At last, a political leader has asserted that everyone in New Zealand owns the water, and that was National Party Leader Judith Collins.
National believes water "belongs to everyone, but is owned by no one", and would work with local councils, iwi, and community groups to find solutions that enable more use of our water while "retaining flexibility" to encourage new infrastructure, Ms Collins said on Wednesday in her debate with Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern.
"National wants a strategy and model that allows us to unlock our economic potential and safeguard our communities from increasing drought," she said.
"The recent Auckland water crisis highlighted the need for more to be done. Cities like Auckland need a resilient and clean water supply to continue being a world-class city, and to make sure we can deal with the economic crisis we are facing," she said.
The assertion by former leader John Key that no one owned water or the foreshore and seabed created the impression that resources were up for grabs.
Biculturalists immediately mounted the argument that because some citizens had some Maori ancestry, and because Maori were in New Zealand before non-Maori, New Zealanders with Maori ancestry were the rightful owners of natural resources and were therefore entitled to rent them out or receive a royalty.
Ihumatao is private land
Ihumatao is private land and the Government should not be organising deals involving it, Ms Collins said on Wednesday.
The Government in the early 1990s went down the track of caving in to protesters claims for private land at Maunganui Bluff in Northland and that forced seven farming families to sell to the Government because the claims made their land worthless.
The economic loss and social carnage cause by those land claims also prompted the Government to amend the Treaty of Waitangi Act so that the Waitangi Tribunal could no longer recommend the return of private land.
Our petition for the Government to allow both Te Kawerau a Maki and Fletchers to proceed with their lawful business at Ihumatao has collected 3178 signatures. If you have not done so already, please sign our petition at http://chng.it/xPN6P55k
ACT would abolish Maori seats
ACT leader David Seymour introduced two years ago a private member’s bill that would abolish Maori seats, slash 20 MPs from Parliament, and reduce the number of electorates to 54.
The bill would reduce the size of Parliament to 100 (from 120), and reduce the size of the executive to 20 (from 31, including ministers outside Cabinet and parliamentary under-secretaries).
Each prospective MP would also have to stand in an electorate - whether they were list or electorate MPs. If they lost in the electorate, they could still get into Parliament on the list, but they would have an established electorate office, and would be expected to actively help people within their electorate.
There are currently 71 electorates are made up of 64 general and seven Maori electorates.
See https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/106184257/act-bill-would-see-parliament-cut-to-100-mps
Other parties on HP issues
Other parties have made strong statements on Hobson’s Pledge issues.
New Zealand First would ensure the future of Maori seats is a decision for the people to make, oppose the establishment of separate Maori Wards in local government, and oppose “any dangerous settlement” of the Ihumatao issue.
The New Conservatives would repeal race-based co-governance arrangements, disestablish Māori electorates, remove reference to “the principles” of the Treaty of Waitangi from legislation, repeal the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 to return ownership of the coastal and marine area to everyone, held in trust by the Government, and review all race-based funding to ensure that funding is based on need not ethnicity.
To see where all political parties stand, go to https://www.democracyaction.org.nz/democracy_report_where_each_political_party_stands_on_democracy_issues
Our coastal petition is growing
Our petition which asks Parliament to amend the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 to restore public ownership of the coastal area, put all claims through the High Court, and repeal customary marine title, while affirming customary rights has picked up 25,358 signatures. We need your support. The petition may be signed at https://www.change.org/beaches4all Even if you have signed, you may follow the link to ask your social media friends to sign to.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Hobson's Pledge? Hobson’s Pledge supporters think it is absurd to argue in the 21st century that people who chance to have a Maori ancestor, always with other ancestors too of course, should have superior rights to those who don’t. And utterly absurd that there are politicians who want to be taken seriously who still push this nonsense.
- What are the issues we're facing today?
- What are our campaigns?
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