NZ Politics and The Treaty of Wai-Cucky

By Tough Love

2016 has seen the emergence of new political parties in New Zealand, least notably the excessively vibrant New Zealand People’s Party that exists for the sole purpose of lobbying in non-white interests; and the Opportunities Party who claim to be establishment outsiders “like Trump”, but then signal against everything else the new President-elect stands for.

The most (marginally) promising of the newcomers is Hobson’s Pledge, whose big issue is putting an end to special privileges given to those of Maori descent and denied to everyone else. These privileges take many forms and are all based on the highly flawed modern interpretation of New Zealand’s founding document The Treaty of Waitangi.

Hobson’s Pledge is helmed by white-fucking-male Don Brash, a politician who is very well known to New Zealanders, having been spot-lit in various high up positions in government over the past decades. Brash has a history of speaking out against the modern distortion of The Treaty of Waitangi and has been associated with grass-roots political party One Law 4 All, who have lobbied for similar interests as Hobson’s Pledge though on a much smaller scale.

Hobson’s pledge is named after Governor William Hobson, who co-authored the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. His pledge was in the final line of the Treaty “We are now one people”, meaning Maori were given British citizenship equal to European settlers in exchange for giving away their sovereignty. The modern, revised reading of The Treaty says that Maori never ceded sovereignty to the British Crown and instead entered into a “partnership” with it.

The results of this modern interpretation are systematically attacked by Hobson’s Pledge, whose Party Issues range from the abolishment of unelected Maori representatives in government, endless financial settlements to tribes whose naughty ancestors had land justifiably confiscated six million years ago, and Maori spiritual beliefs influencing resource policies.

Brash’s right-hand-woman is Casey Costello, a Maori ex-detective sergeant and former vice president of the New Zealand Police Association, who can say things that can’t be immediately dismissed as racist. In a recent speech she made some very important points:

“When I became involved with Hobson’s Pledge I was aware of an increasing level of concern and frustration that exists broadly among New Zealanders in regard to separatist policies that were creating racial division. Unfortunately this was a subject difficult to discuss for fear of being labelled racist and anti-Maori. “We are so frequently told that there is a need to make special allowance and extra compensation to those with Maori ancestry because without this we will not see Maori succeed. “We are asked to believe that Maori are so poorly represented in all the worst statistics due to racial disadvantage and prejudice. It is never about poor personal choices and lack of responsibility or accountability. “The strongest message we are bombarded with is that there needs to be a putting “right”, to make amends but this isn’t being done through creating opportunity but through separatist legislation, erosion of our democracy and lastly handing over money without any condition or control on how it should be used”.

While the issues that Hobson’s Pledge are pushing are at the troubled heart of New Zealand as a nation, the party is unfortunately operating under core values of “equality” and a “multi cultural New Zealand”. Their party logo is literally two hands cupping an ‘equals’ sign, and the home page of their website has a photo of every racial minority under the sun gathered shoulder to shoulder behind a New Zealand flag, and cheering.

I understand that the only way Hobson’s Pledge will be successful with their core issues is to play the equality game- after all, this what the Treaty of Waitingi set out to make Europeans and Maori- but New Zealand has huge problems with multiculturalism and a party like Hobson’s Pledge seems to have no issue with it at all. Their vision, in fact, is to have a multi-racial New Zealand based on equality, which was not mandated by The Treaty of Waitingi in 1840, when all immigration was to come from the British Commonwealth. There is no article in The Treaty that says New Zealand has to be a multi-racial country

So if Hobson’s Pledge managed to achieve their goals of ending special privileges for Maori, it would likely then be business as usual in the demographic replacement of European New Zealanders.

Perhaps hope then falls back on New Zealand First, who at least speak out against the importation of immigrants who “don’t share our values”. I’ll leave you with a quote from their leader Winston Peters, in an attempt to leave things on a high note.

“…if mass immigration continued and for example [created] a parallel state- where you’ve got a state within a state-because of separatist [and] racist laws ,then we will not go down that path and I’m saying it right now.” “In every other country in the western world there is a legitimate debate about immigration but the moment you debate it in New Zealand critics want to call it racist. “They [the immigrants] can come from anywhere in the world, it’s not race based – we want them to salute our flag, respect our laws, honour our institutions and don’t bring anti-women attitudes with them”.

Okay, so it’s not exactly what we want, but it’s getting somewhere.

As seen on toughloveletters.wordpress.com