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  • Why I'm joining Hobson's Pledge

    Posted by · March 01, 2024 11:03 AM

    Just a quick note to introduce myself as the newest member of the Hobson's Pledge team.

    A quick bit about myself: I am a husband, dad, and proud New Zealander. I have ancestors from Niue, England, and Tonga, and I hail from the iwi, Te Āti Awa, and the hapū, Ngāti Raukawa. My kids are all that plus mixed with Chinese heritage. Multicultural!

    I have worked with at-risk young people and communities for 20 years and have fought for equality in various contexts.

    Like many Kiwis I've been watching the downward spiral of race relations in New Zealand in horror.

    We live in one of the greatest countries on Earth with a proud history of democracy but now we find ourselves with different rights and representation based on if we have Māori blood.

    I have Māori blood. I don't want this racist separatism.

    Don and I go way back. We first met at a school in South Auckland where he was helping to empower the families and youth in our low-income areas. Since then, I have seen his work with Hobson's Pledge evolve over the years into a massive movement based on the simple idea that all Kiwis should have the same rights and representation. Nearly 150,000 Kiwis are signed up to Hobson's Pledge's supporter list.

    I'm joining the Hobson's Pledge team because this is not the New Zealand I grew up in. The apartheid-style policies that have been implemented by recent governments have shocked me and then angered me.

    I'm also joining because I have had enough of media and politicians acting like all Māori are on board with the extremism of Te Pati Māori.These extremist groups are attempting to rewrite history.

    The recent Tūrangawaewae, Kīngitanga, and Waitangi events have shown that anti-equality groups will subject Kiwis to division, deception, manipulation and gaslighting.

    We have a battle ahead to overcome what I consider to be a broken fourth estate.

    They aren't going to report on this fairly.

    They aren't going to be honest and say Hobson's Pledge stands for equality.

    No.

    They will print dramatic headlines and call us all racists.

    I'm not going to take it lying down. I'm joining the team at Hobson's Pledge to stand up for justice, democracy and equality.

    I don't care what your skin colour is or who your ancestors were. I will stand with you. Shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

    He iwi tahi tatou. We are one people.

    I'll be in touch soon.

    Elliot Ikilei

    P.S. If you feel as strongly as I do and want to contribute to the fund to fight for equality in New Zealand, click here.

  • Media sets sights on banned real estate agent

    Posted by · February 24, 2024 12:24 PM

    The stakes have risen! Janet's story has hit the media. Predictably much of the reporting is critical of her stance to refuse to take the Māori cultural training course imposed by the Real Estate Authority.

    >>> Haven't heard about the appalling treatment of Janet Dickson? Read about it here <<<

    We've heard that these mandatory cultural trainings are happening all over New Zealand and Hobson's Pledge supporters like you have been sharing their experiences with us. Submit your tip here.

    With the hostile media now interested in Janet's case, she needs your support more than ever to get her case in front of a judge.

    Hobson's Pledge are fundraising for Janet's fight because this case could set an important precedent regarding the right of employers and licensing bodies to impose compulsory political or ideological training on their staff or licensees.

    We have not yet hit the target that is needed for Janet's fight. Will you chip in to get us over the line?

    This battle is bigger than just Janet. It is about asserting the rights of all Kiwis to make their own minds up about political and cultural matters and be autonomous human beings with their own opinions. Click here to stand with Janet.

    It is laughable that the Real Estate Authority in conjunction with Ngāti Awa has decided that their Māori training manual is the one true perspective on Māori values. 

    Do you think it is right that a person can be sacked or banned for five years because they wouldn't take a training course on 'Māori values'?

    Workplaces often have compulsory trainings for things like health and safety, but the Real Estate Authority is forcing a course that has little relevance to the work of realtors.

    Join the fight.

    For Janet, this is a matter of personal and professional autonomy and diversity of opinion. Faced with the choice of capitulating to the REA or losing her licence for five years, Janet has decided on a third option: judicial review in the High Court.

    If you want to see professional bodies and employers reminded that they don't have a right to own our opinions nor the right to impose their particular cultural perspectives on their employees and members, now is the time to get behind Janet and her judicial review. 

    Now is the time for collective resistance. When we push back together it is much harder to ignore.

    On behalf of Janet and the team at Hosbon's Pledge, thank you for your support,

  • DON BRASH: WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT TO BE?

    Posted by · February 22, 2024 4:13 PM

    Last Sunday, the Sunday Star-Times recalled on its front page the “fiery debate” triggered by my speech to the Orewa Rotary Club just 20 years earlier. Articles by several authors in the same paper brought the debate up-to-date and warned of the dangers of ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which the National Party’s coalition agreement with ACT provides will be introduced into Parliament, will be passed at First Reading, and will be referred to a Select Committee – but with no commitment from National to support the Bill beyond that.

    It is not my role to support any political party, though in the interests of full disclosure I am a member of the ACT Party and was very briefly (in 2011) the Leader of ACT.

    But what the ACT Party is arguing for is of foundational importance to New Zealand’s future. What is surprising is the reluctance of the other coalition partners to endorse ACT’s proposed Bill: historically, both the National Party and New Zealand First have had a commitment to equal citizenship.

    In recent years, more and more people have been led to believe that the Treaty of Waitangi – or Te Tiriti o Waitangi if you prefer – created a partnership between two distinct groups of New Zealanders, with those who chance to have one or more Maori ancestors (now always with other ancestors as well) having an inherently superior constitutional status.

    According to this view, those with some Maori ancestry have a superior right to be consulted about a whole range of policy issues, including what may be done with, or built on, land which has long been in private ownership.

    According to this view, those with some Maori ancestry have a superior constitutional right to decide what may be done with water resources, which the rest of us have long regarded as being in community ownership.

    According to this view, those with some Maori ancestry are entitled to separate political representation in Parliament and in local government.

    David Seymour totally rejects this interpretation of the Treaty and argues that having a society where some citizens have rights which are inherently superior to those of other citizens is inconsistent with any reasonable definition of democracy. He argues that we have no future as a democracy if rights are dependent on who our ancestors were.

    Moreover, he argues that the words of the Treaty actually support what he proposes that the Treaty Principles Bill will provide – that the government has the right to rule, that we all have rights to our own property, and that all citizens have equal rights.

    Really? The government has the right to rule? That implies that the chiefs who signed Te Tiriti surrendered sovereignty to the Queen. Certainly. We know with a high degree of certainty what the English words given to the Rev Henry Williams to translate into te reo actually said, and they unambiguously envisaged Maori chiefs surrendering sovereignty to Queen Victoria.

    The speeches made by the chiefs who read or heard the Treaty in te reo – speeches written down at the time by Colenso – show that they fully understood they were being asked to surrender sovereignty to the Queen, and some of them strongly objected (even though most of them eventually did sign the Treaty). Speeches made by the large number of chiefs who assembled at Kohimarama in 1860 clearly show that they accepted the Queen as sovereign.

    For most of the years since that time great Maori leaders accepted that the Crown was sovereign, with the greatest of these being Sir Apirana Ngata.

    And for all of the time since 1840, most Maori New Zealanders have behaved as if they accepted that the Crown was sovereign – they have been employed by the state as teachers, nurses, doctors, soldiers and sailors, they have paid taxes to the state, and received benefits from the state.

    It’s interesting to speculate how things would evolve if the notion that Maori have inherently superior rights to the rest of us became entrenched. At the moment, the legal definition of a “Maori” is anybody with a Maori ancestor. That definition almost makes sense today, but in three or four generations? A friend of mine told me several years ago that he had 32 great-great-great-grandparents, 15 of whom were from England, 10 from Ireland, four from Scotland, two from Wales, and only one Maori. He is legally entitled to join the Maori electoral roll and presumably qualify for other government programmes reserved for “Maori”. That seems ridiculous, but it is only slightly more ridiculous than the present situation, where people who had far more ancestors who were not Maori than who were are entitled to government programmes reserved for Maori.

    I have no idea of course what will happen to ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill when it comes before Parliament. But whatever happens to that particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that as a community we resolve whether we wish to be a democracy where all citizens have equal political rights or whether we want to descend further into the awful morass where rights depend on who our ancestors were.

    SOURCE: BASSETT, BRASH & HIDE

  • It's time to take legal action

    Posted by · February 14, 2024 9:30 AM

    Many Hobson's Pledge supporters have contacted us in recent years with stories of cultural training in their workplaces. As time has gone on, what began as optional courses are now more often than not compulsory and highly politicised. I know that this has been an issue of immense frustration for many people.

    That's why I am introducing you to Janet Dickson.

    Janet is a real estate agent with more than 30 years experience, but the Real Estate Authority is threatening to cancel her licence for five years.

    Why? Because Janet is taking a principled stance in refusing to complete a compulsory online 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 loosely connected to their job under threat of losing their right to work. It is also a key concern to Janet that the online course Te Kākano is a singular perspective on the subject matter when there is a variety in opinion and understanding within Māoridom and all New Zealanders.

    For Janet, this is a matter of personal and professional autonomy and diversity of opinion.

    Faced with the choice to capitulate to the REA or lose her licence for five years, Janet has decided on a third option: judicial review in the High Court.

    The review could serve as a critical tool in addressing the overreach by other professional organisations who force diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training on workers via mandates too. Her lawyers believe it could establish a precedent that will inform the conduct of other professional regulatory bodies.

    But judicial reviews don’t come cheap.The entire process is likely to cost more than $150,000 and Janet needs $50,000 to kick it off and get this in front of the High Court.

    Will you back Janet and this opportunity to rein in radical policies being pushed through companies and organisations via employee or licensee training? She needs support to maintain her principled stance to reject mandates and to challenge the idea that the writers of Te Kākano are an infallible authority on all things Māori.

    Now is the time for collective resistance to safeguard the major principles of our democracy. It is imperative to ensure that Janet's voice, and those similarly situated, are not silenced. We need a unified stand to uphold the fundamental values of professional autonomy and democratic freedoms.

    Contribute to Janet's legal fund

    This case has the potential to be groundbreaking. It is our best opportunity thus far to draw a line in the sand around our rights. It is a clear cut case where the punishment for not completing the training is so obviously disproportionate. We simply couldn't pass up the chance to support Janet's effort. Will you join us?

    It is quite laughable that the Real Estate Authority in conjunction with Ngāti Awa has decided that their Māori training manual is the one true account of New Zealand history, Māori culture, and the Treaty of Waitangi. 

    Not only does Janet have a different perspective from Ngāti Awa's Te Kākanotraining, but I strongly suspect many other iwi would disagree with the training materials too! Making this training compulsory is an attempt at indoctrination.

    If you want to see professional bodies and employers reminded that they don't have a right to own our opinions nor the right to impose their particular cultural perspectives on their employees and members, you need to get behind Janet and her judicial review. 

    Back Janet Dickson's judicial review and say 'no' to compulsory Māori cultural training. 

    On behalf of Janet, thank you for your support,

  • Stop the misinformation about the Treaty Principles Bill

    Posted by · February 03, 2024 10:51 AM

    Waitangi Day is fast approaching and tensions are expected at official events. Kiwis can hardly be blamed for the widespread confusion behind the tensions related to the Treaty Principles Bill, which incidentally hasn't even been written! 

    Sign our open letter to the Coalition Government calling on them to stand their ground!

    At this point, it can be credibly argued that there is a deliberate effort to spread false information about what the Government, the ACT Party, and David Seymour are proposing with the Bill.

    No one is suggesting a referendum on the EXISTENCE of the Treaty of Waitangi, for example. Recent media stories have often seemed to suggest otherwise.

    What the ACT Party is arguing for is of foundational importance to New Zealand’s future. It is important New Zealanders understand it.

    In recent years, more and more people have been led to believe that the Treaty of Waitangi created a partnership between two distinct groups of New Zealanders, with those who chance to have one or more Maori ancestors having an inherently superior constitutional status. 

    According to this view, those with some Maori ancestry have a superior right to be consulted about a whole range of policy issues, including those regarding land use, natural resources, and political representation.

    David Seymour totally rejects this interpretation of the Treaty and argues that having a society where some citizens have rights which are inherently superior to those of other citizens is inconsistent with any reasonable definition of democracy. He argues that we have no future as a democracy if rights are dependent on who our ancestors were.

    Moreover, he argues that the words of the Treaty actually support what he proposes that the Treaty Principles Bill will provide – that the government has the right to rule, that we all have rights to our own property, and that all citizens have equal rights.

    I have no idea of course what will happen to ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill when it comes before Parliament.  But whatever happens to that particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that as a community we resolve whether we wish to be a democracy where all citizens have equal political rights or whether we want to descend further into the awful morass where rights depend on who our ancestors were.

    Central to the opposition to this political equality is the relatively new assertion that Maori did not cede sovereignty to the Crown. This is not a credible position given the obvious practical sovereignty of the Crown in New Zealand since 1840. 

    For most of the years since, great Maori leaders accepted that the Crown is sovereign, with the greatest of these being Sir Apirana Ngata.

    And all New Zealanders have engaged with the sovereignty of the Crown – they have been employed by the state as teachers, nurses, doctors, soldiers and sailors, they have paid taxes to the state, and received benefits from the state.

    Those of us who believe in the superiority of democracy and that equal rights are a cornerstone of such a system must hold the line. 

    There will be uncomfortable conversations and tensions as we work through these matters, but if we give up on equality and democracy now, I fear we will never get them back.

    No doubt this Waitangi Day we will hear all sorts of other false claims about what the Bill seeks to do. Please remember the Treaty Principles Bill simply seeks to create clarity and consensus on what the Treaty means. It seeks to halt the creative and expanding principles the judiciary have attributed to the Treaty.

    We have more than 22,000 signatures on our open letter to the coalition asking them to hold line. Will you add your name if you haven't already done so?

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