I am bitterly disappointed with John Tamihere. He used to be a rational, reasonably well-balanced sort of guy. It is hard to believe that only last year he was running for the Auckland mayoralty, without a feather cloak in sight. What a difference a year makes. Now he has become the worst kind of hardline Maori separatist, obviously desperate to get into some form of power at all costs but he has irrevocably damaged his personal brand in the process.
Here is the latest offering from the new look Maori Party, guaranteed to relegate them to the depths of oblivion forever.
The Maori Party has announced its Treaty plans including a demand for a separate Maori Parliament controlling $20 billion annual “self-managed” spending.
The 25-year policy plan would send a shiver down the spine of Maori and Pakeha – for different reasons – wringing power and money out of the hands of what co-leader John Tamihere called “failed” mainstream leadership.
Other plans include an overhaul of the Treaty settlement programme, such ending the cap on settlements, abolishing full-and-final settlements and buying back land for whanau, hapu and iwi.
The party would aim to entrench Maori electorates, and ease switching to Maori electorates for Maori at any time. The Maori Party also would eliminate referendums on Maori wards in local government – where the public can currently vote down a new Maori ward.
It never seems to enter the heads of these people that there is plenty of Maori representation in both central and local government; far more than their proportion of the population. Only last year, the leader and deputy leader of National were of Maori descent, along with the deputy prime minister and the deputy Labour leader. Just how much representation do they actually want?
Tamihere said the new Maori Parliament, with 15 to 17 seats, could run along the same lines as those set up in Scotland and Wales in the United Kingdom. It could be done more easily if New Zealand was a republic, he said.
“Ultimately it must land like the Scots and like the Irish and like the Welsh have landed, in an autonomous right to self-governance.”
Ahem. Exactly when were Wales and Scotland self-governing? Apart from a lot of noise from Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland voted NOT to become independent in 2015, in an acknowledgment that they would never be able to go it alone. The only similarity the Welsh have with Maori is a comparable belligerence and a strong desire to keep their own language. Actually, at least the Welsh work hard to keep their language alive themselves, rather than having a bunch of white elitists do it for them like we have here.
Fixing things would require “shifting the money from non-Maori control and hands, and directly into Maori hands”.
“On this year’s budget it would be $20 billion per annum […] that should be self-managed by Maori people.”
So Tamihere wants the government to simply hand over a cool $20 billion to Maori for no good reason at all? At least the Scots had an argument that they wanted to keep their own money, as they did well out of North Sea oil. Tamihere just wants more and more handouts, without having to do anything to earn them.
Another minor detail that Tamihere ignores is the tiny question of geography. Scotland is a separate country. So, technically is Wales. Ireland is a separate island, admittedly split into 2 parts. Separate administration for each of these countries would be much easier than here, although I assume that the Maori Party are hoping to be given a huge swathe of land as well. Oh wait. Maori have already been given huge swathes of land. So they want more now?
Tamihere said the Crown could discuss with private landowners about land “impaired by theft and confiscation” – buying it back for Maori. They would put a dollar value on the table and say “are you a willing seller?”, Tamihere said.
“Somebody made a rule – not Maori – that local government land was off the table, and someone made a rule that if the Crown sold the land to Pakeha after confiscating it, it was of the table. Why was that? Who said that?”
Whoever it was said it a long time ago, and if Tamihere is looking for some kind of Zimbabwe-style land grab, well good luck with that. We all know how that turned out. Everybody lost out, and somehow, I can’t see New Zealanders falling for that, even those who generally are supportive of the Maori grievance train.
Even if the odds were low for finding a political partner willing to push the changes, Tamihere said it was a long term plan. Other changes that have been made over the years such as kura kaupapa schools, kahanga reo and Maori television seemed similarly unlikely at the time.
“Like all political parties and movements, we ain’t going to go away.”
Not all political parties have stood the test of time. Think United Future, the Alliance, the Conservative Party (Mark 1), the Values Party, the Progressive Party to name but a few. There are a number of minnow parties running in the election right now that will never see the light of day again, and as radical and racist policies don’t usually fare too well in a mostly conservative country, I suspect that the Maori Party of John Tamihere will be one to slip below the water line, never to be seen again. You will be going away, John. Very soon.
Separatism gets us nowhere as a nation, and I believe that Tamihere knows that, but he is so desperate for another stint at the halls of power that he is prepared to do and say anything to get himself there. He would better serve the country and himself if he encouraged unity rather than racial separatism, but he has shown his true colours now, if they are true colours at all.
John Tamihere once had something to offer to all New Zealanders, but if this is the way he is thinking now, his political career is over. It is a shame but he has done this to himself, and honestly, he should have known better.
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