As you probably heard over the weekend, our spokesperson Casey Costello has announced her intention to run for a seat in Parliament.

She has fronted for Hobson’s Pledge on many challenging issues and we are in no doubt that she would make a fantastic Member of Parliament, taking up the issues we all care about to those in power.

We are so proud of Casey for her boldness and the principled way in which she has represented us, and for having the courage to put her hand up for this next challenge.

As Hobson’s Pledge isn’t aligned to any political party, Casey has stepped down as our spokesperson and as a trustee. I’m sure you will join me in thanking her for her service.

The fight goes on and with 82 days until Election Day we are kicking things up a notch!

You will be hearing more from me over the next few months. We have a full plan for how we can maximise the time we have left to persuade New Zealanders we must act now to save our democracy.

We will be providing you with tools to reach your candidates and with advice on how to talk to the people in your life. We will also be running awareness and education campaigns online to reach New Zealanders who still don’t understand what co-governance is and why it is a terrible problem.

The costs of this all add up. We cannot defeat our well-resourced opponents without resourcing ourselves as best we can.

If you feel strongly, as we do, that this election is make or break for New Zealand, please consider donating what you can afford to this cause.

New Zealand is relying on us to demand that our politicians reverse the path of division and return us to a democratic state of equal rights before the law.

82 days. We have to throw everything at them.

It has been an honour (and sometimes a challenge!) to be a spokesperson for Hobson’s Pledge for the past seven years, but I am now stepping down.

I am leaving, not because I no longer believe in the cause, but because I think I can best serve in another way, by getting a seat in Parliament.

I am excited to announce I have accepted New Zealand First’s nomination to stand as a candidate at the upcoming election. Since Hobson’s Pledge is mission-driven and not party aligned, this means I must stand down as a spokesperson and trustee.

I’m sick to death of listening to political parties avoid the reality that race-based division has foisted upon us. I’m also sick of listening to many Maori politicians stand on the shoulders of our most vulnerable in order to chase power, status, and relevance. Instead of delivering practical outcomes they have perpetuated an environment of despair and robbed our young people of opportunity to excel through a narrative of victimhood.

You can be confident that I will approach politics in the same manner I have approached my work with Hobson’s Pledge, with equality under the law as my fundamental bottom line. 

Reflecting on my time at Hobson’s Pledge, I am proud of the work we have done on a range of issues. I’m particularly proud of how we have been able to reach out to so many New Zealanders, expanding our supporter base to around 160,000 people. It is hard to believe we are such a big team.

Seven years ago, almost to the day, I met with a group of New Zealanders who believed all Kiwis should be treated equally before the law, irrespective of when we or our ancestors arrived in this country.

From this meeting Hobson’s Pledge was established.

Hobson’s Pledge resonated with me because differentiating the rights of New Zealanders based upon ancestry is wrong. Although I am incredibly proud to whakapapa to Ngapuhi/Ngati Wai, I am equally proud of my Anglo-Irish ancestors who first came here in the 1860s. Becoming a nation where ethnicity differentiates your rights as a citizen is unacceptable. Too many individuals, without elected authority, claim to speak for ALL Maori and promote a narrative of despair that does no good for anyone, particularly Maori.

I have been proud to stand next to Don Brash advocating for equality before the law. It still baffles me that our consistent calls for equal rights have been cast as somehow racist by certain sections of the media and political class.

As it turned out advocating for better outcomes based on need, not race, was enough to be condemned as racist regardless of my ethnicity.

Despite the often vitriolic attacks by a small number of New Zealanders, I have been immensely privileged to be able to give a voice to an issue that needs to be shouted from the roof tops. Our democracy and equal rights are too important to allow anyone to be bullied into silence.

Over the years, we have worked to change the political agenda under both National and Labour-led Governments. It is important to remember that, despite the extraordinary acceleration of anti-democratic policies under this current Government, systems of co-governance have been implemented by both Labour and National and that, no matter the result of this election, we must continue to advocate for equality before the law.

Hobson’s Pledge has been able to empower many Kiwis to feel okay to talk about race-based division honestly. We have been able to expose appalling legislation and create a political will to stand against race-based policy.

I don’t believe it is hyperbole to say that this election is the most important in my lifetime. It will determine what type of country our children’s children will inherit.

The dial needs to be shifted substantially and that needs to happen through pressure both inside and outside Parliament. I am going to do my very best to get my foot in the door.

Hobson’s Pledge is in great hands, and I will remain a committed supporter of the cause and the other trustees.

For now, I thank you for your willingness to engage with, fund, and support the work of Hobson’s Pledge. Without you, none of the work of the past seven years would have been possible.

If you would like to stay in touch you can connect with me here.

It has been a pleasure fighting the good fight with you.

And so it begins...the pre-election posturing and promising. With just three months to the election, the noise and flashing around of shiny trinkets to entice voters is already well under way.

The noise isn't just about shouting slogans and making promises though. It is also about drawing attention away from the things political parties would rather we don't remember as we enter the voting booth.

In particular, there is one big scary elephant in the room that Labour wants us to ignore. They have actually done an impressive job of shifting the attention away from this political kryptonite. It is our job to stick the spotlight firmly back on it.

What is Labour's political elephant in the room? It is He Puapua and its stealthy enabler, the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).

A little history...

In March 2019, then Maori Development and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, commissioned a working group to provide advice and recommendations on how to realise UNDRIP.

The working group called their report He Puapua.

Although completed in November 2019, the report and its radical recommendations avoided any public scrutiny until after the 2020 election when Labour secured a majority government.

As recommendations of the report have become a reality, Labour has been quick to distance themselves from this report, denying it is policy, denying it is a plan, and denying that they have acted on the recommendations.

Nothing to see here, folks.

Let’s take a closer look at what the report says...

Broadly, the report called for a focus on:

1. Self-determination by Maori
2. Maori participation in government
3. Increased influence and control of land and resources by iwi/hapu and whanau
4. Iwi, hapu and whanau ability to exercise authority over all aspects of culture and language
5. Equity for Maori in opportunity and outcomes

The general themes sound reasonable until the fine print is reviewed and the process to realise these lofty ideals are exposed.

Despite claims by Minister of Maori Development Willie Jackson that He Puapua is neither a plan nor Government policy, by a miraculous coincidence, they have just happened to implement a number of initiatives that align closely to its objectives:

• Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act – established co-governed health with the separate Maori Health Authority
• Water Services Entity Act – establishes 50/50 co-governance of the 10 water entities which will control the country’s entire water infrastructure
• Resource Management reform – bills introduced to establish co-governed management of natural resources
• Local Government and Electoral Reform – recommending legislative changes that differentiate democratic rights based on race and support co-government structures. This includes the entrenchment of Maori electoral seats.
• Changes to the Local Government Act - that removed the opportunity to hold referenda on the establishment of Maori wards
• Canterbury Regional Council (Ngai Tahu Representation) Act- Unelected Maori representation in local government established
• New History Curriculum - rewrites significant parts of New Zealand's history and leaves other parts out 
• Mechanisms for transferring control of the Department of Conservation estate to tribal authorities
• Insertion of requirement of compliance to the undefined principles of the Treaty of Waitangi into almost all legislation
• National Action Plan Against Racism in NZ - put in place public education campaigns on structural racism 
• Expansion of Te Pae Oranga- $70m invested in 30 more iwi community panels or community justice panels by 2024/25
• Handling of Ihumātao protest - put private land on the table for disputes
• Insertion of matauranga Maori into the science curriculum - undermining of sciences considered 'Western' 

This is by no means a complete list. New Zealand's democracy really is experiencing a death by a thousand cuts.

Every issue we grapple with inevitably has the distinct shadow of He Puapuaover its foundations. Water, resource management, conservation, education, justice, and health...co-governance and the themes of the He Puapua Report are everywhere.

But while Labour has attempted to take some of the sting out of the He Puapua tail, Minister Jackson has also been eager to demonstrate the continued commitment to realising UNDRIP.

In April 2022, under the cover of COVID fallout, the Minister announced that the Government had completed the first stage of a two-step engagement process toward developing their declaration plan.

To be clear, UNDRIP places no obligation or burden on New Zealand to do anything! It was an 'aspirational' non-binding agreement. However, it has been the policy of this Government to overstate the importance of UNDRIP and the need for a declaration plan.

Of course, loading up the parliamentary schedule with the Maori Health Authority, Three Waters, and the RMA reforms, Minister Jackson and Labour pushed their co-governance luck too far. New Zealanders became alarmed and it was evident that more racially-divisive policy would not be tolerated.

Jackson announced that work on realising UNDRIP would be put on hold, although he was at pains to defend the policies. We now know that what he meant was that any publicity and transparency would be put on hold as the implementing of He Puapua has continued at pace.

Despite this frantic and radical reform, Minister Jackson is also on record acknowledging that Maori-specific services don't serve most Maori. In reference to the 2023 Budget, he said, "most Maori are not attached to a lot of our Maori organisations.”

These expensive co-governance policies and separate programmes and entities don't benefit Maori and most Maori don't ask to be divided in this way.

What Maori want and need has been confirmed by polling as being the same as what ALL New Zealanders want. We are all worried about the cost of living, law and order, housing, and education.

As we look forward to 14 October, let's not forget to look for the looming shadow of He Puapua, the elephant in Chris Hipkins' caucus room.

No matter how they dress it up, Labour has spent the last six years (particularly the last three) driving racial division through our institutions and dismantling the safeguards our democracy relies on.

Are you willing to take the risk and give them another three years to implement more of the He Puapua agenda?

I'm not.

Recently, the Minister of Local Government, Kieran McAnulty, disregarded democracy as irrelevant in New Zealand. He commented on the undemocratic Three Waters reforms, stating that they "wouldn't stand up to a purely academic democratic framework, but that's not how we work."

Further highlighting this Government's disdain for democracy, the Independent Electoral Review Committee released a 338-page report with 100 recommendations last month.

It is hard not to throw your hands up in despair as we face yet another attack on our proud democratic heritage, but I am asking you to take a moment and stand up against this madness.

At the heart of the report, and the issue we cannot allow to continue, is that electoral processes will have the Treaty and its undefined principles entrenched into legislation.

As well as various differentiated considerations for Maori and non-Maori voters, the reform will, yet again, undermine the foundation of equal suffrage in New Zealand.

We have summarised this issue on our website with some instructions on how to respond.

What you need to know: Electoral Reform Report

Can you take a moment to find out more, respond and share the message?

I know that you will have much better things to do with your time, and it may seem as though our voices are being lost in the wind. However, we are just three months away from an election... Your voice will be heard!

It will send a message to the incoming Government that we WILL NOT give up our proud democratic heritage at the whim of a few bureaucrats who believe in two standards of citizenship.

It is not coincidental that all of this is being thrust upon us in the final weeks of this Labour Government. They have targeted our water, health, natural resource management, free speech, local government, and now our democratic rights.

We need to keep them focused on outcomes – protect us from crime, manage our economy, and protect the vulnerable and in need.

Make a submission and tell them enough is enough... our democracy is the only thing that protects us and ensures accountability.

With three months to go, you can make a difference.