Hobson’s Pledge wants all New Zealanders to benefit from quality health care. Yes, there are New Zealanders with complex needs who require significant help, but this isn’t restricted to just those with a Maori ancestor. The causes are usually multifaceted and can certainly not all be blamed on the health system.

The draft curriculum seems designed to foster ethnic division, to breed resentment and to foster guilt, so it is highly likely to cultivate young activists. It reeks of psychologic abuse of the children in our education system and is inappropriate for teaching professionals to administer. If this is an example of the standard of current curricula, it helps explain the high level of anxiety being reported amongst New Zealand children. Consequently, I consider this draft totally flawed and beyond redemption.

The Water Services Bill (the Bill) currently making its way through Parliament has much to commend it. Most New Zealanders want the quality of our freshwater and drinking water to be maintained to a high standard throughout the country. Similarly, most would support the prioritising of wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and maintenance to an equally high standard. These are absolute basics in any first world country.

If we were in any doubt that the education system is a powerful force in national politics and cultural values, the Education Council is obliterating that. New Zealanders (when given the chance) have repeatedly expressed no appetite for constitutional reform, co-goverance, compulsory te reo, or a new flag, so now the activists are taking matters into their own hands to entrench their power over our minds.

It was interesting to see people’s reactions on Maori TV to deputy mayor McInnes proposal to change the name of the Far North Council. They asked “Why?” or suggested she talk to the people or concentrate on fixing infrastructure first and foremost.