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  • A Letter to Kiri Allan

    Posted by · May 02, 2023 2:11 PM

    Recent events have shown that not all racism is treated equally in New Zealand and that senior members of the Government perceive that some people don't ‘qualify’ as victims of racism.

    A few weeks ago, I sent an Official Information Act request asking ministers to define racism as it relates to their portfolios. What should have been a straightforward question was met with further proof that ministers like Kiri Allan don’t actually have any clue what racism is. Or, alternatively, they aren't willing to share it with voters.

    The Justice Minister’s office claimed that it isn’t their responsibility, under the OIA, to ‘create’ a definition where it doesn't exist. It seems strange that her ministry wouldn't have a definition for it given they have a 'National Plan Against Racism' as a 'Key Initiative' on their website.

    We have received similar replies from ministers Nanaia Mahuta, Willow-Jean Prime, and Rino Tirikatene. We are still to hear back from the rest.

    Without a definition, how do they have any idea what they are actually fighting?

    It's unsurprising that New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner has been evasive and selective in his role too. 

    We recently learnt that not only did Meng Foon donate to Kiri Allan's 2020 election campaign, but his wife is effectively the minister's landlord (with heavy discounts) for her local electorate office. This is significant because Allan is the minister responsible for the Race Relations Commissioner.

    At a Cabinet level and throughout our public service, it seems to have become the political consensus that racism is a tool to be used to justify the undermining of our democracy. This Labour Government has based legislation and policy on a foundation of racism.

    New Zealanders are now afforded different rights determined only by race.

    And to avoid any criticism of their race based policies, we do not even have a definition of racism. Even whether you can be a victim of racism is dependent on whether you're seen as the 'right' race.

    We cannot allow our nation to be divided into brown and white; or as we are led to believe victim vs oppressor.

    If we are to stop the division of our nation by race, then we need clarity from this Government as to what it means and to hold them accountable. All New Zealanders must be afforded the same rights and protections regardless of colour.

    We need to make our voices heard. Our Government needs to be held to account. They need to know that we do not tolerate any form of racism, no matter who it is targeted at.

    SIGN OUR OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER OF JUSTICE KIRI ALLAN

    Just the other week, Marama Davidson claimed she knows “who causes violence and it's cis white men”.

    This comment should have sparked outrage, but her party stood by her, defending unacceptable and racist comments. The Prime Minister stood by her!

    Her comments were provably false as, unfortunately, violence is present in all cultures and ethnicities. Yet we didn't hear a peep from the people who have been banging the "misinformation" drum at the drop of a hat. 

    Can you imagine if this was said about another race?

    We have seen time and time again that the Government is selective about when it takes racism seriously.

    And it goes beyond the Government.

    Not long ago, I wrote an open letter criticising Tusiata Avia’s racist poetry and tried to get it published in one of New Zealand’s biggest newspapers, only to be told we can’t call her racist – even though her work is objectively racist.

    The media uncritically mirrors the race-politics of those in power in New Zealand. We have few options for holding the Government to account.

    However, in October, we have our best chance to send a message about the kind of country we want to live in. What we need to do is exercise the power of the election long before we step into the ballot box. 

    We can do this by making clear to politicians what we will base our votes on. That means we simply must be more politically active than we have ever been before. We have a plan to put our messages in front of every politician and expose more Kiwis to our concerns.

    For the next five and a bit months, we will be calling on our supporters to sign open letters, send emails, talk to their local MPs, and share our messages with everyone who will listen.

    Today, we are asking you to sign our open letter to Minister Kiri Allan

    The letter demands clarity around what this Government understands racism to be and calls on the  Ministry of Justice and the Human Rights Commission to have zero tolerance for racism, no matter who (or what colour) the target.

    If we can't agree on this simple thing, we can't have fruitful discussions about anything race-related. We need to be able to talk about matters like co-governance and what role the Treaty has in New Zealand in 2023. The ambiguity and tensions around race makes this so difficult.

    This year has already been hectic, and it is only going to ramp up as we get closer to October 14th. We are ready for the battles ahead, but we can only succeed with supporters like you alongside us.

  • May the 4th

    Posted by · April 28, 2023 2:05 PM

    You may remember that last year, on May the 4th, we published this advert in the New Zealand Herald.

    TCC_AttackoftheVotes.jpg

    The advert played with the famous line from the Star Wars movie “May the Force be with you”, emphasising that our democracy was under attack.

    Predictably we received advertising complaints and were accused of scaremongering, but the advert was hard to miss, with even left-leaning media unable to ignore the democratic issue.

    I am asking for your help to reinforce the message that our democracy is not a tradeable commodity for political gain. It is only through spreading the word to other Kiwis that we will be able to combat this attack on the foundations of our constitution. 

    You will recall that our concerns about democracy were scoffed at by our then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, when she stated that the one person, one vote was “overly simplistic”.

    Now, Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty has confirmed the Government’s continued contempt for democracy when he said:

    “There are provisions that we have in this country that wouldn’t stand up to a purely academic democratic framework but that’s not how we work in New Zealand.”

    MCANULTY IS COMPLETELY WRONG, THAT IS HOW WE WORK IN NEW ZEALAND – ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE.

    Democracy is the foundation of that equal consideration – one person, one vote. However, our elected representatives apparently have no understanding of this democratic principle.

    We have one of the proudest democratic credentials in the world, with every person having voting rights as early as 1893. We can no longer take our democracy for granted, so we need to engage with a much broader audience before this year’s election.

    To launch this discussion, we want to revisit our May the Fourth advertising as the first stage in a series of actions defending our democracy and equality before the law.

    Can you help us spread this message? Commit to telling 3 friends or family members this weekend about what is going on. 

    Since we last highlighted that our democracy was under attack New Zealand has seen, to highlight a few issues:

    1. Legislated unelected representation by Ngai Tahu onto the Canterbury Regional Council
    2. Segregated of our health system by race
    3. Over 80,000 submissions about 3 Waters dismissed by the Local Government Minister because they largely said the “same thing”
    4. Unelected 50% governance arrangements in the control of water despite extensive opposition
    5. Closed select committee submissions, excluding public engagement, about the renaming of New Zealand to Aotearoa

    It is only through democracy that we can hold our elected representatives to account. When power and authority get handed to those who carry no cost for decisions, it's too late.

  • The Treaty and National

    Posted by · April 20, 2023 1:50 PM

    We need to write to the Leader of the Opposition and express our disappointment.

    A few days ago, National MP Joseph Mooney tweeted that the Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed tino rangatiratanga (self-determination, sovereignty, independence, autonomy) to all the people of New Zealand.

    He even quoted Professor Hugh Kawharu’s translation of the Māori version of the Treaty which is published on the Waitangi Tribunal’s website.

    Have a look at his tweets and see if you think anything is wrong with what he said:

    As tends to happen on Twitter, a small mob of professionally outraged people piled in to tell him he was wrong, stupid, and a “white supremacist”.

    What should have been just another case of a pointless skirmish online, turned into something bigger, however. The perpetually online mainstream journalists spotted the interaction and decided the tweets were a cancel-worthy crime. They went to National Party leader Christopher Luxon with their disapproval and asked for his comment.

    Now, if you recently saw how Marama Davidson was defended by her party, and by the Prime Minister, for her vile comments about ‘cis, white men’ committing all the violence in the world, you might expect that Luxon and National would be even more voracious in their defence of their MP given all he did was quote the Treaty from the Waitangi Tribunal website. Unfortunately, that is not how it played out.

    Christopher Luxon waited for one of the few buses in Wellington that actually run on time and chucked his spokesperson for Treaty Negotiations under it. Sure, he said he still had confidence in Mooney, but he also said, “I think Joseph got it wrong on this occasion”. Got what wrong, Christopher? What part of what Joseph Mooney tweeted was wrong?

    Of course, the media have made a song and a dance about it, trotting out academics to castigate the poor man. They even took to reporting on the criticism he was receiving on Twitter (they published the below tweet). Newshub and Stuff both quoted an academic who claimed that (shock horror!) Joseph Mooney appeared to be echoing Dr Don Brash!

    Where is National’s backbone? Are they going to stand for anything remotely different to the co-governance narrative Labour is doubling down on?

    New Zealanders are entitled to be able to have discussions about the Treaty and its implications for everyone without the media being bullies and strong-arming political parties. Political parties need to be resilient enough to not dance to the media’s every tune.

    At the moment, Kiwis are faced with more divisive co-governance policies and unequal democracy no matter what happens at the election in October. We need to show National and Luxon how many votes are up for grabs for a party that stands up for democracy and equality.

    We haven’t put together a fancy website for this as we just want to get feedback to National as soon as possible, so we are just asking that you send an email to Christopher Luxon and Party President Sylvia Wood letting them know that you support Joseph Mooney and find their lack of support for him appalling. Call on them to show leadership and stand up to those who steamroll debates about the Treaty.

    Click here to send an email to Christopher and Sylvia.

    We will be writing to National ourselves to urge them to show some courage and speak up for an equal and unified New Zealand.

  • Three Waters Rebrand

    Posted by · April 13, 2023 11:52 AM

    Have you seen what Chris Hipkins is doing to Three Waters?

    Not a lot from the looks of things! Apart from increasing the number of entities and renaming it "Affordable Water Reforms".

    Incredible.

    Our Prime Minister is reiterating his contempt for the vast numbers of New Zealanders who object to Three Waters.

    He must think we are all fools if he thinks that a quick rebrand is going to appease us. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

    Crucially, for those of us who champion democracy and value equal rights, co-governance remains totally embedded in the reforms. Nothing has changed, {{recipient.first_name_or_friend}}. 

    Different name, same divisive and regressive policies. 

    Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty said in a press release today:

    "Every district council in the country will have a say and representation over their local water services entities through regional representative groups, forming a partnership between council representatives and iwi/Māori that will provide strategic oversight and direction to the entities."

    And while he goes on to say they will "continue to sit below the governance board" we already know what that means in practice. It means 50% of the decision making voices will be unelected and unaccountable to a democratic process.

    This means that we can expect that the hypocritical accusations of racism directed at opponents of the reforms will continue and our work is well and truly cut out for us because this Government is doubling down.

    We aren't afraid to stand up for what is right though. We all have that hill we are willing to die on and for me it is defending a democratic New Zealand that values the rights of each person equally.

    The Fight Against Racism fund is still open for donations and every dollar allows us to get our messages in front of more Kiwis. 

    There's plenty of time until October and I hope we can count on your continued support in the fight.

     

  • Don's Review

    Posted by · April 11, 2023 4:06 PM

    More than ever before, race is being centred in every conversation the Government has about policy and legislation. No minister seems to be able to resist the pull to racialise whatever bill or policy they are championing.

    It is divisive and toxic, making it harder and harder for New Zealanders to come together, despite our differences, to discuss matters that have significant impact on our lives.

    Speaking on The Hui yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins attacked those opposing the Three Waters legislation as being perpetrators of “dog whistle racism”.

    You can watch the interview here. I recommend taking a few deep breaths first!

    Hipkins goes on to reiterate his contempt for the vast numbers of New Zealanders who object to Three Waters, suggesting any criticism is about ignorance or bigotry, rather than poor legislation.

    “When you talk to many people about [Three Waters] they don’t really understand what the water infrastructure changes that we’re proposing are, they’ve just heard the sort of dog whistle racism that’s associated with it.”

    With alarming frequency this Government avoids criticism of its poor legislation and bad policy by employing the tactic of accusing their opponents of racism. Ironically, by doing this they are perpetuating race-based division of New Zealanders. 

    This agenda strengthened by a deliberate distortion of our nation’s history which, despite extensive criticism from highly-respected academics, has now become part of our children's national education curriculum. Concerns about the fantastical and revisionist content have been steadfastly ignored.

    This separating of New Zealanders into categories of victims and oppressors that we see in our schools has already spread into society via our universities.

    Last week, Newsroom published a book review that discussed this topic before straying into criticism of Dr Don Brash and Hobson’s Pledge.

    Read the review here. Again, take a few deep breaths before you read it!

    The article confirmed (quite unintentionally) many of our concerns about the distortion of New Zealand's history and the author appeared to be suffering some cognitive dissonance when he wrote: “historical literacy and awareness is the enemy of ill-informed bigotry.”

    Surprisingly or unsurprisingly (depending on how cynical you are), despite the personal criticism of Dr Don Brash in the article, he has been denied a right of reply by Newsroom editor Jonathan Milne who stated:

    “It’s a book review. Book reviews are meant to be opinionated. If we start getting into tit-for-tats over views expressed in book reviews, and theatres reviews, and restaurant reviews, then I don’t think we’ll be serving anyone well.”

    The article’s author totally misrepresents our purpose which is simply to defend equality of citizenship and oppose racism in all its forms.

    Well, Don decided to write a response anyway and we're sharing it with you at the end of this email. It is essential reading at a time when our Government is so determined to accuse their critics of racism in an attempt to avoid the real issues with its bad legislation and policy.

    We are continuing to work on our campaign against racial attacks against New Zealanders, despite mainstream media blocking our print advertisements, to build awareness of repeated failures by ministers to treat New Zealanders equally and to condemn racism in all its forms.

    We have not been defeated by the underhanded tactics of those in power and hope we can count on your continued support as we demand an equal standard of citizenship for all.

    DON'S RESPONSE: VINCENT O’MALLEY AGAIN (April 2023)

    Once again, Vincent O’Malley is promoting a radically distorted version of New Zealand’s history (Newsroom, 5 April 2023). Normally I ignore his nonsense but on this occasion his distortions directly involve me.

    He asserts that in 2004 “then Leader of the Opposition, Don Brash, delivered a blistering attack on race-based privileges for Maori and the ‘Treaty grievance industry’ during his notorious speech to the Orewa Rotary Club… Brash narrowly lost the 2005 election as a result of which his promises to tear up Treaty settlements and end Maori ‘privilege’ came to naught.”

    Yes, I certainly argued in that speech that all New Zealanders, irrespective of ancestry, should be equal before the law. But I explicitly did not advocate “tearing up Treaty settlements”. Indeed, I urged that Treaty settlements should be accelerated and in the 2005 election campaign I argued that they should be finished within six years because, as long as they dragged on, they did two kinds of damage.

    They created the (erroneous) belief on the part of many European New Zealanders that the Treaty settlements were of enormous size, and of course relative to government spending they were not. And they created a totally false expectation on the part of too many Maori that once a settlement had been reached the gap between average Maori living standards and the living standards of other New Zealanders would miraculously disappear.

    I pointed out in that Orewa speech that once guns fell into Maori hands in the early years of the 19th century, ancient tribal rivalries saw Maori kill more of their own than the number of all New Zealanders lost in World Wars I and II. Probably 30,000 Maori were killed by Maori in the 1820s and 1830s. (I don’t see much evidence that this will be a focus of the new History curriculum.)

    Equally, however, I noted that the initial Maori contact with Europeans was hardly a contact with the cream of European civilisation. The first Europeans that Maori encountered were explorers, whalers, escaped convicts from Australia, and then settlers hungry for land to build a new life. Many were none-too concerned about the niceties of the Treaty. 

    Any dispassionate look at our history shows that self-interest and greed featured large on both sides. Pakeha tried hard to separate Maori from their lands, and usually succeeded, although at various points the Crown endeavoured to ensure that proper procedures, consistent with the Article 2 guarantee to Maori that they were able to sell freely and fairly, were upheld.

    Yet in spite of these problems, and in spite of all the turmoil, the shocks from the collision of two cultures and the chaos of unprecedented social change, the documentary evidence clearly shows that Maori society was immensely adaptable, and very open to new ways. That adaptability and resourcefulness, that openness to opportunity, that entrepreneurial spirit, is something that survived the trauma of colonisation, and is today reflected in a Maori renaissance across a wide range of business, cultural and sporting activity.

    We should celebrate the fact that, despite a war between a minority of Maori tribes and the government in the 1860s and the speed with which Maori were separated from much of their land – partly through settler greed, partly through a couple of generations of deficient leadership by some Maori – our Treaty is probably the only example in the world of any such treaty surviving rifle shots. Those who said a hundred years later that New Zealand possessed good race relations by world standards weren't wrong. While we try to fix the wrongs of the past, we should celebrate the good things and shared experiences that underpin our nationhood.

    All Maori got the right to vote, and had it long before 1900. Indeed, all Maori men got the vote before most European men did. By the 1930s, Maori possessed equal rights of access to state assistance, be it pensions or subsidised housing loans or access to education. One standard of citizenship was gradually working, and the gaps that existed in every other colonial country were closing here as Maori took advantage of full employment.

    Although he listed a number of land grievances in his centennial speech at Waitangi on 6 February 1940, Sir Apirana Ngata told those present that in the whole world it was unlikely that any “native” (his word) race had been as well treated by settlers as Maori.

    Let me be quite clear. As I frankly acknowledged in that Orewa speech, many things happened to the Maori people that should not have happened. There were injustices, and the Treaty process is an attempt to acknowledge that, and to make a gesture at recompense. But it is only that.  It can be no more than that.

    Despite the injustices and the mistakes, most Maori New Zealanders are undoubtedly better off today than they would have been had New Zealand never been discovered by Europeans. Indeed, I would contend that to argue the contrary is to be wilfully blind. European settlement ended slavery, cannibalism, and inter-tribal warfare. It brought the common law, the wheel, and metal tools. It brought a written language, new forms of protein, and new building materials.  And one of the most obvious results has been a more than doubling of life expectancy for Maori New Zealanders.

    That Maori New Zealanders now prosper in every walk of life is obvious to any casual observer. Three years ago, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the National Party were Maori; the Leader and Deputy Leader of New Zealand First were Maori; the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party was Maori; the Co-Leader of the Greens was Maori; and the Leader of the ACT Party was Maori. And nobody thought that was odd.

    Vincent O’Malley and his radical friends may be reluctant to admit it but the reality is that New Zealand has absolutely no future unless it acknowledges what Article III of the Treaty made abundantly clear, that all New Zealanders have equal rights and responsibilities.

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