Category: Politics
Since 1996 our MMP voting system has given New Zealand a series of coalition governments, consisting of a mainstream party – Labour or National – and minor parties. Some minor parties have radical agendas that are not supported by most voters. Having such parties in government becomes problematic when extreme policies that have a significant impact on the country, are passed into law as part of coalition deal making - against the wider interests of the New Zealand public.
Dr Muriel Newman and I, the co-founders of the Coastal Coalition, are leading a Citizens Initiated Referendum (CIR) on the question “Should the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011be replaced by legislation that restores Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed?” The question has two parts - repealing the Act, and replacing it with a new Act that restores Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed.
There is no doubt that New Zealand is being subjected, more than ever before, to radical forces from within. Previously we - the silent majority - quite rightly relied upon our elected politicians to do the talking and keep the radicals at bay, so that the wishes of the majority of citizens were respected. Unfortunately, however, we now live in a new political environment where the radical elements in our society – those that used to be confined to the fringes of New Zealand politics - are now firmly ensconced on the crossbenches holding the balance of power.
There is an old adage that observes that if you want the same result, just keep on doing the same things. The loss of the famed Jewelled Gecko to wild life smugglers continues unabated from the Otago Peninsula and no doubt - else where. In fact they (the Geckos) are no sooner returned by Customs and DoC to their “natural” surroundings when some other foreign or indigenous scoundrel nicks them again.
Saturday’s release of the Waitangi Tribunal’s long-awaited report on the Wai 262 indigenous flora and fauna claim is packed full of recommendations designed to empower the Maori elite.[1] While the Tribunal is careful to avoid suggesting that Maori should have ownership rights to native plants and animals – something that would evoke a strong public backlash – they have proposed a series of wide-ranging and powerful rights that taken together effectively result in ownership by the back door!
The Auckland City Council’s plans for a $2.6 billion rail loop to assist in easing the city’s transport woes have encountered, as all Aucklanders will be aware, a perhaps unexpected obstacle. One Glenn Wilcox, a member of the Maori Statutory Board which ‘assists’ the council, has pointed out to its transport committee that the rail tunnel between Mt Eden and the Britomart Centre proposed as part of the loop would trespass on the territory of Horotiu. Many Aucklanders had probably forgotten about Horotiu, but he is a taniwha. The taniwha is the principal monster of Maori mythology, and this one’s territory, Mr Wilcox tells us, evidently runs (how does he know?) from Myers Park to the sea, therefore including the area of the Town Hall and Queen Street. ‘The tunnel goes right through his rohe[territory]’, Mr Wilcox told the committee. He added that ‘[i]t concerns me that they [the council] do not see Maori as a component of the city, and that is where I come from’.
It is decision time for the proposed Citizens Initiated Referendum (CIR) to restore Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed. If you are concerned about this issue I would ask you to forward this newsletter on to as many interested people as you can. We need to make contact with as wide a group as possible if the referendum is to have a fighting chance of success.
How hard can it be to collect enough signatures for a referendum? Well first let’s look at the history of Citizens Initiated Referenda (CIR) since Parliament passed the legislation to allow for such a democratic process in 1993.
It has started – Maori tribal corporations are lining up to claim customary title of our coastline. Thanks to National’s Marine and Coastal Area Act, the country’s foreshore and seabed - which has always been the birthright and common heritage of all New Zealanders equally under common law - has now been put up for grabs by iwi.
Last Thursday, TVNZ’s current affairs programme Close Up asked viewers “Do Maori have a special place in this country?” The result was overwhelming - 81 percent of the 40,000 respondents said “No”, Maori do not have a special place.
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