Maori are the “Indigenous People of New Zealand”.
At least that is what some would have us believe.
Many of the so-called tribal elite of the Iwi have been claiming that their people have a partnership right under the Treaty of Waitangi, and they are trying to achieve a co-governance role in NZ.
One of the factors they use to back their claims for a partnership is the supposed status of Maori as the indigenous people of NZ.
We have been told for many years now that Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. But we have also been told of the amazing exploits of the original Maori settlers who travelled to New Zealand from Hawaiki by canoe.
The Cambridge dictionary definition of indigenous is as follows:
Indigenous:-
Adjective:
Used to refer to, or relating to, the people who originally lived in a place, rather than people who moved there from somewhere else:
Used to refer to plants and animals that grow or live naturally in a place, and have not been brought there from somewhere else:
Not foreign or from outside an area:
So taking from this definition combined with the history of the Maori migrating to New Zealand from Hawaiki in their canoes we must conclude that the Maori are not indigenous to New Zealand just very early migrants by their own admission.
This claim is backed by the calls (made in September 2024) from Ngāti Tama for an unnamed public road in the Hira district of Nelson to be called Hawaiki Lane.
Braden Fastier from the Nelson Mail at that time published the following article:
An unnamed public road in Hira, north of Nelson, will be called Hawaiki Lane, despite locals calling for it to be given an English title.
Last week, a Nelson City Council hearing panel agreed the new te reo name would be given to the public road connecting Cable Bay Rd to the new Drumduan Rise subdivision.
The decision came after local iwi representatives told the panel the name Hawaiki carried mana and dignity.
But, while the name was backed by iwi, local residents objected to it and called for a name that reflected the history of the farmers who had worked the land since the 1840s.
In a report to the panel, council officers recommended Hawaiki Lane be adopted, with Rotokura Lane as an alternative.
“The proposed names have ancestral significance to the Wakapuaka region and their use supports the revitalisation of te reo Māori and Māori histories. The names also address the imbalance in the visibility of mana whenua heritage.
“Hawaiki can also refer to the traditional homeland of where Māori migrated from, and a reference to where the spirit returns after death. In modern times Hawaiki refers to Māori aspirations for future generations to thrive and flourish.”
So Ngāti Tama have spelled it out loud and clear; Hawaiki can also refer to the traditional homeland of where Māori migrated from, and a reference to where the spirit returns after death.
Maori are not indigenous but merely early migrants from Hawaiki!!!!!!
Trustee Andrew Stephens said it was important to bring back Māori place names and acknowledge “the first colonisers of this whenua”.
On Aug. 28, 1963, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. addressed the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in which he said those oft repeated words:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
He was speaking about the coloured people of America’s segregation based on race and he also said:
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
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.
On 19 September 1893, Governor Lord Glasgow signed a new Electoral Act into law, and New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to enshrine in law the right for women to vote in parliamentary elections.
Yet here we are in New Zealand, 2024, with the Maori Party (which claims falsely, to represent the Maori population of NZ) and the self-appointed so-called tribal elite of Iwi trying to go back and reinstate a system of race based governance as seen in the He Puapua document. The 2019 He Puapua report to Government (based on a report to the Iwi Chairs Forum, Matike Mai) became known to the public in 2021. The “Vision 2040” described there sets out the intention of two separate, racially defined, government structures; New Zealand is broken apart, with no pretence of inclusivity or equality.
The foundations of New Zealand were laid down by those British who had just put an end to slavery. They would never have written, or agreed with, a Treaty that divided the country into two unequal races, having asserted the very opposite, that all New Zealanders were equal British subjects. This was a precious legacy for the new nation, to be safeguarded and never taken for granted.
New Zealand has paid the price of ignorance and inactivity, allowing a determined minority to build a tribal, ‘indigenous’, race-based division which destroys the claim to equality and liberty of all others.
In fact, New Zealand has rapidly become a racist country, with belief in race and classification by race (“A Maori is a member of the Maori race”). There is separation in government (with race-based Maori seats and a race-based Maori Party), special rights by race in law (the Supreme Court gave sovereignty to Maori tribes, with a special place for Maori ideology: “Tikanga Maori [to be defined by the Maori party] will be functioning and applicable across Aotearoa under Maori [national, iwi, hapu, whanau] authority”), and in many organisations (the Waitangi Tribunal deals only with possible breeches of the Treaty by the Crown against Maori).
The call for separation and special rights to Maori, coupled with a denial of equality, has become widespread, a national ideology based on a belief in wrongs committed against Maori by the Crown.
Based on that false belief, Maori are angrily, demanding recompense. New Zealanders are no longer one people, but divided into indigenous people and the others – second-rate citizens who must pay for fake claims of past wrong-doing by their ancestors.
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.
The calls for a system of “Race Based Co-governance”; is a terrible mistake, promising disruption and the potential of race war. New Zealand has never been so divided. The challenge of the 21st century is to oppose any talk of race based governance; support that “now we are one” and to move from division to unity with all persons being equal under the democratic system of one person one vote irrespective of colour creed or gender.
It is time this current government under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, grew a pair and decided to “Fully” implement their campaign promises to do away with all race based legislation and stop all talk of co-governance at any level.
Race based governance has never succeeded anywhere and it would not be any different here in New Zealand if it was implemented.
As Martin Luther King Jr stated in his “I have a Dream” speech;
Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
While he was speaking about the coloured people of America’s segregation based on race the underlying message is just as true for us here in New Zealand today.
Recent polls show the Coalition Government is losing the popular voter.
In fact based on those recent polls, if an election was held now, the Coalition Government would be relegated to the opposition benches.
So, why is this happening?
Why is that even after the two-terms of the last Labour Government where we saw the cost of living reach record highs, the rate of inflation reach record highs and the highest levels of race based division in our history, the voters are switching off from the Coalition Government?
Why is it that even with the recent incompetent Labour led Government, and their record of failure at every turn, the voters are still leaning away from the Coalition Government?
The mainstream media’s left-leaning bias has had an effect on this but one of the main causes is National’s lack of leadership. Their failure to implement their pre-election promises to remove the race based references from legislation is another alongside their failure to reduce the bloated public service.
Whilst the Mainstream Media coverage now seems to be more politically charged than ever before, with TVNZ and Radio NZ amongst the worst offenders, the Coalition Government has failed to deal with the previous Labour Government’s Public Interest Journalism Fund; This taxpayer-funded scheme which was designed to advance the radical He Puapua agenda to replace democracy with tribal governance - which doesn’t expire until 2026.
It looks like the voters are losing faith in the Coalition because they have not done what they promised, to fix the previous Labour Government’s appalling legacy of racial division.
In spite of all their pre-election promises, the cost-of-living pressures seem as bad as ever if not worse, and the attempted Iwi takeover continues its rapid advance. Angry voters are now pointing the finger at National and its leader, Christopher Luxon.
Since the 2023 election they have: Voted down the Treaty Principles Bill; turned a blind eye to Maori preference; were inactive while activist judges granted tribes control of our coastline; endorsed Maori in the education curriculum and effectively put their head in the sand while Iwi claim control of our national freshwater resources.
There are other countries around the world that are seeing real reforms yet the Coalition Government appears to be reluctant to address any of our concerns; just happy to carry on with Labour’s disastrous “He Pua Pua” agenda.
The Coalition Government’s failure to deliver reform in key areas of public concern has created the voters loss of faith.
Not only has it failed to significantly cut Government spending, it has neglected to materially reduce the bloated public service which rose from 49,000 employees in 2017 to 65,000 under Labour. Since most of the increase were “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” hires, not only is the Coalition’s refusal to act costing $1.5 billion a year, but unproductive socialist activists, who are standing in the way of reform, remain embedded throughout the public sector.
Instead of being laser focussed on delivering their election promises, the Coalition Government seems to have become a supporter of the previous Labour Government’s policies which were largely responsible for the record rates of both inflation and cost of living.
The Labour Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in 2018 banned offshore oil and gas exploration, and then in 2019 introduced the Zero Carbon Act with the harshest emissions restrictions in the world which had the predictable consequences of: energy shortages and rising fuel prices, as the cost of carbon soared from $17 in 2017 to $88.50 in 2022.
Even at today’s carbon price of $56 a tonne, the costs on households is significant. A 17 cents per litre carbon levy on petrol adds around $10 onto the cost of filling an average car, while a 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour levy on electricity adds around $20 to an average monthly power bill.
While carbon charges are clearly putting direct pressure on households, the acceleration in operating costs on businesses - coupled with rising gas prices and relentless minimum wage increases - has not only forced up the price of all goods and services throughout the economy, but has led to widespread business failure.
When the Coalition Government was elected in 2023, instead of recognising the damage the zero-carbon agenda was causing the economy and making changes to “de-industrialisation”, the National led Coalition Government carried on in spite of the impact their policies were having on food prices.
Given their decision to press ahead with Labour’s climate agenda, New Zealand’s food prices continue to rise largely driven by the impact of Labour’s gas shortages and National’s failure to halt de-industrialisation.
But there’s more pain to come as escalating energy costs force operational cutbacks, staff layoffs, price increases and company closures.
Even though the Coalition Government has overturned the Labour Government’s exploration ban on oil and gas, this is not a problem that has a quick fix given the level of distrust that was engendered by Jacinda’s “Capitan’s Call” decision to unilaterally ban offshore Oil and Gas exploration.
It will take time and much effort to convince companies that this will not happen again if there is a change of government in future elections.
With the Green Party stating their intentions to repeal any consents granted to Mining or exploration under the coalition governments “Fast Track” legislation, it is highly likely that any international companies that may have been interested in re-starting explorations will now be very wary of spending any funds with the chance that they may have their investments negated under a new government.
This declaration from the Green Party, I believe is nothing short of Eco-Terrorism!
With New Zealand’s climate targets under the Paris Agreement driving climate policies which are decimating industries and causing real hardship for families, to prevent the situation from spiralling further out of control, the Coalition Government should announce a pause on all climate-related restrictions; while the methane metrics are reviewed, and a recalibration of targets undertaken.
The emissions targets used by the UN are based on a flawed metric that significantly overstates the warming effect of methane. Given the argument from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) has always been that the methane produced by livestock digestion is more ‘dangerous’ than carbon dioxide by a factor of twenty-eight - even though methane is part of a natural biogenic cycle that can be traced back to the dinosaurs.
However, it now turns out those climate change ‘experts’ were wrong, and that the actual figure is only seven, not twenty-eight.
The IPCC admitted the mistake in their Sixth Assessment Report, explaining at page 1016 of Chapter 7, “…expressing methane emissions as CO2 equivalent of 28, overstates the effect on global surface temperature by a factor of 3-4”.
Thus, it is highly likely that the total emissions calculated for New Zealand globally are overstated on a global warming basis. The oft quoted figure of 50% of emissions coming from agriculture is only correct if the wrong figures are used (methane emissions calculated as CO2 equivalent of 28).
In other words, if the equivalence values for methane were corrected, most carbon restrictions could be removed.
Professor Dave Frame who advises the government and farming industries, and has been an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) participant, stated that New Zealand’s total emissions from all sheep, beef, dairy and deer ruminant methane over the last 100 years have caused some nonsensical fraction like one, one-thousandth of a degree centigrade change; In other words, an immeasurable, utterly insignificant amount per year.
It seems to tally with what a Dr William van Wijngaarden told Irish farmers recently stating that the entire world’s ruminant methane over the next century would only cause 0.17 of a thousandth of a degree C change. Remember New Zealand only has 1% of the world’s ruminants. For this we are proposing slashing our sheep and beef industry by up to 20%.
Why would New Zealand, a tiny country that is already one of the cleanest and greenest in the world need to do much more?
And the answer is that we wouldn’t need to do much more - if the Coalition Government corrected the fundamental error in their climate modelling which is making New Zealand’s situation appear worse than it really is.
The major flaw in the Government’s policy framework is their claim that methane is twenty-eight times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The UN has accepted that 28 overstates the effect of methane on global surface temperature and has corrected it to a factor of seven.
Yet our Government continues to use 28 in their projections. But if the correct value of seven was used, instead of 28, our total emissions would fall to a level close to our 2050 target.
The magnitude of this climate error is huge – and the consequences are so horrendously expensive and far reaching, that they will impact on the lives of all New Zealanders.
New Zealand's commitments under the Paris Agreement, particularly its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), could cost the country up to $23.7 billion by 2030, primarily due to the need to purchase overseas carbon credits to meet its emissions reduction targets.
Targets that have been set using figures which the UN has since stated are in fact wrong by a factor of four.
The New Zealand coalition government has committed to a strategy which aims to reduce emissions by 51-55% compared to 2005 levels by 2035, with a target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
New Zealand already has the lowest carbon footprint of any food producer in the world, so why would we need to commit to reduction targets that have the potential to bankrupt our country, particularly when we know that those targets are based on incorrect data which has been confirmed by the United Nations.
New Zealand has the lowest carbon footprint of any food producer in the world. Our agricultural industries produce and export enough food to feed 40 million people around the world.
Our farming methods are unique in that we use more greenhouse gas than we emit and we urgently need a government to go into to bat for our food producers, in international forums.
Particularly in light of the fact that Article 2 (b) of the Paris Agreement that NZ signed said clearly; no government should take steps that “threaten food production”.
NZ’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture as part of its overall effort to reduce New Zealand’s emissions by 50 percent by 2030, threatens our ability to continue producing the current levels of food production.
Given all of the above facts, why are we still allowing Labour’s Zero Carbon Act commitments and now the Coalition Governments further commitments to be such a danger to families, businesses, and our national economy?
The reality for New Zealand is that farming along with the New Zealand public, is currently being dealt a rotten hand by the Coalition Government which is supposed to represent it; and the previous Labour Government did nothing to help the industry given their continued use of incorrect facts as a basis for making emissions policies, including their declaration of a climate emergency.
With the climate consensus now visibly crumbling around the world, sacrificing New Zealand’s economic wellbeing for over-stated Paris goals is impossible to defend, especially with China, India, Indonesia - and soon America – all charging ahead creating growth and prosperity on the back of affordable energy.
The Coalition Government is losing the respect and trust of voters due to concerns about the Coalition Government’s direction, and need to address their pre-election promises before its too late and they lose the next election.
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By Andy Loader, Poke the Bear