Māori history and culture is obviously a very important strand in New Zealand society – and often a fascinating one – but the bowdlerised and black-armband version that RNZ provides only hurts its credibility.
The stealthy insertion has been seen by critics as a Trojan horse for constitutional – and anti-democratic – change.
Robert Nola, Michael Corballis and John Werry – have died since the letter was published. But the stand they took alongside their fellow professors Kendall Clements, Dame Elizabeth Rata, Douglas Elliffe and Garth Cooper continues to reverberate in public debate and government policy.
The danger for him using the UNDRIP clause as a “cudgel” against National and ACT and keeping it in the public eye, is that, sooner or later, someone might ask him whether a bureaucrat in his ministry inserted it.
Many among the coalition government’s voters will remain incensed until the agreement has been altered.
If Labour leads the next government, He Puapua will undoubtedly be back at full throttle – even though Hipkins will undoubtedly not mention it by name.
Fighting talk from a TVNZ journalist.
Journalists are further degrading the public’s trust in them.
PM echoing Seymour’s views flies under the radar.
And redeems herself. The furore over Treaty flip-flop boosts her credentials.
Given that NZ First Minister Casey Costello is currently catching flak for reminding Health New Zealand that, “Only women and people of the female sex can get pregnant and birth a child no matter how they identify,” the scientists’ analysis could hardly be more timely.
