If Christopher Luxon, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop, the top three branches on National’s political tree, mused over whether there is ever a good time to ditch the Māori seats, their answer, due to their reticence on these types of matters, would probably be never. But there is a good time and it has arrived courtesy of the Māori Party themselves.
Their refusal to turn up at the Privileges Committee to get the dressing down they deserve is inviting just such an action. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were hoping it will happen. (It won’t.) Just think of the Pandora’s Box that would open for them.
Another haka in parliament, which they have already threatened, would be just the beginning. Their racist minority would be out in force. There would be hīkoi for Africa, although many would be there just to enjoy a ‘big day out’. The thought of that possibility must have the saliva glands of those in the Māori Party working overtime.
Seriously, this is the time for such a move. The whole of our government is being toyed with by these racist idiots. They contribute nothing apart from promoting division and hatred. That is their raison d’être. As I have said before, they are not in parliament for the good of the country, their people or anyone else other than themselves.
They are wasting parliament’s time and taxpayers’ money. They are a self-centred bunch that have no place in the corridors of power. I have no doubt they would love to be in power but are destroying any hope of that by their own actions. And, they are destroying any hope Labour and the Greens have of winning the Treasury benches. The fact they can’t see it speaks volumes about their intellectual capacity.
The political events of the last week have been quite extraordinary: first the Benjamin Doyle scandal and now this fiasco. Both the Green and the Māori parties seem to be operating under the mistaken belief that this sort of incomprehensible behaviour is going to win public support. It won’t. The majority of the public will not put up with this kind of nonsense.
The media, though, would be in lockstep with the Māori, covering each and every hīkoi with gusto, laced with their usual bias and inflated numbers of those taking part. That would only serve to justify the figures released by David Farrar recently showing trust in the media in this country is practically lower than anywhere else in the world. Not that they will care: their opinions are more important to them than pride in their work. Most journalists today are nothing more than a clique of leftist activists.
The Māori Party have been given another chance to appear at the hearing. Why? They have no intention of doing so. Judith Collins, the chair of the committee, talks of serious consequences for not abiding by the rules. I suspect that whatever they are they won’t be enough to satisfy the general public. If a referendum were held, those seats would be gone. As with the Greens, the country and the parliament would be better off without them.
I’m picking a poll bump for NZ First on the back of Winston exposing the Benjamin Doyle deviancy. Here’s his chance to boost his party’s popularity even further. I thought Luxon’s reaction to the Doyle catastrophe was overly cautious and lukewarm at best, so it will be up to one of the other parties in the coalition to decide to take the bull by the horns on the abolition of the Māori seats and there are votes galore to be had by taking such action.
The media provide the spin but the politicians need to provide the spine. The question is: will they?
