Post by Kiwi Frontline on Dec 24, 2016 7:02:08 GMT 12
Waikato Times 24/12/16
KEY 'TEFLON MAN'
Amid the bouquets and brickbats that have accompanied the retirement of John Key, those who have been most effusive in praise of his personal qualities and political acumen have not reflected on some aspects of his leadership that are not so laudatory.
His broken electoral promise to remove the Maori electoral seats, his delegating decision making on unpopular issues such as the RMA and the iwi water issue, his reluctance to accept that the population comprehensively rejected non-elected Maori being appointed to councils, his unequivocal acceptance of most Waitangi Tribunal's directives, valid or not.
His silence on the spurious claim that the Treaty represents a partnership of the Crown with Maori., the adoption of The Foreshore and Seabed Act giving much of the control of our coastline to iwi. His placing the Maori Party with 1.5% of the electoral vote above the needs of the whole population.
He has shown his consummate ability in handling difficult problems by ignoring their existence. A Teflon Man indeed. But no doubt his successor will continue his party's racist policies.
B J
Omokoroa
BLAME GAME
I was disgusted to read in a recent newspaper article that Marama Fox's (Maori Party MP) claim that an "overhaul of CYF is risking creating a "stolen generation" of Maori children'. Ms Fox stated, 63% of CYF children and 71% of young people in prison are Maori and Ms Fox then made the shameful claim "it wasn't Maori families that failed their children, the system failed their children".
What utter garbage. Would Ms Fox kindly explain why 63% of Maori children were in CYF's care in the first place.
I have yet to hear Maori take responsibility for how their families turn out and Maori leaders are the worst.
When all families put their children first, stop drinking, partying, taking drugs, etc and put positive input into their lives such as love, food, necessities, education,etc, all families, including Maori, will have positive outcomes.
We are totally and utterly sick of the "blame game" when Maori fail.
J H
Tauranga
Sunlive / Weekend Sun 23/12/16
WE ALL NEED HOUSES, FOOD, CLOTHING ETC..
Re: ‘Maori do need race-based policies' (The Weekend Sun, November 4). M Leabourn's letter in which he alleges the Government does not make special provisions for Maori ‘needs'.
I would like to know what are the special needs of part-Maori today?
We all need houses, food, clothing, education and healthcare, which is available to all.
When Charles Darwin visited these shores in The Beagle, he wrote the land was barren, the natives hostile, and they lived in hovels. After Maori took over the land from those already here, just what did they do to improve the quality of life? Actually nothing, for they stripped the land of trees, and ate nearly everything that walked or flew, including the 12 species of moa.
Conservationists they were not, luckily colonists have since done their upmost to restore many species. We know inter-tribal fighting, cannibalism and slavery were rife, but if it was such a wonderful culture and lifestyle why did Maori leaders first beg King William, and then Queen Victoria, to send troops to put an end to the looming extinction of Maori, especially after the Musket Wars.
If Maori want to participate in government then let them put candidates forward for election. It is ludicrous to suggest the 18 per cent part-Maori be given co-governance and it is up to them to be elected like everyone else. We are one nation.
M B
Tauranga City.
THE LIST OF UNDERACHIEVING IS ENDLESS...
On the question of former Prime Minister John Key's sudden departure, I will go with Winston Peters' assessment that the timing is simply not credible and something's amiss.
All the eulogizing about Mr Key is nauseating, he's basically achieved nothing as leader in eight years at the helm other than exude a ‘warm fuzzy feel-good' daydreaming philosophy. Immigration rates a fail, education and health are stuttering, and housing policies are a mess.
Key's National Government's race-based initiatives on freshwater, marine and coastal, Resource Management Act amendments etc and compelling councils to kowtow to vested Maori interests with the push for unelected race-based representation are palpably wrong and will ultimately lead to the destruction of racial equality if unchecked.
Frankly, the list of underachieving is endless and as for balancing the country's books, that's just a joke based on creative smoke and mirrors stuff and inevitably the false consumption and services based NZ economy will tank sooner rather than later.
So, when the going gets tough, when all the rhetoric no longer works and justifiable criticism starts hitting home then just before everything turns to custard, he's riding off into the sunset!
Parliament breaks up for two months from mid-December, and surely common sense tells us nothing will be done during that time so why couldn't Key's announcement have waited till the New Year? Unless, of course, he is aiming to make the honours list?
Whatever the conspiracy theories might be its starting to look like they may have some merit.
Mr Key is no loss but those who will replace him now and after the 2017 Elections could be scary stuff so fasten your safety belts. Put in a nice way Key's departure is a welcome relief.
R P
Matapihi
THANK YOU
A big ‘thank-you' to Rodney Hide for, in his recent Herald on Sunday article, giving us a reflection on the mind and character of multi-dollared, political aspirant, Gareth Morgan. What he may lack in finesse he certainly compensates for in his knowledge of excoriating expletives and vindictive vernacular. A man of many talents, he studied the Treaty of Waitangi, “are we there yet…” and to enlighten an ignorant public wrote a book on the subject. Its title should have been ‘Munchausen's Guide to Te Tiriti' for its wealth of fanciful conclusions.
B J
Omokoroa.
KEY 'TEFLON MAN'
Amid the bouquets and brickbats that have accompanied the retirement of John Key, those who have been most effusive in praise of his personal qualities and political acumen have not reflected on some aspects of his leadership that are not so laudatory.
His broken electoral promise to remove the Maori electoral seats, his delegating decision making on unpopular issues such as the RMA and the iwi water issue, his reluctance to accept that the population comprehensively rejected non-elected Maori being appointed to councils, his unequivocal acceptance of most Waitangi Tribunal's directives, valid or not.
His silence on the spurious claim that the Treaty represents a partnership of the Crown with Maori., the adoption of The Foreshore and Seabed Act giving much of the control of our coastline to iwi. His placing the Maori Party with 1.5% of the electoral vote above the needs of the whole population.
He has shown his consummate ability in handling difficult problems by ignoring their existence. A Teflon Man indeed. But no doubt his successor will continue his party's racist policies.
B J
Omokoroa
BLAME GAME
I was disgusted to read in a recent newspaper article that Marama Fox's (Maori Party MP) claim that an "overhaul of CYF is risking creating a "stolen generation" of Maori children'. Ms Fox stated, 63% of CYF children and 71% of young people in prison are Maori and Ms Fox then made the shameful claim "it wasn't Maori families that failed their children, the system failed their children".
What utter garbage. Would Ms Fox kindly explain why 63% of Maori children were in CYF's care in the first place.
I have yet to hear Maori take responsibility for how their families turn out and Maori leaders are the worst.
When all families put their children first, stop drinking, partying, taking drugs, etc and put positive input into their lives such as love, food, necessities, education,etc, all families, including Maori, will have positive outcomes.
We are totally and utterly sick of the "blame game" when Maori fail.
J H
Tauranga
Sunlive / Weekend Sun 23/12/16
WE ALL NEED HOUSES, FOOD, CLOTHING ETC..
Re: ‘Maori do need race-based policies' (The Weekend Sun, November 4). M Leabourn's letter in which he alleges the Government does not make special provisions for Maori ‘needs'.
I would like to know what are the special needs of part-Maori today?
We all need houses, food, clothing, education and healthcare, which is available to all.
When Charles Darwin visited these shores in The Beagle, he wrote the land was barren, the natives hostile, and they lived in hovels. After Maori took over the land from those already here, just what did they do to improve the quality of life? Actually nothing, for they stripped the land of trees, and ate nearly everything that walked or flew, including the 12 species of moa.
Conservationists they were not, luckily colonists have since done their upmost to restore many species. We know inter-tribal fighting, cannibalism and slavery were rife, but if it was such a wonderful culture and lifestyle why did Maori leaders first beg King William, and then Queen Victoria, to send troops to put an end to the looming extinction of Maori, especially after the Musket Wars.
If Maori want to participate in government then let them put candidates forward for election. It is ludicrous to suggest the 18 per cent part-Maori be given co-governance and it is up to them to be elected like everyone else. We are one nation.
M B
Tauranga City.
THE LIST OF UNDERACHIEVING IS ENDLESS...
On the question of former Prime Minister John Key's sudden departure, I will go with Winston Peters' assessment that the timing is simply not credible and something's amiss.
All the eulogizing about Mr Key is nauseating, he's basically achieved nothing as leader in eight years at the helm other than exude a ‘warm fuzzy feel-good' daydreaming philosophy. Immigration rates a fail, education and health are stuttering, and housing policies are a mess.
Key's National Government's race-based initiatives on freshwater, marine and coastal, Resource Management Act amendments etc and compelling councils to kowtow to vested Maori interests with the push for unelected race-based representation are palpably wrong and will ultimately lead to the destruction of racial equality if unchecked.
Frankly, the list of underachieving is endless and as for balancing the country's books, that's just a joke based on creative smoke and mirrors stuff and inevitably the false consumption and services based NZ economy will tank sooner rather than later.
So, when the going gets tough, when all the rhetoric no longer works and justifiable criticism starts hitting home then just before everything turns to custard, he's riding off into the sunset!
Parliament breaks up for two months from mid-December, and surely common sense tells us nothing will be done during that time so why couldn't Key's announcement have waited till the New Year? Unless, of course, he is aiming to make the honours list?
Whatever the conspiracy theories might be its starting to look like they may have some merit.
Mr Key is no loss but those who will replace him now and after the 2017 Elections could be scary stuff so fasten your safety belts. Put in a nice way Key's departure is a welcome relief.
R P
Matapihi
THANK YOU
A big ‘thank-you' to Rodney Hide for, in his recent Herald on Sunday article, giving us a reflection on the mind and character of multi-dollared, political aspirant, Gareth Morgan. What he may lack in finesse he certainly compensates for in his knowledge of excoriating expletives and vindictive vernacular. A man of many talents, he studied the Treaty of Waitangi, “are we there yet…” and to enlighten an ignorant public wrote a book on the subject. Its title should have been ‘Munchausen's Guide to Te Tiriti' for its wealth of fanciful conclusions.
B J
Omokoroa.