I am writing this piece on Waitangi Day. As I’m retired, it’s the same as any other day to me. Get up, do things, go to bed.
The sooner the country rids itself of Waitangi Day in its current form the better off we will be. We cannot have a minority race continually trying to override the rest of the population. Waitangi Day is no more than harking back to a past that the country has, or should have, moved on from decades ago. The Treaty itself is reflective of a time that is no more. It’s time Maori activists, like the man in Parliament who turns up in his cowboy hat, and his lady partner and Mr Morgan, faced reality.
New Zealand is now a mix of many races. Twenty-five years ago the secondary school our children attended had many different ethnicities represented. All these different races deserve as many rights as anyone else, Maori included. We need to see continued progress in this country to the benefit of all, including Maori, to live as one people. Everyone deserves the same rights. We are one people and for the most part, that’s how we live.
The latest history curriculum for schools starts in 1840. If one looks at certain activities that were in play prior to 1840 it is easy to see why. History ignored is history likely to be repeated as the old saying goes.
Andrew Little goes to Waitangi and says the Crown must earn back the trust of iwi. ‘We need to earn the right to negotiate’ he says. This type of grovelling rhetoric needs to stop. Maoris have one genuine grievance and one only: the confiscation of land. The Crown has spent years addressing this issue and there have been, quite rightly, many compensation payouts to tribes. Some have used this money to their advantage, starting very successful and profitable businesses on which no tax is paid.
Waitangi Day is now no more than an exercise in politicians being invited to a weekend where they can be bossed around.
Maori activists seem to have no appreciation of the advantages colonialism has brought them. That is because it does not suit their narrative. The negative narrative they employ enables them to pursue their never-ending demands of handout after handout. This country has no hope of progressing as one people while this sort of nonsense is allowed to carry on.
Maori Seats also need to be abolished. Then we have the tokenism in the media of the use of the Maori language. It’s frankly embarrassing. There are two dedicated Maori television channels and many radio stations for the tiny minority who speak the language or others who might be interested.
Maori needs and how they are best addressed require a total rethink. We do not need separate health, education or justice systems.
What Maori need is what everyone else needs: get educated, get a job and get on with life.
The government should provide help where it is needed, but not to the point where people are actively discouraged from working as is now the case. Maori must be encouraged to realise that the same opportunities are there for them as anyone else.
Maori are being held back and victimised by their own. The activists want them portrayed as victims and second-class citizens to keep the gravy train growing. Ask yourself who benefits from that. The activists, not the family in South Auckland. If Maori think the best way to sort their problems out is to do it their way then they can organise it through their own $50 billion economy.
The activists need to be put in their place and told very firmly they are a blight on society and to progress.
I am happy for Maori to have their Waitangi Day if they want to. On a weekend. If there is to be a holiday with Monday attached to it that should be called New Zealand Day, a day the country as a whole can celebrate. That day cannot come soon enough.
