Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jan 19, 2024 7:00:48 GMT 12
Barrie Davis: THE TEMERITY OF WAITANGI
Things have clearly got out of hand. Regarding his five-year term as Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt wrote in The Post, 16 January 2024, there has been “a deepening understanding and acceptance of ti Tirti o Waitangi. Recent setbacks will be short term. Non-Maori have nothing to fear from te Tiriti and much to gain.” But he did not offer any examples. It is pleasing that the new coalition Government are saying they will address aspects of the degradation of our democracy due to institutionalized Maori privilege. But if we do not conclusively resolve the problem of Waitangi now, He Puapua will be re-started after the next swing of the pendulum when we are again faced with a Red-Brown-Green government similar to that which we have just experienced.
The people who drafted the Waitangi Treaty-1840 did not look far into the future. Michael Belgrave tells us (Ibid., p. 66), “The world that created the treaty, interpreted it, and gave it meaning was quickly eclipsed by the agendas of the new state. The treaty was more the end of an era than the beginning of one.” Those who made Treaty-1840 did not consider the problems of today – such as migration, housing and environment, mostly brought about by a burgeoning human population – and so their Treaty does not address them. If we are to account for the pressing issues we now face, it is necessary that we do not let a Maori interest group triumph over New Zealand society with a distorted interpretation of an anachronistic agreement from the nineteenth century deceptively marketed under the brand ‘The Treaty of Waitangi’.
We should not be constrained by the 1840 Treaty and we need to do a reset on the impertinent Treaty-1975. We need a social contract that does not distinguish on the basis of race and that recognizes the already present blurring of racial categories of part-Maoris and non-Maoris – including Islanders, Asians and others – leading to the inevitable disappearance of distinct races altogether. We need a return to basic democratic practices and to trust ourselves to identify rational evidence-based principles for New Zealand legislation and law. For that we need to debate David Seymour’s proposal, as he suggests, and then make a decision on the Treaty in a binding referendum......
Full interesting article here > breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/01/barrie-davis-temerity-of-waitangi.html
Things have clearly got out of hand. Regarding his five-year term as Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt wrote in The Post, 16 January 2024, there has been “a deepening understanding and acceptance of ti Tirti o Waitangi. Recent setbacks will be short term. Non-Maori have nothing to fear from te Tiriti and much to gain.” But he did not offer any examples. It is pleasing that the new coalition Government are saying they will address aspects of the degradation of our democracy due to institutionalized Maori privilege. But if we do not conclusively resolve the problem of Waitangi now, He Puapua will be re-started after the next swing of the pendulum when we are again faced with a Red-Brown-Green government similar to that which we have just experienced.
The people who drafted the Waitangi Treaty-1840 did not look far into the future. Michael Belgrave tells us (Ibid., p. 66), “The world that created the treaty, interpreted it, and gave it meaning was quickly eclipsed by the agendas of the new state. The treaty was more the end of an era than the beginning of one.” Those who made Treaty-1840 did not consider the problems of today – such as migration, housing and environment, mostly brought about by a burgeoning human population – and so their Treaty does not address them. If we are to account for the pressing issues we now face, it is necessary that we do not let a Maori interest group triumph over New Zealand society with a distorted interpretation of an anachronistic agreement from the nineteenth century deceptively marketed under the brand ‘The Treaty of Waitangi’.
We should not be constrained by the 1840 Treaty and we need to do a reset on the impertinent Treaty-1975. We need a social contract that does not distinguish on the basis of race and that recognizes the already present blurring of racial categories of part-Maoris and non-Maoris – including Islanders, Asians and others – leading to the inevitable disappearance of distinct races altogether. We need a return to basic democratic practices and to trust ourselves to identify rational evidence-based principles for New Zealand legislation and law. For that we need to debate David Seymour’s proposal, as he suggests, and then make a decision on the Treaty in a binding referendum......
Full interesting article here > breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/01/barrie-davis-temerity-of-waitangi.html