Post by Kiwi Frontline on Dec 6, 2019 15:43:54 GMT 12
Weekend Sun / Sunlive 6/12/19
KNOWLEDGE, OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCE
The Local Government Act requires local authorities to have processes to provide opportunities for Maori to contribute to the decision-making process and to foster the development of Maori capacity to contribute.
I expect Maori to have input into council decision-making and I expect the council to consider those views but what I do not accept is for Maori to have an unqualified right of veto. To elevate the Maori world view above all other's world views is unacceptable.
The Treaty cannot imply a superior form of citizenship. Any argument for different treatment under Article 2 or 3, based purely on an ethnic basis, is fundamentally repugnant.
I also expect councillors to have differences of knowledge, opinions and experience, for it is that, that makes for robust decision-making. Requiring holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is not the way to well-considered outcomes.
We need to be a country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equality under the law. If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders, we will fail as a country.
R PRINCE, Tauranga.
TCC V RACE RELATIONS COMMISSIONER
During the 1980s I was very vocal regarding rugby trips to South Africa not having Maori members, so I am not ‘racist’.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 [45 years ago] was meant to address confiscated land. In that 45 years Ngapuhi have not made their claim because they are not able to agree who is to represent them. Yes, a whole 45 years later! From memory the Government claimed all treaty settlements would be final by 2014. Then there are to be ‘top-up’ settlements. Hello?
After the Race Relations Commissioner claimed Andrew Hollis should stand down, I wrote to Meng Foon [Race Relations Comissioner], outlining my thoughts on the subject, taking the intervening 45 years into account, asking him whether he considered my comments ‘racist’.
After several emails back and forth and my repeated asking that same question, he refused to do so. Andrew Hollis’ thoughts appear to be exactly the same as mine, for exactly the same reason – the vast majority of New Zealanders, after 45 years, are over the division this is causing in our country, want to put it behind us and get along together, without special rights for any person/race.
J HILL, Tauranga.
EQUALITY – IT MATTERS
To S Reid of Omokoroa (The Weekend Sun, November 29, page 49) I want to explain what the Treaty of Waitangi means to me.
Having been elected to Local Govt in 1977 when I was the second woman ever to be elected to a district council Waimairi with a population of 74,500, what was always and still is today on Western Bay District Council, is Article 3 of the Treaty which was such a globally enlightened document in 1840 and made all people living in New Zealand equal with British subjects. Before the law that still stands.
Eventually we women got the vote and last term, I was the only woman on council and now we have four. One can get a very large vote from the voters and one can have enormous experience but if the Mayor chooses, he has the power to bury one which he has done to me—no chairmanships and being the most experienced and qualified, nothing counts if the leader chooses. So Mr Reid there are times when equality doesn’t mean a thing to some, but that is no reason to give up as there always so much to be done.
M MURRAY-BENGE, Bethlehem.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
KNOWLEDGE, OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCE
The Local Government Act requires local authorities to have processes to provide opportunities for Maori to contribute to the decision-making process and to foster the development of Maori capacity to contribute.
I expect Maori to have input into council decision-making and I expect the council to consider those views but what I do not accept is for Maori to have an unqualified right of veto. To elevate the Maori world view above all other's world views is unacceptable.
The Treaty cannot imply a superior form of citizenship. Any argument for different treatment under Article 2 or 3, based purely on an ethnic basis, is fundamentally repugnant.
I also expect councillors to have differences of knowledge, opinions and experience, for it is that, that makes for robust decision-making. Requiring holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is not the way to well-considered outcomes.
We need to be a country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equality under the law. If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders, we will fail as a country.
R PRINCE, Tauranga.
TCC V RACE RELATIONS COMMISSIONER
During the 1980s I was very vocal regarding rugby trips to South Africa not having Maori members, so I am not ‘racist’.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 [45 years ago] was meant to address confiscated land. In that 45 years Ngapuhi have not made their claim because they are not able to agree who is to represent them. Yes, a whole 45 years later! From memory the Government claimed all treaty settlements would be final by 2014. Then there are to be ‘top-up’ settlements. Hello?
After the Race Relations Commissioner claimed Andrew Hollis should stand down, I wrote to Meng Foon [Race Relations Comissioner], outlining my thoughts on the subject, taking the intervening 45 years into account, asking him whether he considered my comments ‘racist’.
After several emails back and forth and my repeated asking that same question, he refused to do so. Andrew Hollis’ thoughts appear to be exactly the same as mine, for exactly the same reason – the vast majority of New Zealanders, after 45 years, are over the division this is causing in our country, want to put it behind us and get along together, without special rights for any person/race.
J HILL, Tauranga.
EQUALITY – IT MATTERS
To S Reid of Omokoroa (The Weekend Sun, November 29, page 49) I want to explain what the Treaty of Waitangi means to me.
Having been elected to Local Govt in 1977 when I was the second woman ever to be elected to a district council Waimairi with a population of 74,500, what was always and still is today on Western Bay District Council, is Article 3 of the Treaty which was such a globally enlightened document in 1840 and made all people living in New Zealand equal with British subjects. Before the law that still stands.
Eventually we women got the vote and last term, I was the only woman on council and now we have four. One can get a very large vote from the voters and one can have enormous experience but if the Mayor chooses, he has the power to bury one which he has done to me—no chairmanships and being the most experienced and qualified, nothing counts if the leader chooses. So Mr Reid there are times when equality doesn’t mean a thing to some, but that is no reason to give up as there always so much to be done.
M MURRAY-BENGE, Bethlehem.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers