How Blind Can They Be?

How Blind Can They Be?

Ex-National Party president Peter Goodfellow on his recent retirement from the board of the National Party stated what he thinks threatens their re-election in 2026.

He said that economic shocks and intensifying trade wars are the greatest threats to National’s re-election in 2026, with the economy being the party’s chief threat to re-election.

Speaking to the Herald on Sunday, Goodfellow praised National’s work while in Government but acknowledged New Zealanders were “tired” of not seeing meaningful cost-of-living relief.

Whilst he may be right that the economy is one of the big threats but I certainly don’t see that as the biggest threat.

In my opinion the biggest threat is the ongoing division of New Zealand on the basis of race and the current government’s failure to implement their policy promises made before the election in 2023.

Our Prime Minister (current leader of the National Party) campaigned on policies for change; he promised New Zealand that if he got elected he would dump co-governance and remove ethnic requirements from legislation, but he seems to have backed away from that position.

Attempts to racialise New Zealand, is provoking 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. It’s not a brave attempt to implement some erroneous interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, it’s not being bicultural; IT’S BLINDINGLY STUPID.

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.

We have operated under a system of democracy which has been based on the principle that all persons are equal in the eyes of the law and entitled to equality in the political and governmental processes but now we have a very small section of the Maori population which is trying to divide the country based on ethnicity.

If we are to have unity/equality it won’t be through Co-Governance. Co-governance doesn’t unite us—it divides, inflames, and festers. We don’t need more committees and cultural vetoes; all we need is one law for all.

Against a backdrop of this high-profile push for co-governance, it is easy to overlook the positive statistics.

For example, 64 percent of Maori are employed as compared to the employment rate for all New Zealanders, of 68.4%. In excess of 400,000 Maori have jobs, provide products and services and pay tax and 97 percent of Maori aged 15 or older are not in prison or serving a community sentence or order. Over 99 percent of Maori are not gang members.

Yes there is a small number of the Maori population which create a huge number of problems by way of their personal choices in relation to their way of living and their attitude to the law of the land, and this affects the Maori population in general by influencing public opinion.

But it must be stated that the fact that although this small number are very much over represented in the criminal statistics and in the prison populations, this is not as a result of racism but a result of their own poor lifestyle choices.

When we study the claims of institutionalised racism within New Zealand, we find that in most cases the answer lies with the personal choices of those involved and the effects resulting from those personal choices.

This is backed up by the statistics that show that the vast majority of Maori are employed in jobs that provide products and services, pay tax, are not in prison or serving a community sentence or order, and are not gang members.

New Zealand has had a democratic system of government that is the oldest in the world, going back to the emancipation of women under the suffragette movement when they were granted the inalienable right to vote regardless of colour or gender in 1893.

Yet here we are currently, with the Maori Party, and the self-appointed so-called tribal elite of Iwi trying to go back and reinstate a system of race based governance

But 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.

Our Coalition Government made many promises from the constituent parties, (both before and after the election) that they would make every effort to eliminate racial preferences from government decision making, in a commitment to equal citizenship under New Zealand’s democratic system of government. 

Yet we still see groups lobbying for Maori supremacy in most areas of government and whilst I agree with the principle of the Iwi being able to have input or engagement this should never be achieved by way of race based statutory obligations.

Iwi, along with the other 200 odd ethnic groups within NZ society, should have an equal right to representation but this right in no way should ever give them a greater level of representation than any other ethnic group. To do so would be akin to implementing a system of apartheid, a system of government that NZ’s have fought against for many years.

By discriminating against people on the basis of race, gender and sexuality, it dangerously undermines New Zealanders’ right to equality before the law.

But instead of stepping up and dealing with these growing concerns, the PM and his coalition government continue to turn a blind eye to these policies.

And now we see the ex-party President & retiring board member stating that the biggest threat to their re-election chances is the economy.

I’m sorry but I have to say that in my opinion he is totally wrong!

While the economy is a big problem for the coalition government, a much bigger problem is their failure to deliver on their promises to remove the race based division of our country.

It seems to me that Mr Goodfellow and his National Party board member colleagues have totally miss-read the room and it will be this fact that will be the downfall of the National Party vote at the 2026 election unless they take action immediately to implement their promises.

Despite a party vote target in the mid-40s, National hadn’t registered above 40% since January last year and hadn’t breached 35% since April across several opinion pollsters. It received 38% in the 2023 election.

The Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll conducted between 2-4 March, showed National up 1.7 points to 33.6 percent, and Labour up 2.8 points to 34.1 percent.

It also for the first time since the 2023 election showed that the leader of the Labour Party Chris Hipkins was ahead of Christopher Luxon as preferred prime minister. Luxon dropped slightly to 20.3 percent, while Hipkins rose 3.1 points to 20.7 percent.

Luxon losing his top spot as preferred prime minister for the first time has to be a wake-up call. If he wishes to return to the front running position he needs to take action to implement his campaign promises; to make every effort to eliminate racial preferences from government decision making, in a commitment to equal citizenship under New Zealand’s democratic system of government.

30,000 Kiwis moved to Australia last year and the Prime Minister, at the annual National Party conference last week, stated that there was more to do after 18 months into the current term of government.

He said that he expected to be judged on rebuilding the economy, restoring law and order, lowering the cost of living, and delivering better health and education, before the 2026 election.

He also said; “everyone's dealing with a really challenging global environment right now, but what we can do is control what we can control and that New Zealand has a plan.”

The big problem is that so far his plan has not shown any move towards implementing his campaign promises in respect of the race based division of New Zealand.

He committed to leading the party into the 2026 election and staying on another three years, if re-elected.

In my honest opinion that commitment will most likely not have to be put to the test given his current failure to live up to his 2023 campaign promises.

If he continues to ignore the voters who elected him on the basis of change in 2023 he will not get another term.

Today the Post reported:

“New political polling has the National Party headed towards one term in power, with a majority thinking the country is on the “wrong track”, disapproving of the Government’s performance and a near majority believing it is time to “give another party a go”.