Jane Kelsy: Cynics clutching at straw men over indigenous rights report
12 May, 2021 07:00 AM
4 minutes to read
The furore around He Puapua is pure politicking of the most cynical and opportunist kind. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
The furore around He Puapua is pure politicking of the most cynical and opportunist kind. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
NZ Herald
OPINION:
Bandwagons are a godsend for political parties languishing in the polls, when appealing to inbuilt prejudices, fears and ignorance becomes a substitute for informed and rational debate. The National Party s cynical decision to reactivate Don Brash s Māori-baiting received a boost by the leak of He Puapua, a report prepared for Government by a technical working group that set out its vision for how the Crown can meet its obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by 2040 and a roadmap to do so.
Maori Party Co-leader Rawiri Waititi
Credit: Lynn Grieveson - Newsroom/Newsroom via Getty Images
New Zealand’s Māori Party co-leader was ejected from the country’s house of representatives on Wednesday for the second time this year, after leading a haka to protest against policies of the centre-Right National Party.
Rawiri Waititi led an impassioned haka on the chamber floor on Wednesday afternoon, joined in solidarity by Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and by Greens MP Teanau Tuiono as he was kicked out.
Mr Waititi told reporters outside the House he was “sick and tired of Māori being used as a political football”.
Jane Kelsey: Cynics clutching at straw men over indigenous rights report
12 May, 2021 07:00 AM
4 minutes to read
The furore around He Puapua is pure politicking of the most cynical and opportunist kind. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
The furore around He Puapua is pure politicking of the most cynical and opportunist kind. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
NZ Herald
OPINION:
Bandwagons are a godsend for political parties languishing in the polls, when appealing to inbuilt prejudices, fears and ignorance becomes a substitute for informed and rational debate. The National Party s cynical decision to reactivate Don Brash s Māori-baiting received a boost by the leak of He Puapua, a report prepared for Government by a technical working group that set out its vision for how the Crown can meet its obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by 2040 and a roadmap to do so.
Budget 2021: Act Party leader David Seymour reveals alternative budget
11 May, 2021 05:00 PM
3 minutes to read
Act Party leader David Seymour calls it a budget for battlers . Photo / File
Act Party leader David Seymour has produced an alternative budget which he says would nearly halve the tax rate for middle income earners while also slashing forecast debt by $23 billion.
Sneaking in ahead of Budget Day on May 20, Seymour revealed his own radical vision for New Zealand, in a document largely based on Act Party policies.
The focus is on middle New Zealand , which Seymour says work[s] hard but are being squeezed from every direction .
Monday, 10 May 2021, 1:16 pm
Are Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs) truly the work of the
devil? Given the vehement response to them last week by (a)
employer groups and (b) by their parliamentary friends on
the extreme right, you could be forgiven for thinking these
FPA things will mean curtains for commerce as we’ve known
it for the past 30 years. Believe me, they won’t. Less
excitable types will regard FPAs as heralding only a mild
shift towards a more centralised form of bargaining over
wages and conditions, much akin to what other successful
economies (eg Germany) have recognised for
decades.