Category: Politics
When he launched the initiative to choose a new flag, the Prime Minister said he wanted to give New Zealanders an opportunity to reflect on our culture and the things we hold dear. But while there’s been a lot of discussion about flags a wider discussion about what it means to be a New Zealander has been much less forthcoming.
It would be great to see Human Rights Commissioner Susan Devoy take on a real problem, instead of wasting time on hoary old sillinesses like dropping the word Christmas from our summer vocabulary.
They say nothing is more certain in life than death and taxes. For governments, charged with the task of deciding how to spend our tax money, their choices can indeed mean the difference between life and death.
It is now clear that Iwi Participation Agreements have been designed to provide a mechanism by which any iwi, any where in the country, can demand the right to become joint or full resource management consenting authorities for the control of water and other natural resources in their area. No other law changes will be necessary.
The proposed amendments to the Resource Management Act announced just a few days ago make it abundantly clear that we are well down the track of accepting that we are not really one people at all, but two distinct groups with different political rights.
Far too many tribal members are isolated from the mainstream and live on the fringes of society, where they are detached from education, suffer poor health, lack the skills needed to get a good job – and are burdened with a permanent sense of grievance.
As you read this newsletter, the New Zealand Centre for Political Research’s public information campaign outlining the government’s intention to allow Maori control of fresh water is getting ready to roll off the printing presses.
A $1-billion “capacity building” fund plus tribal ownership of freshwater, of all Crown owned river and lake beds, and the water column, are among proposals the Freshwater Iwi Leaders Group is taking around the country for tribal ratification.
The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a 12-country trade deal between New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the US, and Vietnam, was released last week.
TPP is big in its own right. But I suspect it will prove to be at least as significant for the powerful momentum shift it represents. The truth is that, since China (and Taiwan) joined the WTO way back in 2002, there have been no globally significant trade negotiating outcomes. There have been FTA’s. Plenty of them. But nothing really big.
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