This Government’s day of shame

Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, November 14th, 2024 - 8 comments
Categories: act, Christopher Luxon, david seymour, national, racism, same old national, treaty settlements - Tags:

This is the day that Act’s dogwhistle Lets Change the Treaty bill is set to be debated in Parliament.

It was meant to be introduced next Thursday, the same day that a large Hikoi was meant to arrive at Parliament. But in a big F*(k you to the movement Seymour brought the introduction day forward.

The change will have the benefit that Christopher Luxon will be out of the country when the bill is debated. Clearly he wants to distance himself from this hate fuelled piece of misrepresented history as much as possible. It appears that even Luxon has standards when it comes to avoiding dog whistle politics that will hurt the country.

And Seymour keeps saying that he just wants us to debate what is in the bill.

From Anneke Smith at Radio New Zealand:

“They say kill the bill, I say read the bill because once you see it, ask yourself what’s wrong with the government having the right to govern, the government having an obligation to uphold all people’s rights and all people’s rights being equal before the law.

“I don’t think the people who are protesting can explain what it is they’re opposed to.”

Which is absolute bollocks because just recently fourty Kings Counsel have written an open letter to tell him that the bill misrepresents the treaty and would completely undermine article 2. They have read the bill and have clearly explained why they oppose the bill.

And their criticism is scathing. From Radio New Zealand:

The senior members of the independent bar view the introduction of the bill (and the intended referendum) as a “wholly inappropriate as a way of addressing such an important and complex constitutional issue”.

The letter states the existing principles (including partnership, active protection, equity and redress) are “designed to reflect the spirit and intent of the Treaty as a whole and the mutual obligations and responsibilities of the parties”. They say the principles now represent “settled law”.

The letter said the coalition’s bill sought to “redefine in law the meaning of te Tiriti, by replacing the existing ‘Treaty principles’ with new Treaty principles which are said to reflect the three articles of te Tiriti”.

The lawyers say those proposed principles do not reflect te Tiriti, and, by “imposing a contested definition of the three articles, the bill seeks to rewrite the Treaty itself”.

The Treaty Principles Bill, they say, would have the “effect of unilaterally changing the meaning of te Tiriti and its effect in law, without the agreement of Māori as the Treaty partner”.

The proposed principle 2 “retrospectively limits Māori rights to those that existed at 1840”, they said, and the bill states that “if those rights ‘differ from the rights of everyone’, then they are only recognised to the extent agreed in historical Treaty settlements with the Crown”.

The lawyers said that erased the Crown’s Article 2 guarantee to Māori of tino rangatiratanga.

“By recognising Māori rights only when incorporated into Treaty settlements with the Crown, this proposed principle also attempts to exclude the courts, which play a crucial role in developing the common law and protecting indigenous and minority rights.”

They also explained the proposed principle three did not “recognise the fundamental Article 2 guarantee to Māori of the right to be Māori and to have their tikanga Māori (customs, values and customary law) recognised and protected in our law”.

The letter also points out deficiencies in process, how the bill attempts to ram through fundamental constitutional change without adequate discussion and notes that the Waitangi Tribunal confirms that the bill itself is a breach of the treaty, specifically the requirement to act in good faith.

And on the other side of the argument is the racist Hobson’s Pledge, some dude bros on twitter and Seymour who never saw a racist itch he did not want to scratch.

Sure lets have a debate between people who know what they are talking about and people who don’t, ignore the collateral damage and set back race relations by decades.

Seymour does not want a debate. He wants a circus.

8 comments on “This Government’s day of shame ”

  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    14 November 2024 at 11:09 am

    As others have pointed out–there is a substantial economic side to the TPB–Seymour and Act’s wealthy backers deeply resent the restrictions that te Tiriti puts on various of their anticipated “big pay days” from conservation estate mining to deep sea drilling.

    Māori intellectual property rights and the environment all of us live in are often protected by te Tiriti provisions and processes. Māori, pākehā and tau iwi have put on a magnificent united push back this week–a knee in the nuts for Seymour and his capitalist mates. Increasing numbers of non Māori are realising the benefits and enjoying the solidarity of working together with tangata whenua.

    The raw red neck racism and post colonial denial of Hobsons Choice is there alright, but even those bozos will get the message eventually. It is one thing to accept Māori presence in a ceremonial way like Haka at rugby, but te Tiriti and Waitangi Tribunal and the Crown demand way more…

    Reply
  2. Dennis Frank 2
    14 November 2024 at 11:37 am

    I was impressed by how Labour used co-governance as a cloak for a stealth agenda: never saw any attempt at an intellectual rationale. Nonetheless I felt the thing was okay in spirit. Lack of follow-through continues to resound.

    As a reaction to that, Seymour's attempt to modernise the treaty seems equally banal. As usual, we have the left & right competing to see who are the biggest bunch of morons.

    Seymour is servant to some kind of organised global think-tank network, so I suspect his agenda conforms to rightist ideology around maintaining the traditional control system established long ago in western countries that created the state as an operational tool, then designed democracy as a facade to create the illusion of equal rights.

    Reply
    • Obtrectator 2.1
      14 November 2024 at 12:09 pm

      You seem to be implying that Russia, Belarus, the DSA, the UK and even lil' ol' NZ all share essentially the same political model, the only differences being the degrees of subtlety employed in operating it.

      Reply
      • Dennis Frank 2.1.1
        14 November 2024 at 12:49 pm

        One can't really generalise on how different countries use the state model, but there's been considerable convergence. Louis XIV said l'etat c'est moi, and many monarchs have self-identified with the state they use as operational scheme.

        I agree with your notion of degrees of subtlety, which seems usually to adapt to the populace the monarch or regime is controlling. Russia is interesting inasmuch as it pretends democracy whilst using a de facto monarch. In Britain the monarch is not considered part of the control system despite his role as residual emblem.

        The crucial thing is what force is used to create mass subservience. In our case, the left & right are used as glove puppets to alternate state control, elections serve as moral fig-leaf to cover the naked truth of democracy as control system. Conformity to the prescription is secured via neolib mythology (increasing wealth lifts all boats).

        Reply
  3. Ad 3
    14 November 2024 at 1:21 pm

    Got a link to the KCs letter?

    I'd like to print and peruse over the weekend.

    Reply
  4. observer 4
    14 November 2024 at 1:55 pm

    It's certainly a day of shame, but it's also a day of absurdity. Of farce. We are now living in a Monty Python sketch.

    Genuine question for anybody who might know (because I've searched and found nothing at all);

    Has there ever been a bill introduced by a government that was so strongly attacked by … the government that introduced it? Luxon is posing as the leader of the opposition to his own government! Absurd is an understatement.

    I think it's unprecedented, but happy to be corrected. Good luck finding anything.

    Reply
  5. Muttonbird 5
    14 November 2024 at 2:22 pm

    Cluckwit having to use increasingly strong language in his bizarre denunciation of a bill he himself will vote for today.

    "You do not go negate, with a single stroke of a pen, 184 years of debate and discussion, with a bill that I think is very simplistic," Luxon said on Thursday before leaving the country.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360482519/live-pm-christopher-luxon-criticises-simplistic-treaty-bill-ahead-first-reading

    Reply

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