far in this country. The
public is being betrayed by politicians who do not have the
fortitudes to protect the public interest and call an end to
the grievance industry. Treaty sympathisers in the public
service and Judiciary are complicit, with race based
preference now infiltrating every crevice within our public
institutions.
In the words of David Round: “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.”
To support this pledge, please sign the DECLARATION
OF EQUALITY on our new Independent
Constitutional Review website. By signing up to the DECLARATION
OF EQUALITY, you too will be putting a stake in the
ground, demanding one law for all New Zealanders with no
special treatment based on race. The Independent
Constitutional Review website can be found at www.ConstitutionalReview.org.
Please tell everyone who shares our concerns about it.
To visit the website and sign the DECLARATION
OF EQUALITY, please click here>>>
This
week’s poll asks: Do
you believe the Waitangi Tribunal should be abolished? Click here for poll >>>
FOOTNOTES:
1.TVNZ, Q+A
2.United Nations, Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
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