Haters and Wreckers
May 4th, 2004 at 9:39 pm by David FarrarIf any two words might ever be regretted by the Prime Minister, I think “haters” and “wreckers” will be at the top of the list.
It was incredibly stupid judgement to lash out at the Hikoi like that. Sure Ken Mair and Annette Sykes are part of it and they are not my cup of tea either, but it was obvious that the Hikoi was going to involve the leaders of probably every Iwi in NZ, a dozen or so knights and dames, professors, bishops, plus a fair few “ordinary” Maori. You’ve just told all those people to go copulate with themselves, and have guaranteed that when a huge crowd turns up on Wednesday, the media will remind everyone how you labelled them haters and wreckers.
There are already stories in the NZ Herald quoting Sir Howard Morrison and the Methodist Church is even jumping in over Clark meeting with sheep, but not the Hikoi.
I have some experience in dealing with Hikois having worked for the last Prime Minister when we had the last Hikoi, of Hope, in 1999. We had many discussions about how to deal with the Hikoi, but having the PM come out and call them haters and wreckers was never even suggested.
The Hikoi were addressed by the Social Welfare Minister and a delegation met respectfully with the PM. Ironically their demands at the meeting changed from ending poverty to giving Maori their own Parliament and tax system etc etc.
It will be interesting to see if they make their prediction of 5,000 people tomorrow. I will try and pop in and take some photos of it.
No tag for this post.
May 5th, 2004 at 8:50 am
Yup – I couldn’t believe it either. In trying to shut down every issue – she is immediately having a lash at someone, or simply saying, “we’ve moved on” or “the chapter is closed”. Um, no we haven’t Hells – we will read at our own pace thanks.
If she is frazzled now – my god she will be an isolaated wreck come election time if the right can keep the pot simmering. Frightening prospect, but fun at the same time.
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 9:05 am
I don’t normally find myself in agreement with Helen Clark on very much but I really feel her decription of these protesters is pretty much right on. Seems to me to be the same old names popping up at these things all the time.
I cannot speak for all NZ’ers of course, but I will say this:
Years ago I felt that in some cases Maori had been dealt with in the past unfairly and that in these cases, they should be recompensed and amends made, if this didn’t create a whole lot of new injustices in the process. I don’t feel that way any longer. For years these people have adjitated, stirred, moaned and threatened violence to get what they want, to the extent that we now have a whole different set of laws and standards applying to Maori. Just try, as a non-Maori to get permission to March across the Auckland harbour bridge, disrupt Wellington traffic or fish protected or undersized species and see where it gets you. We have recently had the case of a Maori group flouting the resource management act and local bylaws by setting up a fish farm up East Cape.
Every year the demands grow and there is no end to it. We have already had the confiscation of private farm land in NZ to assuage Treaty of Waitangi claimants, something they said would never happen. These people do not want an end to the claims or a ceiling put on the amount to be paid out. That would put a stop to the gravy train.
Their leaders are arrogant racists, people like Tariana Turia who view all of the rest of NZ as “aliens” to be pushed into the sea. I well remember the Maori leader who, in the late 80′s walked onto a marae and exhorted all Maori to “kill a white”. To my knowledge, she went unpunished for that remark. They want to live in the past, but they want to do it with taxpayer money.
The foreshore bill actually gives Maori everything they could ask for; the ability to use the beaches and seabed for commercial purposes without the necessity of going through the whole permit process the rest of us have to put up with; and the ability to veto the applications that others make for the same purposes. All they have to say is that they traditionally used that part of the coast line for a certain purpose and they are in. The only thing it does not give them is private title. If they get that, it is only a matter of time before the public are stopped from accessing NZ’s beaches and rivers, or will have to pay for that access.
The bottom line is that NZ is a borderline third world country with some of the lowest per capita incomes in the developed world. We can no longer afford to pay to molly coddle one particular race in preference to all others living here. It’s divisive, inflammatory and racist. Its apartheid, something that we criticised South Africa roundly for in the 1980′s. It has got to stop.
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 10:32 am
What is terrible about this whole episode and what shows up mainstream politics for a complete failure on these issues, is that this is all being cast as being about the past.
It bloody well isn’t.
Surely the ambition of all of us should be to work out how we can live in the country together.
There is no departure back to ‘where we came from’; for any of us. There is no way either to ignore the fact that injustice was done in the past, and that in some cases restitution is owed and is well past due.
What we need to do is make sure that what we do *in the future* is compatible with justice, and get away from this stupid guilt/blame complex which seems to be infecting the whole debate.
If we cannot move beyond the current narratives of anti- this and anti- that, then we’re fucked. All of us are.
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 11:54 am
At 10:30am about 1000+ Tainui walked south on Lambton Quay (opposite way to march).
I came out of a meeting at 11:30am to see about 5000+ on Willis St heading to Parliament. I thought this is pretty good as I did not see the Tainui group in it. I passed the group and then saw about another 5000-7000 on Lambton Quay.
Quick guess doing quadrant head count (as my office over looks Lambton Quay entrance to Parliament) is total march could well be over 15,000 people.
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 12:03 pm
Two more things:
The lead group could be less than 5,000 as they are more spread out than it first looked. They stopped for a while to let the 2nd part (which was lot more packed together) catch up.
Also the ‘Buck for P.M.’ sign is all class
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 12:47 pm
Happy Hikoi Day
There are probably 1500 people milling around the grounds of Parliament, with a little over an hour left before the…
Vote:May 5th, 2004 at 4:07 pm
Tactically stupid of Clark to make those comments no matter how much they might resonate with the community at large. She needs a unified left. Factionalism always ends left-of-centre governments. Happening again. Clark is smart enough to know that all this division plays right into the hands of National who will be the next Government at this rate. She must dispair at the short-term stupidity of some groups in the left-wing.
They’ll throw away power for ideological purity.
Vote:May 19th, 2004 at 10:39 pm
When is all this hockus pokus going to stop, can’t anyone see that all this war fair is splitng the country in half and all the fault lies with the Government,i see a lot of pakeha rubbishing the maori and visa versa and when you think about who/where/what started it, the finger points back to the Government/Parliament.i would like to suggest that before anyone wants to lash out at anyone, PLEASE do your homework,try dating back to the Treaty of Waitangi,how this document came about, how about looking at when the Declaration of INDEPENDANCE was signed in 1835, what does this mean or how about looking up,The Breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi,this one i think will shock a few people,maybe people will start to see that maori are not greedy, they only want what was taken from them unfairly in the first place,i would hate to see Pakea and Maori torn apart.
Vote: