Elliot Ikilei
Hobson’s Pledge
The devil is always in the detail and that is true of submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill. With so much cheerleading and glee from the legacy media about the numbers who submitted in opposition to the bill, we thought we’d share a reality check about details they conveniently forget to tell you.
We have been told there were more than 300,000 submissions. This is great and shows exactly what we have been saying for years – New Zealanders want to have their say about the place of the Treaty in New Zealand.
Te Pāti Māori and the media have gone around shouting from the rooftops that 90 per cent of the submissions were in opposition to the bill. The same people who were yarning about “tyranny of the majority” not long ago. My question is, with all the confidence they are showing off that New Zealanders oppose the bill, why are they so afraid of a referendum?
With such strong interest, why not have a referendum to let the people decide on the future of our country? A future which will either see us as one nation with equal rights, or a country based on racial division and separatism.
Media won’t even discuss the possibility of a referendum, because their view – which they have amplified since the bill was first mentioned – has been victorious. What they fail to understand is that they may have won this battle, but they have not won the war.
Polls consistently show strong support for the Treaty Principles Bill and that Kiwis want to have equal rights. This is why Hobson’s Pledge is not going away. This conversation is just starting and we will be leading it.
Politicians also think this is all over. The PM couldn’t wait to see the bill voted down on Thursday. He needs a wake up call.
As Don said, we won’t forget how Christopher Luxon and the National Party sold out New Zealanders to activists who want to divide us.
We already know many of the submissions opposing the bill were dodgy. Throughout the submission period we were contacted with allegations of groups using their kids’ names to make additional submissions. We also heard about influencers calling on their international followers to submit against the bill.
We can be proud we did not lower ourselves to that level.
We know all this stuff. It is obvious that underhanded tactics were used, but the media have not reported on it. If the shoe were on the other foot and some guy called Elliot Ikilei was making extra submissions using his kids’ names or as Illiot Ekilei, the media would be tearing strips off him!
The media go full-on forensic when they think it is the centre-right or conservatives diddling the system. Why so silent this time? Why no CSI: Wellington?
Don’t forget that overwhelming numbers of submissions from one side is normal in select committees, especially in opposition to a bill. People don't feel the urgency to submit on a bill they support, but if they’re trying to stop a law being passed they’re really motivated to take part in the process.
Despite knowing this, the media and left-wing commentators insist that all the MPs must therefore vote in line with the majority of activists who submitted. One reporter at the NZ Herald went as far as to say the PM must now turn up to vote in person. Usually the PM and leader of the opposition aren’t in Parliament on Thursdays!
We haven’t seen this degree of media demands and agenda driving in the many other controversial issues like the End of Life Bill or abortion reform. Both saw huge numbers of opposition submissions, yet media didn’t say all MPs needed to vote against them. If anything they provided justifications for ignoring the majority of submissions. The media are invested in grievance and Treaty division.
Back in the day, MPs voted according to what they believed was right and what the polls and their constituents were telling them. Should be pretty damn obvious that submission numbers rarely, if ever, match the polls. The general public wants a united New Zealand, where everyone, regardless of where they come from, shares the same rights and responsibilities.
A couple of final observations
The committee, headed by National MP James Meager, decided to put all your unique and individually written submissions into the same bucket. This means that while over 20,000 of you took the time to engage our submission tool, consider the arguments, and write your thoughts – the committee has treated all of these as just one submission.
Yep. Then it looks like they’ve used this to help inflate the number who opposed the bill.
They counted all of the submissions collected by the ACT Party as one submission, too.
We are mad and you should be too. Our submission tool wasn’t just 20,000+ photocopies of the same thing. Most of our supporters made edits to their submission.
Let’s wrap this up on a positive – we are grateful to the tens of thousands of you who took the time to write submissions, present in person to MPs, and write to your local member of parliament. Together we are making a difference and we are not going away. This is not over.
In the coming days and weeks, we will be focusing on the growing division being deliberately created in our society. We will also be launching new campaigns, including preparing to go to battle in the upcoming local body elections and Māori Ward referenda.
Even though our views are shared by the majority of New Zealanders, we are up against weak politicians and a biased media.
This article was originally published by Hobson’s Pledge.
