In my last article I wrote about being sick of the bullshit and racism surrounding the so-called colonisation of NZ and the grievance industry that has developed around the Treaty of Waitangi.
There were many Maori Tribes that suffered from the actions of some of the original European settlors and these have in the main been acknowledged with previous governments offering apologies and making settlements under the Treaty settlements legislation.
Most of the Tribes have settled their original claims under the legislation but they have also come back with many and varied claims for property rights over issues that did not even exist in the days of the Treaty signing (1840) and for emotive claims related to their spiritual beliefs.
In fact anything that can possibly be turned into a financial gain for the claimants and their leadership.
In my opinion many of these further claims amount to nothing more than legalised extortion, particularly given that they relate to issues which did not even exist at the time of the signing (for example the Radio spectrum).
A direct result of this is that we have seen NZ go from a country where to all intents and purposes the population got along very well and there was little in the way of racial discrimination over and above the normal levels to be found in any given average county’s population, to a country where a small percentage of the population have developed a victim mentality all in the name of gaining financial advantage over the majority of the population.
How has this come about?
It started with the lies about the Treaty of Waitangi and what that Treaty actually meant.
Supposedly it was meant to create a country where all peoples were equal before the law. As the Treaty itself records: He iwi tahi tātou / We are one people.
But now we have seen the history of both NZ and the Treaty being re-written by a small self-appointed cabal of revisionists who are desperately trying to entrench co-governance into our country based on their erroneous interpretation of the Treaty.
Despite the implication from many Maori today there was no overall system of governance in the Maori way of life it was purely tribal based.
Given this fact, the implication that there was a partnership created by the signing of the Treaty, is nothing more than a fallacy designed to support the current claims for compensation and control.
A claim of Partnership between the Crown and Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi is nothing more than a Lie; a dangerous, divisive attempt to gain advantage based on race, which will end in the destruction of democracy in New Zealand.
The claim that the Treaty of Waitangi created a partnership between the Crown and Maori is not supported by any of the documentation of the Treaty although this latter-day reinterpretation of the Treaty is simply stated as a fact, without any acknowledgement that the assertion is hotly contested, and is flatly contradicted by many of the speeches recorded by Colenso in writing at the time (on 5 February 1840) and flatly contradicted also by speeches made by numerous chiefs at Kohimarama in 1860.
The acclaimed Maori Leader; Sir Apirana Ngata- M.A. LLB. LIT.D in his book, the "Treaty of Waitangi" concludes 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".
Today, we are dealing with the results of a couple of generations of the hand-out mentality. Low achievers, and especially their advocates, many of whom are on the public payroll and are part of the huge industry that now farms disadvantaged people, assert loudly that closing the inevitable gaps that have opened up requires even more special privileges.
They seem to naively believe the fundamentally flawed, but heavily promoted narrative which concludes that Maori somehow have special vulnerabilities which arise from outside forces they cannot control; that contemporary society fails to meet their needs. They are not receptive to messages and opportunities in the same way as other races because the trauma of colonisation carried from one generation to the next.
Against a backdrop of this current rhetoric, 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.
We now have the situation where our educational system is being re-engineered to further the aims of the grievance industry through revision of the history curriculum and the teaching of that revised history in relation to Maori settlement of NZ.
Colonisation is being blamed for the lack of achievement in the educational system by Maori and there have been claims made that we need to decolonise the education system in New Zealand to allow Maori to have an equal chance of achievement with other races.
Again I say this is a load of old bollocks.
My reason for saying this is the fact that if we look at the example of the Maori full immersion schools and their rates of success. They are achieving great results.
Are these a result of decolonising the education system? NO!
The results are due to the support from people working within those systems and from within the families of the students. The results come from hard work by all involved.
Yes they may be ably assisted by the full immersion systems but at the end of it all the main reason for their success is down to the commitment and effort of all those involved and they should be commended for those efforts.
The opposite is seen when we look at the lack of achievement from those in the normal state school systems, and we see that most of the students failing miserably in those systems are lacking in support from their own families.
So from these two examples we can rightfully say that the full immersion schools do work but in my opinion the main reason they work is down to the commitment and efforts put in by all those involved not just due to decolonisation.
The problem is that any challenge to the so-called decolonisation ideology is immediately labelled racist and this is deepening the social divide in our country.
In 1989 the fourth Labour government changed the education administration systems and introduced a Board of Trustees for each individual school and included in the Education Act, Section 16 headed Cultural diversity, Treaty of Waitangi, tikanga Māori and te reo Māori.
Up till 1989 there was no reference to any legislative relationship between New Zealand education and the Treaty of Waitangi in the prevailing Education Act. The Treaty was taught as part of the history curriculum.
In those times past, a school board was required to take all reasonable steps to provide instruction in tikanga and te reo for fulltime students whose parents asked for it.
But the Labour government, in 2020 introduced much stronger language regarding the Treaty, tikanga, matauranga Maori, te ao Maori, te reo, and the requirements under each.
Section 127 of the 2020 Act set out the primary objectives for school boards and, understandably the first objective was that every student must able to attain their highest possible standard in educational achievement.
Then the Act stipulates that the school;
“gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, including by working to ensure that (i) its plans, policies, and local curriculum reflect local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori; and (ii) taking all reasonable steps to make instruction available in tikanga Māori and te reo Māori; and (iii) achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students.”
Earlier, Section 5 of the Act stated that among the education objectives are the need
“to instil, in each child and young person, an appreciation of the importance of the inclusion of different groups and persons with different personal characteristics, diversity, cultural knowledge, identity, and the different official languages and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te reo Māori.”
The current Coalition government is now deliberating on the Education and Training Amendment Bill No 2.
Under this Bill the new Section 127 has some changes to the language of the 2020 Act which actually go further than the current Act on the matter of teaching matters Māori.
The Amendment Bill states that a school board’s paramount objective is that every student is able to attain their highest possible standard.
But the Bill then goes on the state that to meet the paramount objective, a board must meet supporting objectives.
Among those supporting objectives, which a school is compelled to meet, is that it must give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students, ensure that its learning programmes reflect local tikanga, matauranga Māori and te ao Māori and that reasonable steps are taken to ensure instruction is available in te reo Māori.
By legislating that a school must ensure its learning programmes “reflect local tikanga, matauranga Māori and te ao Māori” this Amendment Bill is breaking with the longstanding principle of secular education.
Since the passing of the Education Act of 1877, educational instruction in New Zealand state schools has been free and secular; meaning all education was funded by the taxpayers of NZ and free from religious and spiritual instruction unless parents agreed otherwise.
Matauranga Māori is a belief of the interconnectedness of all things, both tangible and intangible, including the spiritual and metaphysical and as such it is surely outside the realm of secularism and nothing more than religious belief.
Given that it is nothing more than a system of religious beliefs, the compulsory supporting objective (of give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students, ensure that its learning programmes reflect local tikanga, matauranga Māori and te ao Māori and that reasonable steps are taken to ensure instruction is available in te reo Māori) to the paramount objective should not exist in the Amendment Bill.
This is effectively just an entrenchment of the teaching of Māori knowledge, of the so-called holistic worldview that focuses on customary Maori values and lore.
I have personally been an avowed supporter of the current Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, particularly in her determination to return to the teaching of basic literacy and numeracy, but since listening to her being interviewed by Mike Hoskings on Newstalk ZB I have changed my opinion considerably.
When asked about the requirements under section 127 in the Bill she made the following statements regarding those who were opposed to the Bill:
“They are whipped up with hatred and lies ... They are yelling at the sky. Frothing at the mouth with hatred. It’s utter rubbish.”
That may well be her opinion but to my mind I firmly believe that the wording which makes it compulsory for school boards to meet the supporting objective that:
it must give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi by achieving equitable outcomes for Māori students, ensure that its learning programmes reflect local tikanga, matauranga Māori and te ao Māori and that reasonable steps are taken to ensure instruction is available in te reo Māori
Is not only wrong but in effect is nothing more than a system of Apartheid based on an erroneous interpretation of the Treaty.
The Minister can complain all that she likes about the opposition being whipped up by hatred and lies and talking utter rubbish, but with the inclusion of the compulsion to meet the “Paramount Objective” under section 127 of the Education and Training Amendment Bill No 2 and the supporting objectives, it shows that she is either being disingenuous and trying to mislead the public or she doesn’t really understand the content of the Bill.
I leave you to make up your own mind as to which is the truth.
By discriminating against people on the basis of race, gender or sexuality, it dangerously undermines New Zealanders’ right to equality before the law.
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.
We must stop being afraid to say it. This is not just wrong. It is corrosive. A separatist political model based on racial ancestry belongs in 19th-century South Africa, not 21st-century New Zealand.
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By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear