There are two pieces of legislation wending their way through Parliament designed to further entrench the crazy notion that the Treaty of Waitangi created an obligation on governments nearly 200 years later to treat anybody with a Maori ancestor in some kind of preferential way. They are the Public Service Bill and the Education and Training Bill, both sponsored by Chris Hipkins, who is both Education and Public Service Minister.

Since the row over Don Brash being banned then un-banned from speaking at Massey University, race-based issues have appeared to have been sidelined. The issues remain, prompting Don to write in his regular column for South Auckland newspaper Elocal that “enough is enough”. Here is the article:

Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene’s Electoral (Entrenchment of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill will, if passed, require a 75% majority in Parliament to disestablish the Maori seats.

Thank you for your submissions.

On 5th September Parliament voted to move the Bill for consideration by the Maori Affairs Select Committee.

The vote was as follows:

National Party: 56 opposed; ACT Party 1 opposed

Labour Party: 46 in favour; Green Party: 8 in favour; NZ First: 9 in favour

Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene’s Electoral (Entrenchment of Maori Seats) Amendment Bill will, if passed, require a 75 percent majority in Parliament to disestablish the Maori seats.

Consider these absurdities:

• The need for these seats disappeared in 1893, when New Zealand became the first nation in the world to grant universal adult suffrage. The 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System recommended the abolition of these seats.

You have until December 14 to put in your submission against Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene’s bill that would require a 75 percent majority in Parliament to scrap the Maori seats.

Former Treaty Minister and National MP Chris Finlayson, who confirmed on Friday that he will leave Parliament before the end of year, says his highlight was reforming the Foreshore and Seabed legislation.

A Crown-Maori Partnership portfolio and a new agency to support the Crown to be a better Treaty partner, announced yesterday, is fraught with danger because it entrenches the notion that the Crown and Maori somehow exist as separate groups.

A big thank you to all who spoke out and generously supported Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash after vice chancellor Jan Thomas declared he could not address students at Massey University.

Talk of a referendum on Maori seats was revived, briefly, last week when Acting Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters called for a two-pronged referendum on whether they should be entrenched or should go altogether.

Wairiki MP Tamati Coffey found out in Whakatane what we found out while collecting signatures for petitions for a vote, that many people haven’t a clue about what proposals for Maori wards entail.