Clearing the Decks: Government replaces half of the Waitangi Tribunal
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10:07 pm, January 17th, 2025 - 33 comments
Categories: act, Maori Issues, national, national/act government, paul goldsmith -
Tags: Maori Land Claims, philip crump, richard prebble, Tama Potaka, Thomas Cranmer, Treaty Principles Bill, waitangi tribunal
This is a repost of Mountain Tui’s Substack article
This Friday afternoon, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced an overhaul of the Waitangi Tribunal.
The government has effectively cleared house – appointing 8 new members – and combined with October’s appointment of former ACT leader Richard Prebble, that’s 9 appointees.
[I am not certain, but can only presume, Prebble went in first to assess the members and see who would be more amenable and less outspoken]
Only 5 existing members were kept.
That means they took out 10 existing members.
Those not renewed include Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Professor Tom Roa and Professor Rawinia Higgins.
Stuff reports those three professors are some of the country’s most highly regarded experts in mātauranga Maori.
Stuff’s Glenn McConnell also notes that “these changes are just the start for the Tribunal. The Government is promising to ‘refocus’ Waitangi Tribunal’s scope and purpose.”
August 2024 press image: Courtesy Te Ao Maori News
Code: weaken and silence the formidable and intelligent Waitangi Tribunal. Shape them as allies to the Government’s mission and narratives.
I said last year that Year 1-2 of government was about changing laws, establishing frameworks. putting in friendly appointees and recruiting more Kiwi to their ideology.
Year 2-3 would be implementation [and continuing outstanding tasks] and Year 3 would mainly focus on marketing their “results” to the average Kiwi to win power again.
Anyway –
New members appointed to Waitangi Tribunal include, but are not limited to:
Carterton Mayor Ron Mark – former NZ First Minister
In a speech to Parliament House in 2017, then NZ First MP Ron Mark argued against the establishment of Maori wards.
Second term Carterton Mayor Ron Mark has also been in a dispute on Council, saying that the CEO and other Councillors were trying to bring an “attempted coup” on him.
Last year, Mark urged for an amalgamation of neighbouring councils, saying small councils ‘won’t survive’ the National Govt’s water reform changes and needed to cut costs and merge.
Conservative “Blogger” and NZME Newstalk ZB Plus Staff Member – Philip Crump
Blogger, UK lawyer, and conservative commentator Philip Crump is a big winner under the NACT1 government – securing two official appointments within months.
Paul Goldsmith last year appointed Crump to the Board of NZ On Air (October 2024)
At the time, Spinoff’s Duncan Grieve reported that that appointment “sent a ripple of fear through the media.”
Crump was the man behind an anonymous conservative blog that became popular for attacking Labour’s 3 Waters, co-governance and the Posie Parker protesters.
In 2023, under his pseudonym, Crump called NZ’s transgender community “an increasingly radicalised campaign led by progressive elites” in a right wing bingo card frenzy.
Crump was ultimately outed by Business Desk as a former leveraged finance lawyer who had spent most of his career in London. In his new role as a political commentator, he penned an article for Spectator Australia – a publication deeply connected to the UK Tory Party.
Past editors of Spectator include Boris Johnson, Nigel Lawson, and presently Michael Gove.
Manawatu District Councillor Grant Hadfield
Hadfield is a Councillor who appears to subscribe to outlets such as The Platform, Philip Crump’s blog, and ACT groups.
His thought processes, and ways of reflection can be gleaned from his Facebook posts:
I won’t continue … but to think that some of our best academic, legal, and thoughtful minds have been replaced by … this.
Also a nod to the first Coalition government Waitangi Tribunal appointee and his thought processes:
Richard Prebble, former ACT Leader
Food for thought in terms of Prebble’s stance going into what should be a very serious and intellectually driven role.
Last year I noted this approach was on the cards, and inevitable.
But it’s still deeply disappointing when it happens.
BTW
Here’s the clip from last year where Sean Plunket tells David Seymour to clean house:
“There needs to be a pogrom This new government needs to clean house in a whole lot of areas, and take people appointed by the last government and are highly politicised if not radical … and you need to get the malcontents out of this government and public life.”
Seymour assured him the substance of those comments i.e. clearing house – was on the cards.
And it is.
And remains so.
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All male. Almost all whitey white white. And all with anti-Treaty agendas
A Trumpian sack+stack.
You must have been looking at something other than the Minister's announcement.
There were 8 new appointments. Two of them are female. Four of them are Maori and one is Pasifika. Only 3 of the eight are white males.
What list were you looking at?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/maori-development-minister-overhauls-waitangi-tribunal-membership/6SG2SAV4UZF6NF5EZ72INJDZRQ/
4 of 9.
I assume you are counting Prebble.
If you are going to do that you have to count the 5 members whose terms were up but who were appointed to another term. They were all Maori so the appointments were in fact 4 Pakeha out of a total of 14 appointments.
That ratio, of 28.6% isn't "Almost all whitey white white." is it?
In USA when white males were villianised they went to GOP and took Latinos, blue collars, and many women with them. But if being in opposition indefinitely gives better feelz so be it.
They are in many ways, the enemy within.
Just as in the USA, the right is of such a right wing agenda, that they make break civil society.
What does this mean? If you want to demand the respect of contributors you'd better put a bit more thought into your comments.
You clearly have the time…
[Please don’t start flame wars or personal vendettas here, as they never end well, thanks – Incognito]
Are you making a submission to the parliamentary SC on the anti-stalking legislation?
Mod note
Will the Climate Change Commission be next?
As with the proposed Regulation Bill. Create a Board with the power to run the show, outside Parliament’s control, then stack it with appointees who follow your agenda.
Of course, because te Tiriti is between the Crown and Māori, the Waitangi Tribunal does need to be independent of Parliament.
Things are getting ugly
It feels like a coup is underway.Every piece of legislation designed to favour exploiters and criminalise dissenters.Our 5 eyes partners also following the blueprint.Was it Simon Lusk in convo with Cameron Slater boasting "We'll fuck up the left for the next 30 years"?
Not just the left , any trace of democracy and human decency we have remaining
Do you have a link for that?
I'm not even sure it was Lusk
The exchange of emails etc exposed by Rawshark in "Dirty Politics"
I'll' trawl through the book and see if I can find it
Well , the book is no longer in my possession, but I'm nothing if not dogged
I found Chapter 5 of Dirty Politics online , and this is, while not the quote I'm thinking of , close to it
Wow! I must re-read the whole book. It will be interesting to see just how much was going on 20 to 30 years ago that fits in with what is happening now. Thanks for the quote.
Trouble is, the gullible among us have never read 'Dirty Politics' and never will. I doubt they would even understand it.
Nicky Hager is such a treasure!
I hear from a friend who bumped into him last year that he's got another book on the go
He has never been sued by anybody as far as I know, but the police went after him when Dirty Politics was published. Shame on them. I thought their job was to go after the criminals, not the persons who exposed them.
Thank you so very much for bringing that, francesca. That is accurate to a tee, and we all owe Nicky Hager gratitude for his dedicated work and research.
Notice the similarity with the Trump plans? Put your best buddies in powerful places and abolish any form of disagreement by removing dissenters. Best done with blatant disregard for rule of law or precedent. Luxon and Trump henchmen just do it regardless. And we can do nothing?
Yes, The Supreme Court comes to mind
The squattocracy's voice.
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/grant-hadfield-5698a619
I live in the Manawatu and have had the misfortune to have met Grant Hadfield on several occasions.
If you think his online presence is awful, just wait until you meet the genuine article. He's a right-wing nutjob, and as dyed-in-wool racist as they come. As well as a being a wanker of the highest order.
He is simply another reasonably well-off provincial businessman with nothing to recommend him apart from his wealth, love of hearing his own voice, crippling overconfidence in his obvious genius, and willingness to shill for his fellow wealthy racists.
My sincerest hope is that his elevation to the tribunal (despite his lack of any kind of qualifications or knowledge) leads him to resign rather than have to continue to fork out for his council salary. Our district will be well rid of him.
Yuck.
Problem with boards at all is pure political patronage.
Looks like the coalition government is implementing its own version of Schedule F and Project 2025 by stacking key government and statutory positions with loyalists and people who share their ideology.
Another proof of this neo-authoritarian coalition – the list is growing.
Replacing experts in the field with keyboard warriors who did a job for them says it all really.
2 gigs we know of so far for the crumpet as they continue to flood the zone.
Labour and Greens take note:
get your own list ready to go, rather than dicking around taking years to change every Crown entity and then wonder why it takes so long to get anything done. Nats get this.
The useful cleanouts the Nats have been at NZTA, Kiwirail, ACC, and Transpower. Labour weren't ruthless enough pushing against State Sector appointment evaluations, to get their own team.
For Waitangi Board honestly a combo of Maori Land Court and a specialist panel of High Court would have more guts. The standard test of actual usefulness is how long would it take if you pushed it over a cliff for anyone to notice.
Absolutely! No more of that "oh … we're in office … whadda we do now?" stuff. Make like it's a crisis (it probably will be one by then). Go early and go hard.
You don't need a crisis.
Just a plan, and names.
You saw their upcoming merger of NIWA and metservice. Labour tried similar with state media.
Another good start would be just donating the CHEs to universities.
While these guys think a minor quango reshuffle is making your mark, Marshall merged 4 entities into the Department of Conservation, re-formed the Ministry of Education, formed the Tertiary Education Commission, revolutionized education in Tomorrow's Schools, and otherwise rebuilt the system the way Labour wanted it.
That's just as Minister in 2 terms.
This Nat government have no solid ministers and hence achieving very very little.
Labour and Greens need real institutional reforming zeal.
If government experts and advisors do not conform to the ideology, replace them with those who do. Problem solved.