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A “Charter for Blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 3rd, 2009 - 16 comments
Further to my post yesterday, a reader sent in this quote from 2004: Mr English’s view was not [National’s] official line. As expressed by strategist Murray McCully, it is that the bill is a “charter for blackmail and rent-seeking by Maori interests”. Let’s be clear. National opposed the Foreshore & Seabed Act because they thought […]
Cowardice, bigotry and saying whatever it takes
Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 2nd, 2009 - 77 comments
I’ll be glad to see the back of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. For many on the Left, including myself, its been a monument to Labour’s failure of nerve in the face of a campaign by National to exploit the underlying racism of Pakeha New Zealand for electoral gain. Yes, there was a certain electoral […]
Sell-outs
Written By: - Date published: 12:26 pm, June 24th, 2009 - 61 comments
Tariana Turia has put out a press release today having a bit of a cry that Labour MPs have been calling ‘sell-out’ when she and Pita Sharples speak in Parliament. Clearly it’s hit a nerve. Well, Tariana, if you don’t like to be labeled a sell-out, simple solution: don’t be a member of a government […]
Unedifying
Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, June 19th, 2009 - 29 comments
The Herald reports Pita Sharples has backed down on his demand to ‘open’ the universities to Maori. Now he says: “he wants Maori to have free access to universities but only if they pass a course showing they have reached required standards.” We already have that, Pita. Just get whatever they call UE these days […]
The Maori Party’s commitment to democracy
Written By: - Date published: 12:46 pm, May 16th, 2009 - 60 comments
In an epic last-ditch defence of Aucklanders’ right to be consulted on the removal of their democracy, Labour and the Greens are currently filibustering the government’s enabling legislation in Parliament by forcing a vote on thousands of new amendments. Their objective is simple, they want to get the bill off to a select committee and […]
Entrenchment back on the agenda
Written By: - Date published: 5:18 pm, April 30th, 2009 - 44 comments
Good to see Labour pursuing a private member’s bill to entrench the Maori seats. Mita Ririnui, who’s lodging the bill, says it “will ensure that the Maori seats in Parliament will not be able to be abolished unless 75 per cent of MPs in any Parliament vote in favour of such a move. ‘The only […]
Has National changed its policy on the super-city?
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, April 21st, 2009 - 23 comments
Yesterday I pointed out that the Local Government Act requires referenda on boundary changes such as are envisaged for Auckland. To not do so would be to use the parliamentary rights to amend legislation to remove a required consultation with the citizens of Auckland. It appears likely (from Graeme) that NACT will put forward a […]
Mana enhancement
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 14th, 2009 - 26 comments
The Maori Party MPs always read from pre-prepared speeches in the House. Here’s one they might like to read on Budget Day: We refuse to vote for more money to lock up poor Maori and poor Pakeha. We voted against National’s reactionary crime laws, now we will vote against the money to fund them. We […]
Mana enhancement – fail
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, April 2nd, 2009 - 28 comments
To further enhance their mana Te Ururoa Flavell and Rahui Katene spent their questions in parliament yesterday asking patsies to National. ‘How will the government’s tax cuts benefit people on low incomes?’ they asked allowing Key and English to talk about the wonderful new $10 a week Independent Earners’ Rebate and claim Labour never cut […]
Some cold day in hell
Written By: - Date published: 1:10 pm, March 5th, 2009 - 30 comments
Observant msm spectators may have noticed this gem from TV1 news last night: ‘A radical shake-up of the controversial Seabed and Foreshore Act is on the cards it could result in new powers for Maori to test their rights in court, but John Key is vowing no New Zealander will lose their access to the […]
What is to be done?
Written By: - Date published: 5:29 pm, March 3rd, 2009 - 40 comments
Kudos to the Maori Party’s Rahui Katene for using her position to highlight the situation at Sealord in Parliament today. But it’s Paula Bennett’s response that got me thinking: Rahui Katene: Is the Minister aware that the MÄori shareholders of Sealord attended the Prime Minister’s Job Summit last Friday, and what plans does the Government […]
Key writes off Sealord jobs
Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, March 3rd, 2009 - 50 comments
Despite making sound profits Sealord are laying off 180 workers in Nelson. They claim the move is part of restructuring and that there will be fifty new jobs aboard factory ships that will fully process fish. Remaining workers are also being asked to take a pay cut. I’m not sure I buy that. Even with […]
Sold out
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, February 16th, 2009 - 26 comments
According to the Dom Post Judith Collins is preparing legislation to reintroduce private prisons into New Zealand’s corrections system. The arguments against privatisation are manifold and many of them have been covered at The Standard before. Bottom line for me is that the right to take an individual citzen’s liberty comes from a compact between […]
More than words
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, February 10th, 2009 - 33 comments
I see the Maori Party has come out saying the increase in the minimum wage to $12.50 an hour isn’t enough, and that they still support both a $15 an hour minimum wage and a tax-free bracket up to $25,000 (about the full-time minimum wage income). Pity they didn’t do something about it when they […]
Rainbows tame Waitangi
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, February 7th, 2009 - 7 comments
Gosh what a difference a few years can make when it comes to symbols of national identity. Not so long ago National had a leader happy to springboard off dog-whistling race-divisive carping about the Treaty Grievance Industry in speeches and billboards. More recently National campaigned on abolition of the Maori seats, at least until it became […]
No room for Roger
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 2nd, 2009 - 8 comments
Roger Kerr from the Business Roundtable is full of advice for the Government’s upcoming jobs summit in today’s Dom Post. Which is unfortunate for Rog’, because according to my sources he won’t be getting an invite. Neither will Alasdair Thompson, the mildly unhinged chief executive of EMA Northern who famously lost his rag against Trevor […]
Identity Politics
Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, January 31st, 2009 - 10 comments
In 2007 Te Ata Tino Toa applied to Tranzit New Zealand to have the Maori Sovereignty flag flown on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day. Tranzit declined permission on the grounds that it wasn’t a UN recognized national flag, despite having previously flown the Team New Zealand flag, which would have failed the same […]
Thank God somebody’s awake at Granny Herald
Written By: - Date published: 11:12 am, January 29th, 2009 - 32 comments
Surprise, surprise, it’s Garth George. “The economic situation is without a doubt the most urgent of predicaments to be dealt with, but so far this year all John Key and Co have offered is a talkfest scheduled for next month. Now we all know that the one thing that one does these days when one […]
Prison tucker
Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, December 19th, 2008 - 57 comments
When I saw this photo of Pita Sharples tucking into a prison meal in today’s Dom Post I was hopeful it was a stunt to try and put a stop to the mean-spirited howls from talkbackland over how prisoners have it too good at Christmas time. But what a difference a ministerial warrant and the […]
Shameful
Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, December 15th, 2008 - 79 comments
And so the Maori Party’s sell-out of its own people continues. Hot on the heels of the party’s vote to take money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich, this morning’s Dominion Post reports: Green Party MP Mitiria Turei has accused the Maori Party of disgraceful behaviour […]
Tax increases into law
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, December 11th, 2008 - 46 comments
The tax bill has just been passed into law. The Maori Party voted for it. They also voted against the Cullen amendment that would have created a tax credit to cancel ou the tax increase on low income workers. Te Ururoa didn’t show up to Backbenches. I haven’t heard a single Maori Party MP defend […]
Maori Party does the right thing
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, December 11th, 2008 - 4 comments
Well, it’s a relief to see that while the Maori Party might have voted to take money out of the pockets of the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich, they’ve at least held the line on protecting our work rights by rejecting National’s fire at will bill. Pita Sharples hits the nail […]
The prideful cowards
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, December 10th, 2008 - 24 comments
So far, the Maori Party has refused to take its opportunities to contribute to the debate on the tax bill before Parliament. They have just sat meekly and voted for National/ACT’s Bill. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see anything ‘mana-enhancing’ (to use a phrase from the National-Maori support agreement) about voting for a […]
Will Hone keep his oath?
Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, December 10th, 2008 - 22 comments
Yesterday, the MPs were sworn in. After the section ‘pledge true allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second, her heirs and successors, according to law’, some of the Maori Party MPs (reading the oath in Maori) inserted, ‘and the Treaty’. They were asked to repeat the allegiance without the reference to the Treaty. Hone Harawira went […]
Kia kaha
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 34 comments
The Greens have joined in opposing National’s “Fire at Will” Bill which they say puts “jobs and democracy at stake”. They’re calling on the Maori Party to stand strong in its previous opposition to the bill. Only two years ago Hone Harawira said when voting against it: [O]ur journey with this bill has not been an […]
Undefeated
Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, November 17th, 2008 - 41 comments
Paul Holmes wrote yesterday: “While Labour moves to the Opposition benches, it does so weirdly unmolested by the election defeat, weirdly undefeated” Damn right, the Left seems undefeated, and so it should. The Right has only won power by masquerading as the Left; Key’s mandate is only to maintain the legacy of the Fifth Labour […]
Some questions
Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, November 17th, 2008 - 35 comments
The Maori Party voted against the ETS because they thought it doesn’t go far enough; they want a stronger ETS. Will they be supporting National/ACT’s amendments to first delay then weaken or even scrap it? ACT opposes the existence of the Maori seats, while paradoxically supporting their entrenchment. Which will win out on this issue? […]
Playing clever but playing with fire
Written By: - Date published: 12:49 pm, November 14th, 2008 - 56 comments
On one level, the Maori Party’s dealing with National is smart work. Key needs to look inclusive even though he doesn’t need the Maori Party’s support to govern. In return, the Maori Party can cement its future by getting the Maori seats entrenched through a government bill, rather than hoping a private members’ bill gets […]
Gordon Campbell: new Labour leadership
Written By: - Date published: 7:34 pm, November 12th, 2008 - 42 comments
As we’ve come to expect, a thought provoking piece from Gordon Campbell, who says …the public may one day come to rue the change they sought on Saturday. But if and when they do, there is no guarantee that a paternalistic Labour would be the only, or best source of relief. The Greens, now that […]
Class and the Maori Party
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, November 12th, 2008 - 71 comments
The New Zealand Herald has a telling story today about how the Maori Party’s decision over whether to prop up a right-wing National/ACT government “has exposed a schism between iwi elite views and ordinary Maori”. Ordinary working class Maori who’ve felt the brunt of right-wing policies in the past are, unsurprisingly, not keen to sacrifice […]
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