Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 7, 2016 6:35:32 GMT 12
Wairarapa Times-Age 7/5/16
PRAISE FOR COUNCILLORS’ STANCE
The actions of councillors Goodwin and Caffell (Times-Age, May 5) in opposing the undemocratic appointments of Maori on to the Masterton District Council with voting rights is praiseworthy.
Their stance supports best government based on equality of citizens.
It is also totally justified under the Treaty Of Waitangi which guaranteed Maori the rights and privileges of British subjects in return for granting sovereignty to the Crown. Equality, not preference.
Mayor Lyn Patterson incorrectly infers that legislation “demands” Maori input in council decision- making. Instead the Local Government Act 2002 imposes “an obligation to consider what steps the council can reasonably take to encourage and assist Maori to participate in local affairs”.
“These provisions do not confer special rights and privileges on Maori that are not accorded to other tauiwi (other members of the public).”
Can the council let us know what other races or groups have representatives, with voting rights, to its standing committees?
Lastly, councillor Chris Peterson’s take on history seems contrary to many historians, and while I don’t agree with many things Gareth Morgan says, in this he is on the button. Councillors Goodwin and Caffell, New Zealanders salute you.
GEOFFREY T PARKER
Whangarei
NEPOTISM
The Masterton District Council appointment of unelected iwi with voting rights to council shows that the mayor and councillors who voted for such a measure stinks of nepotism and favouritism and special privileges to iwi.
Mayor Lyn Patterson says legislation requires Maori input into the council decision making process and is to promote a genuine partnership with Maori as required by the Treaty.
The mayor appears to be the only one in New Zealand who knows about it because no one else does.
The comments by the deputy mayor Graham McClymont telling councillors not to “fear” the reaction of Pakeha voters beggars belief, and spells out what he thinks about democracy — the one person, one vote flies out the window and don’t take any notice of what the public think.
Councillor Chris Patterson then adds to the debate by saying it was about “putting us on the right side of history”, and this statement makes the confusion complete as nobody else knows.
Ratepayers have a lot of problems in front of them with this council but give councillors Goodwin and Caffell a tick because they are believers in democracy and their ratepayers. M L
Te Puke
MAORI INPUT
So Masterton District Council has voted to have unelected part-Maori representatives on committees with full speaking and voting rights. One speaker claims that this “would guarantee valuable Maori input in areas important for Wairarapa’s development, such as the environment”.
Why such input is more valuable than that of elected members is not stated. As Michael Skermer noted: “The relatively low environmental impact of hunter- gatherer societies is the result of low population density and inefficient technology, not from conscious efforts at conservation.”
Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule has chipped in with the remark that: “Legislation, especially the Treaty, required councils to consult Maori.”
Now this is a blatant lie. The Treaty of Waitangi said no such thing and to have anybody so ignorant about it as president is an outrage.
If the memories of electors of Masterton are not too short, they have some chance to rectify this violation of democracy in November.
Perhaps the council members who voted for this measure were frightened to be labelled as racists. By voting as they did they have shown that this is exactly what they are. (Abridged)
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
Waikato Times 7/5/16
WATER OWNERSHIP
While some of what Tom O’Connor says about water, ( Times, May 3, 2016) is reasonable, his statements about what was agreed in the Treaty of Waitangi depart a long way from the truth. He quotes the Waitangi Tribunal but the findings of that body are almost invariably twisted and in the case of water, grossly wrong.
There is just nothing in the Treaty to justify the false 2012 ‘‘ruling’’ of the Tribunal ‘‘that Maori have traditional rights and interests in water guaranteed by the Treaty of Waitangi’’ and its finding ‘‘that those rights were equivalent to ownership under the Treaty’’.
We do better to look in the Treaty itself, as too few actually do, to find out what it says. Contrary to O’Connor’s claims, there is nothing in Article Two of the Treaty of Waitangi which says, in both Maori and English, that Maori could retain everything they owned unless they were willing to part with it. In fact the word Maori is not even present in Article Two. What it actually does is guarantee the continued possession of ordinary property (which is what taonga meant in 1840) to ‘‘tangata katoa o Nu Tirani’’ that is ‘‘all the people of New Zealand’’.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
COURT CHARGES
Moko Rangitoheriri died in Taupo hospital, August 2015 and two people have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than stand trial for murder.
Tribal elite blame all the negative statistics held on Maori on the ‘‘colonial oppressors’’ - but how can anyone, other than Maori be held responsible for these tragic consequences to so many of their mokopuna?
Millions of Europeans and other cultures suffered enormous hardship and brutality in the 18th century and they did not have a welfare system to cosset them.
Anne Tolley quotes the majority of children known to CYFs are Maori and says we (the government) have to partner with iwi, whanau ora, procurement agents, purchasing agents, with Maori academics, and with Maori whanau.
The taxpayer spends billions of dollars annually on a multiplicity of Maori initiatives, but nothing changes. Where does the responsibility lie?
MJ & GV A
Tauranga
Southland Times 7/5/16
JUSTICE QUESTIONED
Manslaughter convictions for the carers of a horrifically abused Taupo toddler show the judiciary is prepared to apply a cost/benefit to murder placing a monetary value on the life of children. While a manslaughter conviction was conviction, it won’t gain time served for the proper conviction, murder.
What else could it be? The pair tortured the child by kicking him, stomping on him and slapping him. They rubbed his own faeces in his face. He was eventually beaten to the point where he suffered facial swelling, internal bleeding, septic shock from his leaking bowel and swelling of the brain.
Moko was left for four days suffering those injuries before the couple rang 111, saying he had fallen off a wood pile.
The rhetoric blithely blames everybody else and their inaction.
The truth be told, nobody really cares. It is becoming so rampant that the constancy of it is making us immune; our only real interest is the depth of brutality attached to it. Just another beaten brown face.
‘‘Maori don’t care, why should we’’ is the unspoken reality, thought few will admit it.
Child Matters chief executive Anthea Simcock asks ‘‘What can we do that we’re not producing other adults who might end up doing such horrific things to children in the future?’’.
Well, the time is long overdue for Maori to face up to the malaise that taints them; their whole culture needs to change.
We see little brown faces of mokopuna who have been abused and pummelled to death rarely are there white faces.
Maori exist in disproportionate numbers in all the worst statistics; they are a blight on our communities and an embarrassment to their tribes,hapu and iwi.
The data indicates they long in need of a long hard look at themselves their lifestyles and the consequences of that lifestyle It is ironic that they bleat on about the importance of whanu time and time again, yet it is the whanu that is doing the damage to the mokopuna. Time to tell it like it is and to hell with the PC rubbish. Deal with the data, not racism and emotion. Nobody understands that lives are being lost but nobody cares.
P E-M
Hamilton
TRAGIC DEATH (Also in the Chch Press 7/6/15)
Moko Rangitoheriri died in Taupo hospital in August 2015 and two people have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than stand trial for murder. Tribal elite blame all the negative statistics held on Maori on the ‘‘colonial oppressors’’, but how can anyone, other than Maori, be held responsible for these tragic consequences to so many of their mokopuna?
Millions of Europeans and other cultures suffered enormous hardship and brutality in the 18th century and they did not have a welfare system to cosset them.
Anne Tolley quotes the majority of children known to CYF are Maori and says we (the government) have to partner with iwi, whanau ora, procurement agents, purchasing agents, with Maori academics, and with Maori whanau.
The taxpayer spends billions of dollars annually on a multiplicity of Maori initiatives, but nothing changes. Where does the responsibility lie?
M J A
Tauranga
Bay of Plenty Times 7/5/16
WAR OF WORDS
Re Tommy Wilson supporting the demand for a day commemorating the NZ Wars (Opinion, May 2). This idea is, in my opinion, little more than an attempt by activists to rewrite history, pull on the korowai of victimhood and so gain additional leverage over the Government and further privileges and compensation.
A more suitable and less contentious commemoration for Maori would be to remember the Musket Wars in which upwards of 60,000 were killed. Is this unappealing as the British were not involved and so has little political mileage?
Wilson, in his column, then supports the new name for the Polytechnic. Gordon Roberts, in his letter on the opposite page, in attempting to translate Toi Oho Mai illustrates the pointlessness of the name. It seems it could mean anything or maybe nothing at all. Bay of Plenty Institute of Technology says it all and needs no more elaboration. (Abridged)
R P
Welcome Bay
PRAISE FOR COUNCILLORS’ STANCE
The actions of councillors Goodwin and Caffell (Times-Age, May 5) in opposing the undemocratic appointments of Maori on to the Masterton District Council with voting rights is praiseworthy.
Their stance supports best government based on equality of citizens.
It is also totally justified under the Treaty Of Waitangi which guaranteed Maori the rights and privileges of British subjects in return for granting sovereignty to the Crown. Equality, not preference.
Mayor Lyn Patterson incorrectly infers that legislation “demands” Maori input in council decision- making. Instead the Local Government Act 2002 imposes “an obligation to consider what steps the council can reasonably take to encourage and assist Maori to participate in local affairs”.
“These provisions do not confer special rights and privileges on Maori that are not accorded to other tauiwi (other members of the public).”
Can the council let us know what other races or groups have representatives, with voting rights, to its standing committees?
Lastly, councillor Chris Peterson’s take on history seems contrary to many historians, and while I don’t agree with many things Gareth Morgan says, in this he is on the button. Councillors Goodwin and Caffell, New Zealanders salute you.
GEOFFREY T PARKER
Whangarei
NEPOTISM
The Masterton District Council appointment of unelected iwi with voting rights to council shows that the mayor and councillors who voted for such a measure stinks of nepotism and favouritism and special privileges to iwi.
Mayor Lyn Patterson says legislation requires Maori input into the council decision making process and is to promote a genuine partnership with Maori as required by the Treaty.
The mayor appears to be the only one in New Zealand who knows about it because no one else does.
The comments by the deputy mayor Graham McClymont telling councillors not to “fear” the reaction of Pakeha voters beggars belief, and spells out what he thinks about democracy — the one person, one vote flies out the window and don’t take any notice of what the public think.
Councillor Chris Patterson then adds to the debate by saying it was about “putting us on the right side of history”, and this statement makes the confusion complete as nobody else knows.
Ratepayers have a lot of problems in front of them with this council but give councillors Goodwin and Caffell a tick because they are believers in democracy and their ratepayers. M L
Te Puke
MAORI INPUT
So Masterton District Council has voted to have unelected part-Maori representatives on committees with full speaking and voting rights. One speaker claims that this “would guarantee valuable Maori input in areas important for Wairarapa’s development, such as the environment”.
Why such input is more valuable than that of elected members is not stated. As Michael Skermer noted: “The relatively low environmental impact of hunter- gatherer societies is the result of low population density and inefficient technology, not from conscious efforts at conservation.”
Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule has chipped in with the remark that: “Legislation, especially the Treaty, required councils to consult Maori.”
Now this is a blatant lie. The Treaty of Waitangi said no such thing and to have anybody so ignorant about it as president is an outrage.
If the memories of electors of Masterton are not too short, they have some chance to rectify this violation of democracy in November.
Perhaps the council members who voted for this measure were frightened to be labelled as racists. By voting as they did they have shown that this is exactly what they are. (Abridged)
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
Waikato Times 7/5/16
WATER OWNERSHIP
While some of what Tom O’Connor says about water, ( Times, May 3, 2016) is reasonable, his statements about what was agreed in the Treaty of Waitangi depart a long way from the truth. He quotes the Waitangi Tribunal but the findings of that body are almost invariably twisted and in the case of water, grossly wrong.
There is just nothing in the Treaty to justify the false 2012 ‘‘ruling’’ of the Tribunal ‘‘that Maori have traditional rights and interests in water guaranteed by the Treaty of Waitangi’’ and its finding ‘‘that those rights were equivalent to ownership under the Treaty’’.
We do better to look in the Treaty itself, as too few actually do, to find out what it says. Contrary to O’Connor’s claims, there is nothing in Article Two of the Treaty of Waitangi which says, in both Maori and English, that Maori could retain everything they owned unless they were willing to part with it. In fact the word Maori is not even present in Article Two. What it actually does is guarantee the continued possession of ordinary property (which is what taonga meant in 1840) to ‘‘tangata katoa o Nu Tirani’’ that is ‘‘all the people of New Zealand’’.
BRUCE MOON
Nelson
COURT CHARGES
Moko Rangitoheriri died in Taupo hospital, August 2015 and two people have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than stand trial for murder.
Tribal elite blame all the negative statistics held on Maori on the ‘‘colonial oppressors’’ - but how can anyone, other than Maori be held responsible for these tragic consequences to so many of their mokopuna?
Millions of Europeans and other cultures suffered enormous hardship and brutality in the 18th century and they did not have a welfare system to cosset them.
Anne Tolley quotes the majority of children known to CYFs are Maori and says we (the government) have to partner with iwi, whanau ora, procurement agents, purchasing agents, with Maori academics, and with Maori whanau.
The taxpayer spends billions of dollars annually on a multiplicity of Maori initiatives, but nothing changes. Where does the responsibility lie?
MJ & GV A
Tauranga
Southland Times 7/5/16
JUSTICE QUESTIONED
Manslaughter convictions for the carers of a horrifically abused Taupo toddler show the judiciary is prepared to apply a cost/benefit to murder placing a monetary value on the life of children. While a manslaughter conviction was conviction, it won’t gain time served for the proper conviction, murder.
What else could it be? The pair tortured the child by kicking him, stomping on him and slapping him. They rubbed his own faeces in his face. He was eventually beaten to the point where he suffered facial swelling, internal bleeding, septic shock from his leaking bowel and swelling of the brain.
Moko was left for four days suffering those injuries before the couple rang 111, saying he had fallen off a wood pile.
The rhetoric blithely blames everybody else and their inaction.
The truth be told, nobody really cares. It is becoming so rampant that the constancy of it is making us immune; our only real interest is the depth of brutality attached to it. Just another beaten brown face.
‘‘Maori don’t care, why should we’’ is the unspoken reality, thought few will admit it.
Child Matters chief executive Anthea Simcock asks ‘‘What can we do that we’re not producing other adults who might end up doing such horrific things to children in the future?’’.
Well, the time is long overdue for Maori to face up to the malaise that taints them; their whole culture needs to change.
We see little brown faces of mokopuna who have been abused and pummelled to death rarely are there white faces.
Maori exist in disproportionate numbers in all the worst statistics; they are a blight on our communities and an embarrassment to their tribes,hapu and iwi.
The data indicates they long in need of a long hard look at themselves their lifestyles and the consequences of that lifestyle It is ironic that they bleat on about the importance of whanu time and time again, yet it is the whanu that is doing the damage to the mokopuna. Time to tell it like it is and to hell with the PC rubbish. Deal with the data, not racism and emotion. Nobody understands that lives are being lost but nobody cares.
P E-M
Hamilton
TRAGIC DEATH (Also in the Chch Press 7/6/15)
Moko Rangitoheriri died in Taupo hospital in August 2015 and two people have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than stand trial for murder. Tribal elite blame all the negative statistics held on Maori on the ‘‘colonial oppressors’’, but how can anyone, other than Maori, be held responsible for these tragic consequences to so many of their mokopuna?
Millions of Europeans and other cultures suffered enormous hardship and brutality in the 18th century and they did not have a welfare system to cosset them.
Anne Tolley quotes the majority of children known to CYF are Maori and says we (the government) have to partner with iwi, whanau ora, procurement agents, purchasing agents, with Maori academics, and with Maori whanau.
The taxpayer spends billions of dollars annually on a multiplicity of Maori initiatives, but nothing changes. Where does the responsibility lie?
M J A
Tauranga
Bay of Plenty Times 7/5/16
WAR OF WORDS
Re Tommy Wilson supporting the demand for a day commemorating the NZ Wars (Opinion, May 2). This idea is, in my opinion, little more than an attempt by activists to rewrite history, pull on the korowai of victimhood and so gain additional leverage over the Government and further privileges and compensation.
A more suitable and less contentious commemoration for Maori would be to remember the Musket Wars in which upwards of 60,000 were killed. Is this unappealing as the British were not involved and so has little political mileage?
Wilson, in his column, then supports the new name for the Polytechnic. Gordon Roberts, in his letter on the opposite page, in attempting to translate Toi Oho Mai illustrates the pointlessness of the name. It seems it could mean anything or maybe nothing at all. Bay of Plenty Institute of Technology says it all and needs no more elaboration. (Abridged)
R P
Welcome Bay