This morning (21-4-26) on National television the leader of the Labour party Chris Hipkins stated categorically that a Labour government would not tolerate racism.
In my recall this is one of the first actual policy announcements that he has made in this lead-up to the election 2026.
I’d love to believe his statement but on past history I am sure that his idea of what racism consists of and mine are two very different things.
What is the simplest definition of racism?
Racism is when a person is treated worse, excluded, disadvantaged, harassed, bullied, humiliated or degraded because of their race or ethnicity. At an organisational level, it can also be the collective failure to provide an inclusive and professional working environment to people because of their race or ethnicity*.
Outcome from his statement on racism
If his statement is to be taken at face value then the first outcome is the assurance that race based legislation will not be tolerated by a Labour government.
He Pua Pua will be a thing of the past consigned to the waste basket on the grounds of its own basic racism.
Three Waters or as it is now named “Local Water done well” will also be consigned to the waste basket on grounds of its inherent racism along with all other race based legislation.
In my honest opinion New Zealand is gradually becoming a more racist country as time goes by, with the modern day so-called “Maori Elite” as the main proponents, ably assisted by the mainstream media.
Treaty of Waitangi
Much of my reason for saying this is due to the current interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi, particularly the so-called Te Tiriti.
In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, an agreement between the British Crown and Maori which established British law in New Zealand.
One of the main drivers behind the signing of the Treaty was to protect the Maori population from inter-tribal warfare, the threat of invasion by other nations and to bring an end to the musket wars.
The Musket Wars were a series of as many as 3,000 battles and raids fought throughout New Zealand among Maori between 1807 and 1837, after Maori first obtained muskets and then engaged in an intertribal arms race in order to gain territory or seek revenge for past defeats.
It is believed that as many as 20,000 Maori may have died as a result of the musket wars. Tribal boundaries were also changed by the musket wars.
Prior to the signing of the Treaty, New Zealand suffered greatly from a different type of racism which rather than being based on race was in fact based on Tribalism.
Prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi the rule of tikanga was followed and loyalty was for those in the hapu or iwi; all others were of no importance and could be robbed of land, killed, and eaten. War bred war, as frequently a group would escape a stronger tribe and move to attack another. Fighting was strengthened by the demand for revenge, utu, and the call to defend the mana of relations and ancestors.
Prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the average life expectancy for Maori was mid-thirties; the tribes were constantly at war with one another and the Maori practised slavery and cannibalism as a common effect of their warlike practices.
The truth is that if history is researched it is easily proven that since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori have generally seen a vast improvement in their personal circumstances.
The Treaty is a simple document signed in simple times which if the explanation given by that revered elder Maori statesman, Sir Apirana Ngata- M.A. LLB. LIT.D, is to be considered true, made us all one people with equal rights as citizens of New Zealand.
In his book, the "Treaty of Waitangi” Sir Apirana Ngata prepared an English translation of the Treaty in 1922 that argued that the Chiefs had “cede (d) absolutely to the Queen of England for ever the Government of all their lands”.
He concluded with the words:
"The Treaty made the one law for the Maori and Pakeha. If you think these things are wrong and bad then blame our ancestors who gave away their rights in the days when they were powerful".
The Waitangi Tribunal
A Tribunal (Waitangi Tribunal) was set up in 1975 to hear claims related to issues around the Treaty of Waitangi and also the actions of the early European settlers to NZ.
What began as a well-meaning effort to settle all such claims and offer an apology to those affected has since that time developed into nothing more than an industry that is focussed on claimants’ getting every last cent they are able to extract from the Crown (read taxpayers of NZ) for any and everything they can possibly dream up to make a claim in relation to.
The Tribunal was originally about redress in relation to the actions of our first European settlers but has now ended up as a vehicle which is used to try to claim as much financial reward as possible and to give absolute power to a very small section of our population.
It has become a tool used to side-line democracy and to force the total population to accept that there is some unchallengeable right for Maori through their use of “Te Reo & Tikanga”, to have a right of veto (or power) over all other races which call NZ home.
Insistence on a separate Maori government has built up over the decades since the formation of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975. The Tribunal has over time constructed and publicised a complete rewriting of history – the “retrospective recrimination” and “counterfactual history” of the Tribunal, quoting the words of historian Bill Oliver. This fundamental reversal of the message and meaning of the Treaty has been aided by a captive media and the crippling of free speech.
Outcomes from the Waitangi Tribunal
We are constantly being told that the Treaty of Waitangi created a partnership between the Crown and Maori and to fulfil this we need to adopt a system of Co-Governance with Maori.
These claims around the so-called Partnership & Co-Governance were given a huge boost by the Labour government lead by Jacinda Ardern with the preparation of the “He Pua Pua” report.
Over decades since the setting up of the Waitangi Tribunal, the so called Maori elite have gained positions of power and influence through division and deceit. The Waitangi Tribunal has morphed into an almost permanent commission of inquiry into contemporary breaches of the Treaty with jurisdiction extended to include already-settled historic claims and anything else that can be quantified, giving rise to what has become a multi-billion dollar Treaty gravy train.
It was also during this period of time that the claim that Maori are a Treaty ‘partner’ with the Crown gained traction, with special Maori consultation rights and privileges included in the Resource Management Act; Although there was no mention anywhere in the Treaty that related to partnership.
This whole idea of Co-Governance is nothing more than a racist attempt to gain control based on an erroneous interpretation of the Treaty.
Co-governance is not about the Treaty it is solely about control and getting the monetary benefits that go with having control. It’s about a small percentage of the population (approximately 17%) getting fifty percent of control based on their ethnicity and the others (approximately 83%) getting the rest.
We now have what is a very small number of self-appointed so-called elite Iwi who are trying by any and every means at their disposal, to assert some sort of moral superiority over the rest of the NZ population and to try to gain power of control.
Honouring the Treaty – Racial Discrimination
We are told repeatedly by the so-called elite from Iwi that co-governance is the only way forward to honour the Treaty. But in fact this is nothing more than moving from the democratic system of government we have had since the signing of the Treaty to a system of racial discrimination where equality in government has no place as it will be replaced by a person’s ethnicity.
What we have now is a system of ideological indoctrination which is cloaked in cultural empathy, enforced by social shame, and hidden behind a virtue signalling sea of Maori culture with many of our public servants scrambling to prove their cultural credentials and enforcing a cultural ideology across every aspect of national life rather than concentrating on delivering basic services.
The so-called elite have used Maori culture and Te Ao Maori (the Maori world view) to assert their claims, under the Treaty of Waitangi, to be given the right of co-governance when in actual fact there is no basis in truth for this assertion.
Opposition to this view
You’re not allowed to question it. You’re not allowed to ask for clarity. If you do, you’re dismissed as backward, racist, colonial; a problem to be fixed or, preferably, ignored.
And since there was no such thing as a properly functioning democracy either in England or in New Zealand in 1840, the question of “political rights” wasn’t an issue at the time. Are some people just trying to re-write the Treaty to suit their current agendas?
We also have many local bodies signing off on co-governance agreements as if they are making some magical step towards implementing Treaty requirements when in actual fact all they are really achieving is to introduce a race based bureaucracy which is nothing more than turning democracy into Apartheid under the name of Co-Governance.
Elevating Maori spiritual Ideology to sacred, unchallengeable status, does nothing to ensure the provision of effective public services to either Maori or non-Maori.
Attempts to racialise New Zealand through implementation of co-governance, has provoked significant public complaint. Government has a duty to uphold the Rule of Law and protect the democratic rights of all New Zealanders.
And yet, here we are: using race-based politics and reinvented Treaty theology to alter the democratic systems which we have always stood on.
Lessons in how to get it wrong
New Zealand is fast becoming a textbook case in how to get it wrong; how to destroy a democratic system of government and eliminate any semblance of equality for all citizens.
After approximately fifty years of the so-called elite working to weave racial privilege deep into the New Zealand’s legislative framework, we are now seeing the consequences of decades of allowing vested interest groups committed to subverting democracy and seizing power for their own enrichment, to infiltrate all levels of government in New Zealand both central and local.
After fifty years of being allowed to virtually have their own way, tribal groups have become powerful and dangerous. They see themselves as de-facto rulers, and if things don’t go their way, they do not hesitate to bully and intimidate, demand and threaten, and with very deep pockets, resort to legal action through a ‘captured’ court system, until opponents cave in.
After gaining a simple majority result in the 2020 election, the Ardern Government through the use of their majority allowed the co-governance activists within the State sector to begin implementing Labour’s He Puapua agenda for tribal rule onto our nation.
In the He Puapua report which was prepared under the Labour Government there was a section titled “Vision 2040” that set out the intention of having two separate, racially defined, government structures; New Zealand being broken apart, with no pretence of inclusivity or equality.
Iwi claim to be the indigenous people of NZ but Maori are NOT indigenous to New Zealand they arrived by boat like everyone else.
The Test for Hipkins
There can be no mature discussion about our future as a country until everybody accepts that the Treaty provided for the government to have final authority, with all citizens - no matter their ancestry - having equal rights.
We must stop being afraid to say it. A separatist political model based on racial ancestry belongs in 19th-century Apartheid South Africa, not 21st-century New Zealand.
Chris Hipkins stand on Racism is to be applauded but to unite the country against it he must confirm his party’s stand includes the removal of all current and future race based legislation under any government that he may lead.
The Labour government under Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins promoted a 50/50 system of race based governance presided over by tribal elite of unelected Maori representatives.
The challenge for Mr Hipkins now if he wishes to regain the Labour party’s social licence to operate/win the election; is to defend the current apartheid based system his government promoted which basically stated that people weren't born free and equal.
He needs be honest about race based governance, stop promoting policies of division and return to supporting the democratic rights of all on an equal basis.
The co-governance/apartheid model of democracy.
We can have co-governance without democracy.
We can have democracy without co-governance.
But we cannot have democracy and co-governance.
Democracy will only prevail if we oppose moves towards legislated race based co-governance.
.svg){kind=logo}
By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear