The expected time to transfer the entire coast of New Zealand to small groups of people with Maori ancestry will reduce from 100 years to 30 years after Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little caved in to pressure from the Waitangi Tribunal.

In a letter on Treaty Settlements Office Ministerial letterhead dated 9 September 2019, Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little, in regards to a pamphlet arguing that everyone ought to be treated equally before the law, stated: “The pamphlet….. curiously ignores the fact that Maori were not treated equally before the law between 1840 and about 1922 when Maori women were finally granted the franchise”.

The fact is that Maori women, who received full rights of British subjects under Article 3 of the Treaty, received the vote in 1893 alongside their European women equals. Such misinformation is insidious in that it creates a grievance mentality in the minds of supposed victims and can be used to justify legal privileges awarded to those with Maori ancestors. And in this case the misinformation promoted by the Office of Treaty Negotiations could clearly have the ability to affect the judgment of Minister Little in the execution of his duties as Minister for Treaty Negotiations (four yearly budget of $1.4 billion) as well as his conduct of Marine and Coastal Area Act negotiations.

Banning Don Brash from a university is one thing but suggesting that advocacy of arguments made by New Zealanders such as him should be made illegal is a whole lot worse. It was precisely these sorts of threats that sparked the creation of the Free Speech Coalition last year.

Complaints by residents of Point Chevalier, Auckland, about a flyer promoting a book titled One Treaty One Nation calling for rights to be determined by citizenship and not race highlights naivete about the history of New Zealand.

An apology by Auckland University for publishing an article by a language professor that included an untrue and defamatory statement about Hobson's Pledge was a long time coming.