Post by Kiwi Frontline on Apr 13, 2016 6:39:15 GMT 12
The Daily Post Rotorua 13/4/16
MAORI WARDS SEEN AS SEPARATIST
The call by the co-leader of the Maori Party to have Maori wards on all councils must be seen for what it is — a separatist demand by Maori which, if successful, would only serve to further divide communities.
Once again Maori are demanding special privileges, and in this case disregarding the principle of one person, one vote. So much for democracy.
Once again this claim by the Maori Party overlooks the fact that any Maori can stand for council today, and succeed. As we know, here in Rotorua three of the 12 elected councillors were Maori.
I have no doubt that a call to get rid of both the Waitangi Tribunal — which is well past its use-by date — and the Maori seats, would receive far more support nationally than this latest racist call by the Maori Party.
M M
Rotorua
Southland Times 13/4/16
CYFS REVIEW
Having worked in social services for three decades, I can predict that the five-year implementation timeframe to get the new structure up and running will do nothing but take us past the next two elections.
Putting services back into one large single service is what we had in the Menzies building 30 years ago, until Treasury and non-social workers got hold of the Department of Social Welfare.
As for the new service being ‘‘child focused’’, we’ve have had a ‘‘child-centred’’ approach within CYFS and the Family Court for more than a decade.
The real issue and the only one that will make a significant difference to our country’s child welfare record is to deal with the main cultural group for children in care.
Maori make up 60 per cent of the children in care, while they only make up 12 per cent of the population (that is a five fold increase by population). Maori also feature in more than 50 per cent of the prison population, poor health and life expectancy, failure in education etc. I don’t accept that the police or courts (or prison systems) force Maori to commit crime in the first instance, just as CYFS social workers and police do not fail Maori kids who are subject to abuse and neglect.
The key responsibility goes back to Maori families and their hapu groups, which are too accepting that failure is their lot in life.
Just about every child abuse death in recent times is at the hands of a Maori family. And while every man and his dog makes commentary on this, when do you ever see local Iwi leaders standing tall and publicly stating that a particular child death in their Iwi is not acceptable. The leadership is invisible.
Until Maori make such failure unacceptable and until individual families take responsibility for providing a violence-free home for their children and stop blaming the government agencies for the way they are treated after the event, then nothing will change. While Maori continue to fail as a group, we all fail.
Pouring money at this society wide problem will continue to fail until Maori have a mindset change.
N C
Otatara
NZ Herald 13/4/16 (Short & Sweet)
ON SANCTUARY
I think it fair that any iwi that paddle their canoe to the Kermadecs can fish in the new sanctuary as long as they wish.
D K,
Hillsborough.
Hawkes Bay Today 13/4/16
LETTER OF LAW
The concept of one law for all quite simple, even though Pete Thompson of Hastings appears a little confused about it in his letter complaining about pamphlets in his letterbox.
I cannot comment on the pamphlet because I have not received one.
However, to give an example, for a driver running a red light, in an ideal one-law-for-all jurisdiction, the penalty would be exactly the same for Maori, non-Maori, Indian, Asian, African, French, or German, etc, and irrespective of social standing.
This is not rocket science and should not be controversial in a society in which rights are based on citizenship, not ethnicity.
Problems start with statements like “rednecks are . . . ”, “Chinese are . . . ”, or “Maori are . . . ”
MIKE BUTLER
Hastings
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
MAORI WARDS SEEN AS SEPARATIST
The call by the co-leader of the Maori Party to have Maori wards on all councils must be seen for what it is — a separatist demand by Maori which, if successful, would only serve to further divide communities.
Once again Maori are demanding special privileges, and in this case disregarding the principle of one person, one vote. So much for democracy.
Once again this claim by the Maori Party overlooks the fact that any Maori can stand for council today, and succeed. As we know, here in Rotorua three of the 12 elected councillors were Maori.
I have no doubt that a call to get rid of both the Waitangi Tribunal — which is well past its use-by date — and the Maori seats, would receive far more support nationally than this latest racist call by the Maori Party.
M M
Rotorua
Southland Times 13/4/16
CYFS REVIEW
Having worked in social services for three decades, I can predict that the five-year implementation timeframe to get the new structure up and running will do nothing but take us past the next two elections.
Putting services back into one large single service is what we had in the Menzies building 30 years ago, until Treasury and non-social workers got hold of the Department of Social Welfare.
As for the new service being ‘‘child focused’’, we’ve have had a ‘‘child-centred’’ approach within CYFS and the Family Court for more than a decade.
The real issue and the only one that will make a significant difference to our country’s child welfare record is to deal with the main cultural group for children in care.
Maori make up 60 per cent of the children in care, while they only make up 12 per cent of the population (that is a five fold increase by population). Maori also feature in more than 50 per cent of the prison population, poor health and life expectancy, failure in education etc. I don’t accept that the police or courts (or prison systems) force Maori to commit crime in the first instance, just as CYFS social workers and police do not fail Maori kids who are subject to abuse and neglect.
The key responsibility goes back to Maori families and their hapu groups, which are too accepting that failure is their lot in life.
Just about every child abuse death in recent times is at the hands of a Maori family. And while every man and his dog makes commentary on this, when do you ever see local Iwi leaders standing tall and publicly stating that a particular child death in their Iwi is not acceptable. The leadership is invisible.
Until Maori make such failure unacceptable and until individual families take responsibility for providing a violence-free home for their children and stop blaming the government agencies for the way they are treated after the event, then nothing will change. While Maori continue to fail as a group, we all fail.
Pouring money at this society wide problem will continue to fail until Maori have a mindset change.
N C
Otatara
NZ Herald 13/4/16 (Short & Sweet)
ON SANCTUARY
I think it fair that any iwi that paddle their canoe to the Kermadecs can fish in the new sanctuary as long as they wish.
D K,
Hillsborough.
Hawkes Bay Today 13/4/16
LETTER OF LAW
The concept of one law for all quite simple, even though Pete Thompson of Hastings appears a little confused about it in his letter complaining about pamphlets in his letterbox.
I cannot comment on the pamphlet because I have not received one.
However, to give an example, for a driver running a red light, in an ideal one-law-for-all jurisdiction, the penalty would be exactly the same for Maori, non-Maori, Indian, Asian, African, French, or German, etc, and irrespective of social standing.
This is not rocket science and should not be controversial in a society in which rights are based on citizenship, not ethnicity.
Problems start with statements like “rednecks are . . . ”, “Chinese are . . . ”, or “Maori are . . . ”
MIKE BUTLER
Hastings
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers