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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Mike Butler: Nats, tell Key what you think

Those who voted National in 2008 probably didn’t foresee that they were voting to further Maori Party goals. Prime Minister John Key has made that fringe party’s radical objectives mainstream by agreeing to: Fly the Tino Rangitiratanga flag of Maori sovereignty on government buildings on Waitangi Day; devolve about $1-billion a year to Maori social service providers; sign up to the United Nation's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and could enact a radical law change to give Maori de facto sovereignty over the foreshore, seabed, substrate, and airspace.

Moreover, he did a backroom “forests for votes” deal with the Maori Party to get the Emissions Trading Scheme passed, and he has not ruled out agreeing to a separate, self-governing and government-funded Tuhoe nation.

Why should the National Party, with 45 percent of the 2008 vote, be doing the bidding of the Maori Party, which won 2.4 percent, and is in parliament courtesy of the anachronistic separate Maori seats? I imagine a number of National Party MPs are feeling nervous about how their supporters feel about this. Why not give them a message?

The National Party is currently soliciting donations from members and supporters. If you don’t support the political leadership furthering Maori Party objectives, send the letter back, tell them to send no more letters and to remove your details from their database, and give them the reasons for your decision.

Another possibility, borrowing an idea floated in last week’s TGIF internet newspaper, is to use opinion polls as a means of beating politicians around the ears.

Political opinion pollsters will survey a number of readers in coming weeks and months. TGIF proposed, regarding the ETS, that since ACT and the Kiwi Party are the only parties calling for a delay to the ETS scheme, you can successfully send a message to the Government by telling the pollsters you would vote ACT or Kiwi Party if an election were held tomorrow.

There are rumblings the current parliament on the separatist Maori Party agenda, from Labour and ACT, tell the pollster you would give your vote to Phil Goff, Rodney Hide, or even Winston Peters.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with your viewpoint, Mike. I can't believe National have sold out like they had. If they had campaigned on these issues during the election they would have been defeated!

Thank you for speaking out in the way that you Have.

Anonymous said...

THATS THE LAST TIME I VOTE FOR NATIONAL

Anonymous said...

Agreed. I too, will not be voting National again. If I'd wanted to see a continuation of lies and deceit, I'd have voted Labour.

Anonymous said...

The facts are different, Chris Finlayson has unequivocally stated that the government will NOT accept the Tuhoe "children IN the mist" claims. John Key is simply being diplomatic until the claims are settled. As for making Maori responsible for thier own social welfare spending, whats wrong with that?

WTF said...

Mike, you have nailed it. There seems to be no limit to the shabby deals and accommodations National are prepared to do with the Maori party - always to the total detriment of everyone else. Labour were not a good government - but they never stooped that low.

Anonymous said...

I will not vote National again - next time it will be Winstone Peters or the Labour Party.

Anonymous said...

How come none of us knew about the signing of the indigineous peoples UN act? And how much did it cost the taxpayer to cart all those people to New york. The Maori are not Indigenous People. They did not originate from New Zealand. They came and conquered the true Indigenous People. This is disgraceful. Already 3 people have told me they will not be voting National again. I have been a party worker in my electorate for years and cannot believe what is happening. Helen Clark in drag is the name beeing bandied around for Mr Key.
I suppose we shall have to pay for the legal costs of the coming claims as well.

Mike Butler said...

Regarding Anon’s view that Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson has unequivocally stated that the Government will not accept Tuhoe claims, watch this space. There is a raft of claims on the table, some of which will succeed and some fail. If Prime Minister John Key is simply being diplomatic until the claims are settled, he will have to be diplomatic for a long time since history indicates that the claims are never settled, they are revisited each generation. And what’s wrong with making Maori responsible for their social welfare spending, is that the goal should be to encourage self-reliance, no matter what ethnic group the person belongs to, not welfare dependence. Once a stream of free money begins to flow to private Maori social service providers, do you think the demand for cash will: (a) Stay the same; (b) diminish as welfare needs are met; or (c) grow as more people put their hands out for it? This is aside from governance and cash management problems that have already been reported. All it will achieve is create a parallel social service bureaucracy, a race-based one at that.

Mooloo Man said...

Slippery John-boy is revealing his true colours with the fascist way he is pushing on with the International bankers agenda with the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme experimentation .... far out!!!

Does not anybody else smell how bad this stinks?

Ideological Helen was bad but a slippery little banker doing the bidding for international interests is almost worse ...

Time for National party to clean house and stick up for New Zealand interests ... and why has Rodney still got hi nose up John's bottom anyway?? ... he could pull ACT out from the coalition and leave National back on the red side which where they truly are ... now they show their spots.

-ex National/Act voter

Anonymous said...

I voted National in 2008, having voted ACT previosuly. Never again. problem ACT is also a waste of time. Does not leave many options, other than striking a line through all of the parties on offer.

Sean Fitzpatrick said...

Mike

You wrote:

"ACT and the Kiwi Party are the only parties calling for a delay to the ETS scheme"

Not to be pedantic but Libertarianz is also opposed to the bill and a swathe of other Labour-lite policies National openly campaigned on in 2008.

Be fair, they did not hide most of this stuff so why so surprised and disappointed now?

People needed to take a closer look at what they were voting FOR rather than just thinking about what they we voting AGAINST (i.e. Clarke / Cullen)

Anonymous said...

The emissions trading scheme will not slow carbon emissions , it will just shift money about. Q.Who will benefit from this? A.The money shifters -- the government, the banks the financiers--
If you really want to stop human ruination of the environment you need to stop growth of the human population & even reduce it. This is where the focus of UN policies should be.The Chinese Communist party seems to be the only organisation implimenting policies in this regard.The environmentalists should be applauding them for it.

Anonymous said...

ETS and now Apartheid officially in NZ
There is a desperate need to re-consider constitutional representative democracy.
In the meantime, Independent Electorate Candidates may be able to play a part in bringing down unrepresentative despotism.
Nats should resign en masse. That will start to get the message through.
Ian Ryan
Auckland

Anonymous said...

I don't have a problem with Maori being responsible for their own social welfare spending - as long as they pay for it. I'm sick and tired of my hard earned money being given to Maori in treaty claims, welfare, DPB, etc. If they want self rule, then it can come out of their own pockets - not mine. They get more handouts and assistance than any other section of society. As for John Key's separatist aspirations - this is not what I voted for. He will not be getting my vote at the next election.

Mike Butler said...

Sean wrote:
The National Party "did not hide most of this stuff so why so surprised and disappointed now?"
That's not altogether correct:
On the foreshore and seabed, National policy was that a simple repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act is no longer a viable option.
That has morphed into Attorney General Chris Finlayson's proposal to repeal the 2004 Act and negotiate customary title with coastal tribes.
There was no mention of flying the Tino Rangatiratanga flag, whanau ora separate Maori welfare, or signing up to the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.
An Emissions Trading Scheme was promised, but that was to balance our environmental responsibilities with our economic opportunities, and that is not happening.
The out-of-the-blue move on property investment was not part of National Party policy.

Anonymous said...

I am shocked - I am 76 years old and have never voted for any other Party other than National - where is John Key coming from.

I thought we were finally going to have a leading light to get our beautiful country back on track and finally be able to move forward and have a sound economy again.

He and the rest of his party are hell bent on the introduction of the Emissions Trading
Scheme - WHY - does he want to be noticed on the world stage as a great 'wheeler and dealer' no matter at what cost to our country and the economy.

I have always been proud of the way NZ has punched above its weight but not this time - it will be the ruination of our fragile economy - it will be a nightmare.

How can he be so STUPID.

National has now lost my vote.