Brian Tamaki
President of Freedoms New Zealand umbrella party
Information
Opinion
Now more than ever, this country needs to be united, not divided. Since the great depression, the state of this nation has never been so critical. Yet much of what politicians are enacting is dividing our nation.
While this country is reeling and hurting, there are some opportunists seizing the moment. Their ideology seems to be ‘divide, then conquer’. The Maori Members of our Parliament are using their absolute power to divide this nation. Now they are undertaking a race-based takeover.
What a rort this Maori caucus have been. We can’t wait for them to be voted out. They’ve boasted $1 billion in funding for Maori every year over the five years, more than the whole of the Treaty settlements all tallied up. Yet, Maori are worse off, and they simply are not delivering to Maori on the ground.
If Covid didn’t divide us enough, they are attempting to divide this country further with their race-based laws… Three Waters, co-governance and more. They have divided Maori from all other cultures. Now here comes the Maori Party too with their proposal to change the name of New Zealand to Aotearoa, along with changing all the names of our towns and cities back to their original Maori names.
The whole divisive debate around whether to call ourselves New Zealand or Aotearoa, is a convenient distraction from far more serious issues that need to be urgently addressed. There are way more pressing issues like homelessness, child poverty, domestic violence, suicide, our health system and more.
If the Maori Party weren’t so out of touch with Maori, they would know that changing our name to Aotearoa is not going to immediately help most grassroots Maori who are currently struggling to put fuel in their cars, food on their tables and a roof over their heads.
Every day we are bombarded with headlines about how bad things are becoming. Here’s a quick sampling from just this morning:
“Burnout, depression and anxiety increasingly common among doctors” (Stuff)
“Suicide amongst doctors: Fears more health professionals could be lost as strain on hospitals continues” (New Zealand Herald)
“Children joking about carrying out terrorist attacks concerning, NZ spy boss says” (Stuff)
It’s just bad news, after bad news, after even more bad news. Apparently, a recession is looming, house prices are going to plummet by a quarter, and inflation and interest rates are going to rise further. What is happening to this once great country?
Like an ostrich, Labour has stuck its head in the sand, and its bum in the air, as they ignore the gravity of the Covid carnage and social carnage they have caused around them. New Zealand has lost its way. It’s lost its identity. But our identity is not in a name.
There are arguments for and against the name New Zealand. Amongst Maori, there are also arguments for and against the name Aotearoa. I’m not going to get into those right now. It’s just not the time and place. There are far more important issues facing our nation that we need to fix first.
My point is… New Zealand does not know who they are! Why complicate things further by changing its name? This nation is hurting! This nation has lost its way. What’s desperately needed now more than ever is hope and healing. To build a better NZ we need to look beyond just skin colour and status.
Freedoms NZ is the party to unite this nation, not divide it. We are the umbrella of unity. United we will stand, divided we will fall.
HANDS OFF NEW ZEALAND: Three Public Meetings
Saturday 12th Nov – Auckland 7pm – Venue coming soon
Sunday 27th Nov – Christchurch 7pm – Venue coming soon
Sunday 4th Dec – Wellington 7pm – Venue coming soon
