In general, I advise against counting your chickens before they hatch, but it appears some may have come home to roost for Te Pāti Māori. So to speak.

Not only has the head of Statistics NZ fallen on his sword (or he will in the not too distant future) due to the fallout of investigations into data breaches and misbehaviour at Manurewa Marae, but yesterday we learned that Te Pāti Māori haven't even filed their annual finances for the election year properly. 

The whole sorry saga is symbolic of the rot that has accumulated in New Zealand as a result of race-based politics trumping democratic process.

We have had two damning reports so far from Stats NZ and the Public Service Commission. The Police are investigating the matter also. As the saying goes: "where there is smoke there is fire".

Stats NZ says it is highly probable that Manurewa Marae copied census form data and used it for its own political purposes. Given a Te Pāti Māori candidate was heading up the marae, those political purposes are quite clear. Takutai Tarsh Kemp is, of course, now a Te Pāti Māori MP after winning the Tāmaki Makaurau seat by just 42 votes.

Even worse, the Public Services Commission said there were few, if any, privacy safeguards in place from government agencies when dealing with the marae and there were no conflict of interest checks despite the marae being effectively run by Te Pāti Māori.

It’s all very dodgy and has John Tamihere’s fingerprints all over it. He is the President of Te Pāti Māori, the CEO of Waipareira Trust, and the CEO of Whānau Ora. Through these connections, Manurewa Marae was funded by the Government to collect data for the census and, promote and administer vaccinations during Covid.

Check out this data from The Facts NZ. It shows that at Manurewa Marae, the TPM candidate got nearly three times the number of votes as she achieved in any other polling booth. We have no doubt that Peeni Henare and Labour were robbed.

Questions have to be asked as to whether assigning Manurewa Marae as a polling booth was simply gross incompetence or a deliberate decision to preference Te Pāti Māori.

Six government departments have been found incompetent in relation to this matter - Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand, Statistics New Zealand, Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Social Development. They all owe New Zealanders a thorough explanation.

And there is now further evidence that Te Pāti Māori think the rules are for everyone except them. Yesterday, Business Desk reported that the party has filed its annual accounts for the election year (2023) six months late. What's worse, they were incomplete, not signed by the executive team, and the numbers did not match other filings. 

Can you imagine if any other political party operated like this? There would be a media circus! They would be calling for heads to roll! 

Indeed, if this kind of stink was surrounding any other party we would be predicting their imminent downfall. The protection racket unfortunately has Te Pāti Māori well insulated.

Before I sign off, I just want to draw your attention to a particularly good piece published in Bassett, Brash, and Hide recently. Rodney Hide describes the alarming rubbish being taught to Kiwi kids in our education system. 

Things like that colonists were all genocidal and wanted to exterminate Māori. This is not only a perversion of history; it’s designed to create guilt and fuel racial division. 

Ironically, this particular example was from an English course; just another example of our children’s education being hijacked by radical Marxists determined to indoctrinate them and teach them to discriminate and hate based on race.

I encourage you to check with your own children about what they are being taught in school.

As you know from last week’s email, Janet Dickson lost her case against the Real Estate Authority.

The High Court ruled that it is perfectly legal to force professionals like Janet to undergo political, cultural, and spiritual courses – in this case, Māori tikanga and the Treaty – with little to no relevance to their actual professions.

We here at Hobson’s Pledge are appalled by the decision, and as we have supported Janet from the outset, we will continue to do so with your support.

The question everyone must ask is: Who is next?

Currently, it is Janet and the Real Estate Authority, but which organisations are next? What are the next set of courses and requirements, with a strong political, cultural, or spiritual bias, that will be forced onto everyday New Zealanders?

Hobson’s Pledge already know the answer because we can see these courses expanding.

You may recall an earlier message to you about the Nurses Association expecting nurses to prioritise culture over medicine.

More recently, the Pharmacy Council has issued new competency guidelines which include “advocating for giving effect to te Tiriti at all levels” and “prioritising Māori voices.”

These have nothing to do with pharmaceutical management, but everything to do with political and cultural agendas. There are many more examples.

The High Court’s decision should send chills down the spine of every New Zealander simply trying to get on with their job. It says that any regulatory body, particularly those captured by activists, can force any array of nonsensical ideas onto members of their organisations.

Even the idea of ‘freedom of speech’ went out the window, with Janet effectively being told that she was not allowed to speak, but instead simply had to listen.

We view this as compulsion, and worse still, the penalty for her is the loss of her practising licence for five years.

The Minister needs to act but seems to think she has the matter in hand. She does not.

Minister Nicole McKee believes it was enough to write a letter to the Real Estate Authority (REA) saying she does not agree with the five-year ban and wants to update legislation accordingly. But this does not address the core of the issue.

In fact, all the letter has done is highlight the harsh consequences of the REA’s decision, but it does not address the problem. The real problem is the ability of these organisations to force New Zealanders to undergo indoctrination in political, cultural, or spiritual matters.

It has to stop, and we need your help.

Firstly, we are going to continue backing Janet, and along with her lawyers, are considering an appeal.

This costs a lot of money, so please consider donating generously so that Hobson’s Pledge can continue to back her. We have already spent tens of thousands of dollars, and many more will be needed.

Secondly, back our call for the Government to act. The easiest and most appropriate solution to this problem is through a change in legislation.

Make contact with your local member of parliament and ask them to fix this issue, changing the law to ensure no one is compelled into such courses.

This is most pressing if your MP is from ACT, New Zealand First, or National. These are the governing parties and have the power to make this simple but necessary change.

Please also write to Minister Nicole McKee –[email protected]– and ask her to use the very powers she has as Minister, along with the philosophies of the ACT Party that she is part of, to make the necessary and sensible decisions to change the law.

All three parties have spoken against the use of power to pursue political or ideological causes. You need only think about their reaction to a bank that wanted to use its power to defund customers who didn’t fit their climate agenda, in this case, legitimate coal mining businesses.

The situation with Janet is little different. She should not be bullied by her professional organisation, and the Government must step in and stop this abuse.

Please help us help Janet, and all New Zealanders. As we said at the start – who’s next?

It was worth a try, but the Advertising Standards Authority has rejected our appealon the ruling against our "controversial" front page advertisement regarding the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill.

Given the ideological capture of institutions in New Zealand, it is hardly surprising that the appeal board of the ASA came to almost the same conclusions as the initial ruling. In these institutions there is visceral hatred, revulsion, and fear of anything that disrupts the current narrative around the Treaty and Māori special rights.

Our front page advertisement definitely disrupted the narrative. It showed New Zealanders just how much of the New Zealand coast is under current application by iwi. In case you don't remember, it is virtually the entire coast. 

We maintain that our advertisement was factual and did not breach standards.  

This ASA decision tells the media decision-makers who want to refuse to run our advertisements that they are entitled to block ordinary people seeing reflections of their own concerns and reasoning in the media.

The class now ruling the mainstream media find ways to stretch and manipulate any rules. Or they just make them up, or ignore the inconvenient ones, including rights to freedom of speech and non-discrimination on the grounds of political belief, or race.

Anything that conflicts with the dogma of the professional-managerial-academic-political-entertainment elite is likely to be blocked, ridiculed, or accused of misinformation. These elites feel virtuous censoring out anything they feel or think the masses should not believe.

We’ll never get good faith engagement from our opponents, and we accept this sad reality. Totally spurious reasoning is par for the course in decisions from the lanyard-wearing class. 

What we don't accept is that we should be content to allow this unfairness to continue unopposed.

It is long past time for a law change to extend the Commerce Act, so that the powerful who control dominant media will be liable, just as cartel conspirators are, if they use their dominance to suppress competition in the marketplace of ideas.

We’d be glad to debate the truth and fairness of our communications with anyone, but that is not what the ASA want to allow. They want to silence us. They want to suppress our views and by extension yours.

The ASA grounded their decisions - the first and the appeal - in opinion rather than objective fact. Facts are still facts, even when they are inconvenient to the beliefs of the members of the ASA. 

The tendency for amateur authoritarians to paint those whom they disagree with as ‘evil’ rather than just holding a differing viewpoint has been cancerous to our ability to debate important and difficult subjects. 

We fight these battles not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because we know that once emboldened, our opponents will go after the next organisation or group.  Today it’s mainstream media deliberately ignoring what may happen if iwi control large swathes of our coastline. Tomorrow it'll be our democratic rights.

>>> Click here to chip in to our fund to fight institutional elites who want to silence us <<<

We let you know about Whanganui District Council's sneaky co-governance (they vote on it on Thursday) and sadly we have to advise you of another sneaky scheme...

Rotorua Lakes Council's Co-Governance Plans

Rotorua Lakes Council are attempting to bring in co-governance via the Te Arawa Partnership Plan.

The Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers (RDRR) Association have written to the Minister of Local Government to urge ministerial intervention. They shared this letter with us and here are some important excerpts:

In September 2024, the Te Arawa Partnership Working Party Facilitator’s Report called for embedding Te Arawa 2050 principles into governance and proposed the establishment of a Te Arawa Vision Committee to formalise extended co-governance arrangements. Council subsequently endorsed this direction without authentic public consultation.

Rotorua’s Long-Term Plan 2024-2034: Implications for Governance

Under Mayor Tania Tapsell, after the thwarted Local Bill, expectations for inclusive democratic processes were high. However, the Long-Term Plan (LTP) adopted on November 1, 2024, entrenched the Te Arawa Partnership Plan as the primary governance framework, sidelining other interest groups. This contradicts the Coalition Government’s 2023 mandate to democratise local governance and focus on core services...

...The LTP explicitly privileges Te Arawa over other stakeholder groups, undermining equal representation.

The Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee: A Structural Power Shift

A significant governance shift occurred in late 2024 with the establishment of the Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee, a policy advisory subcommittee of Council. It comprises the mayor, all 10 councillors, and five TTOTAB members. Since nine of its 15 members whakapapa to Te Arawa,the committee effectively institutionalises co-governance , prioritising tribal interests over democratic decision-making.

The RDRR raised some important concerns with the minister and we share these concerns:

1. Overreach of the Te Arawa 2050 Vision Committee:
   • The committee wields disproportionate influence, overriding rights of the 72 percent non-Māori electorate.
   • It subverts the LGA’s (Local Government Act) democratic principles of equal suffrage and pluralistic majoritarianism.
2. Lack of Public Consultation:
   • The committee was established without broad community engagement, violating the LGA’s (Local Government Act) requirements for transparent decision-making.
   • Te Arawa 2050 is being positioned to replace Vision 2030 without a public mandate.
3. Bias Towards Co-Governance:
   • The mayor and three Māori ward councillors appear to prioritise tribal interests over their duty to represent all constituents.
   • The Te Arawa Vision 2050 Committee’s structure and council’s executive influence signal a shift towards governance that favours a single minority group and minoritarianism.

We look forward to hearing what Minister Simon Watts has to say about this and will be pursuing answers of our own. Watch this space.

Our councils are clearly still dead set on smuggling anti-democratic co-governance into local government and apparently our universities are just as hellbent on establishing racial segregation in higher education.

University Pushing Racial Segregation in Higher Education

We’ve seen an internal email from a student at Canterbury University who was dismayed to learn that they were excluded from particular tutorials simply because of their race. The email outlined that "tutorials will prioritise first filling Māori and Pasifika students …with the goal to build whanaungatanga and manaakitanga."

This is being done in the name of whanaungatanga (kinship/connection) andmanaakitanga (kindness/respect/care). The irony of claiming such a motivation when they are excluding some students based on race! 

Invoking such principles does not magically absolve the university from its responsibilities to all students as stipulated in New Zealand law. We remind the university of its legal obligations under New Zealand’s Bill of Rights, the Human Rights Act, and the Education and Training Act.

Discrimination is discrimination no matter how the university chooses to dress it up.

All students have the right to education and access to the relevant lectures, tutorials, and materials related to their courses.

I am writing to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Canterbury about this matter and I will be asking what the position of the university is concerning the access of all students, regardless of their race, to university courses, tutorials, and materials.

I'll also be requesting reassurance that if such discriminatory practices are occurring these will cease and staff will be instructed to comply with the aforementioned New Zealand laws.

We are keeping an eye on councils, universities, the public service, and on everyone who wants to divide us by race. We will keep you updated and call on your support to hold the powerful to account.