Now is the time to arrest a decline into irreversible separatism. This may be achieved by speaking out wherever local authorities propose race-based structures and where the current government proposes co-governance.

This may also be achieved in forthcoming elections by supporting and voting for any party that would vote against all laws, regulations and policies that provide for any entitlement based on ancestry or ethnicity.

Ideally, this political party would commit to:

• remove all reference to consultation with any ethnic group from legislation, such as the Mana Whakahono a Rohe iwi participation clauses in the Resource Legislation Amendment Act, which should be repealed.
• hold a binding referendum on scrapping separate Maori electorates
• drop the proposal to grant tribal trusts special powers to control the allocation of water – something previously regarded as the exclusive province of local government
• repealing the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 which has opened up the entire coastal area to 12 nautical miles offshore, to applications by individuals claiming some Maori ancestry.

Why?

1. We can find nothing in the Treaty of Waitangi justifying any racial preference under the law.

2. Legal equality between citizens is the foundation stone of democracy. It is fair, reasonable and totally inclusive.

3. True democracy has proven to be the most enduring and successful system of government. It makes for united and prosperous nations.

4. Race-based privilege creates opportunities for corruption, resentment, and unrest.

Now is the time to stop an undemocratic slide into New Zealand style apartheid.

Please Note: We are not in any sense anti-Maori. Indeed, some of us are Maori. We recognise that Maori are too often among the poorest and most incarcerated citizens in the land. But having a constitutional preference has done little or nothing for the wellbeing of most Maori. On the contrary: by leading some Maori to believe that their economic prosperity will be assured by a Treaty settlement, or by being able to clip the ticket on the productive activity of others, the constitutional preference may well be harming most Maori.