We knew things were bad. We knew the number of claims being lodged through the Marine and Coastal Area Act by iwi far exceeded what John Key and Chris Finlayson forecast when they championed the law in 2011.

But few knew that almost the ENTIRE coast of New Zealand would be claimed by iwi either through the courts or by direct negotiation with the Crown.

This is bad. It has happened largely under the radar and most New Zealanders have no idea. Many think this was all sorted with the Foreshore and Seabed legislation under Helen Clark's Labour Government. That could not be further from the truth.

We have to stop this blatant land (coast) grab. We have a plan to demand that the Government restores our coast, foreshore, and seabed to public ownership. We are calling on supporters like you who are willing to take a stand with us to save our shores. Will you join us?

The red on the map shows coastline that is currently under High Court Application. 

Our clogged up courts may just be our saving grace as without the backlog it would be too late for us to halt the seizing of our beautiful beaches and marine areas. It has bought us some time to organise, but time means little if we don't have the means to fight this battle. Will you chip in to ensure we can have as much impact as possible?

Our first job is to make New Zealanders aware of what is happening. This is no small task given we can't rely on the media to report honestly on the matter. So-called journalists are too often cheerleaders for signing over public land and marine areas to iwi.

We have to speak directly to Kiwis. This requires a massive social media campaign, newspaper ads, and (if enough supporters chip in) even billboards.The scale of our campaign depends on supporters like you. Are you with us? 

There is a lot of completely false information we have to cut through - much of it deliberately disseminated by those supporting the land grab. For example, we are told ad nauseum that Customary Marine Titles (CMT) awarded to iwi won't block public access to beaches or prevent fishing.

This is a lie.

Once an iwi has a CMT they need only declare a rahui (order to stay away) or wahi tapu (place of special/sacred importance) in order to prevent access to a beach or marine area. In some instances iwi leaders have placed boulders in front of access points and although they are technically not allowed to do this local authorities aren't interested in taking any action. Contribute to our fund to save our rapidly disappearing coast.

In addition, CMTs allow iwi veto over all resource consents and conservation activities; involvement in coastal planning and policy development; the ability to charge commercial operators, and ownership rights to all non-nationalised minerals – including royalties from existing mining operations, back-dated to when applications were first submitted.

All of this could soon apply to almost the entire coast of New Zealand.

To put it more directly:

• Every commercial operation on New Zealand's coast will have to pay iwi (sometimes multiple iwi) to be able do their business. From fishing to tourism and everything in between.
• Everyone along the coast seeking resource consent on private land could be at the mercy of iwi who wield veto powers if they can prove it relates to their CMT.
• On-water events, including fishing and boating competitions, held anywhere along New Zealand's coast could be slapped with a rahui and be forced to cancel. This has already happened up North.
• This has the potential to make iwi very wealthy, especially if they hit the jackpot and can draw royalties from non-nationalised minerals.

This is not right. We are all New Zealanders and public ownership must be restored.

Governments have been mucking around with our foreshore, seabed, coast, and marine areas for far too long. It is time to deal with the matter once and for alland ensure that all Kiwis have equal rights to public land and water now and into the future. 

Will you join the fight to save our shores and protect the rights of all New Zealanders? 

If we don't take action now, many of the reasons we love this country and choose to live here will no longer exist. What's the point in living in a beautiful island nation if you can't enjoy the wonderful natural shores and waters that surround it? Take action now.

Kiwis deserve to know the consequences of what is going on and the extent of it. I like to think that most Kiwis would support public ownership and be horrified to know that our coast is being parceled off to iwi groups. If you agree, do your bit to ensure we get the word out far and wide.

New Zealand must wake up before it is too late. It is as simple as that.

This year is flying by and it seems like just yesterday we were introducing you to Janet Dickson, the real estate agent who is challenging the Real Estate Authority's power to impose compulsory courses like Te Kākano on licensees in the High Court.

Well, Janet's day in court is fast approaching! Tomorrow - Tuesday 18 June - all systems are go.

Her lawyers will be arguing that the REA did not follow proper processes for approval of the rules they used to make Te Kākano mandatory, that the course is not relevant to real estate agents' practice, and that this was an unjustified breach of Janet’s freedom of expression.

Since Janet filed her case, she has attracted a lot of media attention and support. Including from Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters who called the REA’s mandatory Treaty and tikanga course “woke madness”.

Janet is at risk of losing her real estate licence for five years if the REA is allowed to continue imposing controversial courses like this.

A recap on the case:

Janet is a dedicated real estate agent with more than 30 years experience, but the Real Estate Authority has threatened to cancel her licence for five years. Why? Because Janet took a principled stance in refusing to complete an online training course instructing real estate agents on te reo Māori, tikanga, and the Treaty of Waitangi.

Her refusal is based on concerns that an industry body can force members to complete training on a subject only very peripherally connected to their job under threat of losing their right to work.

This legal action is a critical step in addressing the overreach of authority by the REA and may be an effective curb on the risk of similar overreach by other statutory professional organisations.

The Judge can clearly see the broad importance of this matter, because in the security for costs decision the Judge found that this case is in the public interest and that there were 92 other real estate agents in the same boat.

Similar training mandates have detrimentally affected a wide array of professions, including doctors, teachers, and lawyers. The imposition of these mandates, infringing upon the fundamental freedom of conscience, requires immediate action.

If the court finds in Janet’s favour, it has the power to make declarations that this course cannot be mandatorily imposed and will no doubt have ramifications for other government agencies trying to do the same thing.

Without the financial contributions of Hobson's Pledge members, this important judicial review would not be taking place. Our combined efforts have enabled Janet and her legal team to establish legal precedents that will protect New Zealanders from ideological and overreaching industry bodies. Presuming the case is successful, of course!

We will update you on how the hearing goes so keep an eye on your inbox. Fingers crossed!

Since Don emailed you last week things have got even wilder with Te Pāti Māori.

They've escalated from revolutionary rhetoric to straight up announcing that they are going to establish their own Parliament.

Oh and by the way they're demanding 20% of New Zealand's tax revenue in order to fund it!

We all got an insight into what a Te Pāti Māori-led Māori Parliament could look like a couple of days later when The Post reported a whole lot of allegations that don't look good for the party.

The allegations have come from whistleblowers who worked at Manurewa Marae and the Ministry of Social Development. According to advocates, they have been punished for speaking out, losing their jobs or being reallocated. 

They say that Manurewa Marae staff (of which Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp was CEO prior to the election) photocopied census forms after they were contracted by Whānau Ora to collect them. They also entered personal information into a database for Waipareira Trust.

This information was then used by Te Pāti Māori to solicit votes at the election. 

There is a common denominator here. The CEO of Whānau Ora, the CEO of Waipareira Trust, and the President of Te Pāti Māori are all the same man:

John Tamihere

Further allegations have now emerged that the same data misuse occured when the same organisations were engaged to work on the COVID-19 vaccine drive.

Can you imagine a Māori Parliament with this lot in charge?

If these allegations are proved true Te Pāti Māori are too crooked to put their pants on straight!

As far as our work goes, all of this further highlights why race-based systems and policies are no good for New Zealand.

We have our work cut out for us raising awareness about all the ways that democracy is being undermined in New Zealand and, as Don said in his email last week, we can't be caught napping.

Our efforts to oppose racial division haven't gone unnoticed. In a press release on Thursday night, John Tamihere named Hobson's Pledge as one of a handful of organisations he is putting "on notice".

Neither Tamihere nor Te Pāti Māori can hope to intimidate your Hobson's Pledge crew.

He Iwi Tahi Tātou (We are now one people) 

There have been racial tensions throughout our nation's history, but I cannot recall a time when rhetoric danced so close to outright sedition.

Te Pāti Māori and its supporters believe that Māori never ceded sovereignty. By extension they view every democratic election held since 1840 as illegitimate.

A few days ago, in a rant that can only be described as unhinged, Kiri Tamihere-Waititi (who works for Te Pāti Māori, is married to co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and is the daughter of Te Pāti Māori President John Tamihere) declared:

"We could overthrow any government. We could do whatever the f*** we want."

Today, the Party led protests it referred to as a "rangatira revolution". Rangatira means sovereign or control and the Oxford Dictionary says a revolution is "a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system".

I am worried. There are far too many ill-informed Kiwis who still think that this is about righting the wrongs of the past. These naive folks are enabling a minority of radicals to advance a race-based power grab that is not far at all from refusing to recognise the authority of our current Government. 

We have to be ready to fight off the inevitable attacks on our democracy. Hobson's Pledge is preparing for any eventuality, but we are a small group of volunteers and we cannot prepare effectively without the support of people like you who are equally as concerned. Will you chip in to our fighting fund so that when the time comes we're ready to defend our values?

Under Labour, race-based policies and laws were embedded giving these radicals more power. Now that the Coalition Government has explicitly ruled out further race-based policies and begun reversing some of those introduced by the last Government, ethnonationalists are switching tactics.

Our biggest challenge is getting through to the majority of New Zealanders who value their fellow countrymen and women not by their race but by the content of their character. We need to convey to them the urgency of the situation and that we must stand up for our vision of an equal New Zealand. 

We are committed to peaceful expression of our defence of democracy, rule of law, and equal rights. You won't see us with smoking guns on our posters or 'fire and brimstone' style videos on social media.

Instead we want to plaster billboards, newspapers, bus stops, and social media with messages that assert our values and call on New Zealanders to raise their voices to defend those values. These things do not come cheap. We have to battle media companies to even get our messages published in the first place and then we have to find the money to pay for them! Will you chip in to ensure this is possible?

Te Pāti Māori supporters are turning out in droves to spread their messages of division and racism. We can't sit back and let them drive us to the brink of civil war. We've seen this overseas and it always seems unthinkable until it happens. 

>>> Make a contribution to our Fighting Fund so we can defend New Zealand and the values we cherish <<<

I'll be honest, I was hesitant to speak in such frank terms. To even say out loud the words 'sedition' or 'civil war' feels like madness. However, we have a group of powerful radicals challenging the authority of our democratically elected Government and it is plain to see they won't stop pushing the boundaries until enough of us get brave enough to say "no".

Te Pāti Māori now routinely refers to New Zealand's laws and Parliament as Pākehā laws and Pākehā Parliament. Nevermind the many Māori New Zealanders who have contributed to making our laws over the years and who have proudly taken seats in our Parliament. TPM are marching closer and closer to rejecting the law of the land and the supremacy of Government.

This is not the future I want for our country. I have been repeating messages of racial equality for decades now and it is disheartening to see that instead of growing closer to that goal, we have been driven further apart. I wanted better for my children and grandchildren. I had hoped they wouldn't know racial disharmony and strife.

New Zealand has one Government and it is democratically elected. No matter what ideas Te Pāti Māori has about the chiefs not ceding sovereignty at Waitangi in 1840, the Government's authority has been cemented by every subsequent general election and in our body of legislation.

I understand not everyone is in a position to speak up about such 'controversial' issues. It is challenging to speak about race at the best of times but to do so now can provoke aggressive attacks. We at Hobson's Pledge are not afraid to draw attention to the issue and with any monetary contribution you make to boost our effectiveness we can make a world of difference.

We do not want to be caught napping on this. I hope I have conveyed the critical juncture we are at in New Zealand and that you will stand with us in defence of equality and democracy.