Mike Munro in the Weekend Herald illustrated the political thinking of the left beautifully. It is both simplistic and dangerous. He was writing about Three Waters and the problem the government has in articulating its message. His view is that there is a simple fix to this thorny little issue. All that is required is a change of name. There you are, job done. What name shall we give it then? Five Waters?
How about Toru Wai? That rolls off the tongue quite nicely and it is also appropriate since Maori will be in charge. Not so says Munro. Co-governance simply means a 50 – 50 partnership. Again, he thinks that by calling it 50 – 50 power sharing it might help to de-escalate the racially charged nonsense from some councils, fuelled by others such as National and Act. Here, he illustrates another favourite ploy of the left: if you don’t give Maori anything and everything they want, you’re racist.
We are a multicultural society living as one people. The notion that Maori deserve some form of special treatment is both spurious and archaic. This is 2023 not 1840. Maori no longer run around in grass skirts every day and have an awful lot to thank the dreadful colonisers for.
To return to Toru Wai. Not content with four specialised properly funded water organisations, Munro thinks four could become as many as the government thinks is necessary to satisfy local councils’ demands for a bigger say over water services in their patch.
Say what?
How many, ten, twenty, or sixty-seven perhaps, one for each council? This is nonsensical but it’s typical left-wing ideology. As in health and every other area of the public service, zillions of highly paid bureaucrats sitting around at expensive desks in expensive chairs achieving nothing.
Mike Munro may not be aware but Auckland Council already charges separately for water, a system that works perfectly well. Mayor Wayne Brown is well aware more money is needed in this area and is already working on plans so this will be achieved. It doesn’t need layers and layers of highly paid people, half white and half brown, to address the problem. If certain councils need help there is scope for that in National’s policy. Councils will keep what they own and ONE PERSON, a watchdog, will ensure sufficient money is being allocated to water infrastructure.
Munro thinks National’s belief that fixing water infrastructure can be left to local councils is a feeble cop-out. No, it isn’t. It’s looking to solve a problem in a business-like manner in the same way that if you’re going to confiscate public assets then the people who own them, the ratepayers, should expect to be paid what they’re worth. I don’t see that in Labour’s plans. Three Waters, now five, was cooked up by Nanaia Mahuta to benefit her whanau and the rest of the Maori elite. It is a con job and, during the election campaign, it needs to be highlighted as such.
Unlike Mike Munro, the majority won’t fall for it.
