Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
You’d think the state-owned broadcaster in Britain, the BBC, could do a little bit of correct reporting on NZ. Instead, its front page news on the Wellington protests summarize what’s happening as follows:
The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi is seen as fundamental to the country’s race relations. But ... there’s a concern that the rights won by the Māori community are being eroded. The bill that has been introduced by the ACT political party argues that NZ should legally define the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Bollocks. The entire point of the protests is that the principles of the Treaty have already been written and ‘legally defined’ ... by our judiciary. Our King’s Counsels assert not only do the principles already exist in law, but they form part of NZ’s constitution to such an extent that even parliament has no rights to change them. ACT’s proposed legislation is thereby contrary to “the rule of law” – an illegal attempt to rewrite the Constitution. Their argument is that the “government of the day” has no business sticking its nose into the matter.
The BBC couldn’t have got it more wrong. Maybe it should try accurately reporting what’s going on in NZ – how these protests are about where sovereignty lies, the power of the judiciary vs parliament, and our constitution, instead of giving the world a wrong impression.
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd0qr9mv9mo
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
