‘The demands by the Maori elite are as relentless as a rising tide.
Not content with securing the future ownership of the public’s foreshore and seabed – including invaluable mineral resources which should belong to all New Zealanders, not privatised to corporate iwi – Maori leaders are now coming back for more. This time they want $600 million of taxpayers’ money for iwi to pay for something they should arguably be doing for themselves – teaching their children the Maori language.[1]
The amount of funding being demanded is equivalent to the total combined budgets of the entire Vote for Customs, Agriculture and Fisheries, Justice, and Senior Citizens. It comes at a time when the National Party claims to be tightening its belt and cutting back on government spending.
……
National’s record on racial appeasement is alarming.
In spite of their election pledge of one law for all New Zealanders and the abolition of the Maori seats, National:
· Orchestrated the secret signing of the United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – a treaty so radical that even the Labour Party wouldn’t sign it!
· Did lucrative backroom deals with the tribal elite in order to get their unwarranted emissions trading scheme passed into law.
· Has thrown hundreds of millions of dollars into tribal control of the country’s biggest waterway, the Waikato River.
· Signed co-management deals with iwi for National Parks and the conservation estate without consulting with the public over whether this type of deal is acceptable.
· Is signing off increasingly generous Treaty of Waitangi settlement deals that include schools, Police stations and iconic public assets.
· Is currently engaged in discussions with Maoridom over the ownership and ‘guardianship rights’ of New Zealand’s water supplies,
· Has already sacrificed Crown ownership of the foreshore and seabed, and
· Has agreed to a constitutional review which could result in a new constitution for New Zealand that entrenches not only the Maori seats but also a re-written version of the Treaty of Waitangi….’
MURIEL NEWMAN
