Category: Regulation
The period from the mid-1980s through until the mid-1990s in New Zealand witnessed the rapid acceptance of Māori science as an equal partner under the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi with what was to become specified and thereafter denigrated as “Western” science.
The key decisions that set the food price crisis in motion were made by Labour. Framed as bold climate leadership by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, her 2018 Captain’s Call banning offshore oil and gas exploration, and the 2019 Zero Carbon Act introducing the harshest emissions restrictions in the world, came with predictable consequences: energy shortages and rising fuel prices, as the cost of carbon soared from $17 in 2017 to $88.50 in 2022.
As a former dairy farmer I was shocked to learn that Fonterra is selling its brands’ business. Call it emotional attachment rather than hard-headed commercial reality. For all my dairy farming years I heard that we needed to be closer to our consumers, that branding was an integral part of extracting profit from product sales and that we needed to better understand what our customers wanted. We needed to own the food chain – ‘plough to plate’.
Last week the Supreme Court delivered the second of its two-part judgement on the first Marine and Coastal Area Act case to progress its way through to our highest court. The first decision released last December put “tikanga” or Maori custom at the heart of all coastal claim decision-making, while the second, which only affects the mouths of navigable rivers, will end up opening up the country’s waterways for tribal claim.
In a compelling analysis, Emeritus Professor Peter Watts KC exposes how the Supreme Court’s decision in Ellis v R (continuance) represents a revolutionary departure from New Zealand’s constitutional foundations. It exposes how, by declaring tikanga relevant to any issue of common law or statutory interpretation, the Court has up-ended our legal system without a legitimate constitutional mandate.
Stopping the tribal takeover is what National, ACT and New Zealand First promised to do when they agreed to prioritise “Ending race-based policies” in their Coalition Agreement. By “ending race-based policies” and expunging all references to “race” and “Maori” from our Statute books (excluding Treaty settlement legislation), New Zealand would join over half of all OECD countries that have adopted a similar “colourblind” approach.
Forty-two councils are set to hold pivotal referenda on the future of Maori seats in October, yet few New Zealanders appear to grasp just how high the stakes actually are. Proponents of Maori sovereignty understand the gravity: losing these seats would deal a crushing blow to their push for control over local councils. More critically, it could jeopardise their race-based parliamentary seats and their He Puapua plan to dominate “Aotearoa” by 2040.
The cultural takeover has now reached the point where grassroots New Zealand needs to again be mobilised. We need to send a strong message to central government that New Zealanders have had enough. We can do that in a number of ways, but the most urgent is to vote “No” to Maori wards in the October local body elections.
How has it come to pass that even an English-style “prep” school is in such obvious denial of its own heritage? What kind of societal pressure has led to such a school’s adopting a false Maori “persona”? And what does this signify in terms of the direction in which our country is heading?
While the inefficiencies and cost blowouts of local government are a major concern for the Coalition – and rightly so given the huge impact it has on our economy and our lives – they must not lose sight of the fact that many parts of the country local government is now effectively being run by iwi for their own benefit.
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