Category: Maori Issues

Maori tribal rahui roadblocks instigated across New Zealand under COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown and continued under Level 3 and even Level 2 are illegal. Independent investigations of what happened over the roadblocks have become imperative.

New Zealand is at a crossroads. This is the moment that will define the next generation. Will our future embrace freedom and liberty, or are we staring down the barrel of increasing Sate control. Will we go down the path towards socialism or free enterprise.

Instead of questioning the accuracy of the computer models, the Prime Minister appears to have been spooked into making another of her disastrous 'Captain’s Calls' - to lock down the country and ‘eliminate’ the virus.

Public anxiety at the way these blockades are operating – and not just in the Far North, but on the East Coast and reportedly in the central North Island as well – has reached such a level that National MPs can’t ignore it.

German immunologist and toxicologist Professor Stefan Hockertz says, “Covid-19 is no more dangerous than influenza, but is simply observed much more closely. More dangerous than the virus is the fear and panic created by the media and the ‘authoritarian reaction’ of many governments.”

Any restrictions anywhere in New Zealand on public movement under COVID-19 Level 4 national emergency criteria should apply equally everywhere and to everybody, regardless of race, and only be imposed and enforced by legitimate authorities of the state and not Maori amateurs.

Without a doubt Sian Elias’ Ngati Apa judgement was unprecedented judicial activism. And that’s the problem with judicial activism – the public are left to pick up the pieces. So here we are, almost 20 years later, facing multiple tribal claims for the country’s entire coastline. The first ones will be heard this year...

That’s the tragedy of tribalism - vulnerable Maori families have become pawns in a complex revenue stream that relies on the number of people experiencing disadvantage increasing. Now the former Maori Party co-leader Dame Tariana Turia appears intent on using them to help her resurrect the fortunes of the party she founded.

In that spirit of unity Prime Minister Norman Kirk insisted that the day of celebration should be called New Zealand Day – a day for all New Zealanders to observe our different identities and the sense of nationhood that brought us together. He wanted to ensure the day was owned by everyone, irrespective of race or heritage.

"Colonisation by a nation of shopkeepers". So said Napoleon Bonaparte of the English, and as with many things he was close to the truth. He meant it as an insult of course but found to his dismay as did the Kaiser and Hitler that when poked with a big enough stick the shop keepers had a nasty bite.