Indigenous Wainuiomata
July 29th, 2004 at 11:49 am by David FarrarTrevor Mallard’s speech on race relations comes across as a desperate effort to reverse the polls. On the one hand he steals language from National declaring “We are all New Zealanders now”, “get over the past” and finally delcares himself indigenous as “I come from Wainuiomata.”
But then, oblivious to the irony of his own words he states “Partisan and sectional politics on these issues will get us nowhere” and one paragraph later compares National’s policies to North Korea!!
If there was an award for least intellectually consistent speech of the year, I think this one would be a winner. Condemning partisan politics on race, yet comparing National to a dictatorship which murders and tortures its citizens would be funny if it was not so sad.
So is there a single person out there who can read that speech and now claim a better understanding of Labour’s policies?
Oh and a true story about Wainuiomata. A few years ago we had some school kids visit the Beehive on Careers Day and meet with various staff, incuding Don McKinnon’s press secretary who told them about her and Don’s work, including the peace treaty for Boungainville. At the end of each meeting, the presenter was meant to ask a question with a prize for the student who coudl ask it. The press secertary asked who knows where Bougainville is, and a student shot him arm up. He then responded “Wainuiomata, miss”. It was hilarious. So perhaps Trevor is indigenous after all.
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July 29th, 2004 at 1:00 pm
I thought Trevor stuck the right notes, and your hysterical response confirms it. He was just saying what the vast majority of people in the country believe. National doesn’t have a monopoly on that, in case you had forgotten.
I make no claim to being indigenous, but I don’t like being made to feel that my family, which has been here for six generations, is second rate.
Some of the rhetoric on these issues is exclusive and frankly racist. Nobody should put up with it; least of all a Party which stands up for ordinary New Zealanders.
The great fiction National has tried to propagate is that Labour DOES believe in that kind of exclusive rhetoric.
Well, we don’t.
Roll on more Trevor speeches, I say.
Vote:July 29th, 2004 at 1:26 pm
If you think my response, not the speech was hysterical, then you mistake hysterical laughter for hysteria.
You are right Trevor is saying what most people believe, In fact he is saying almost exactly what Trevor demonises Don Brash for saying.
The problem is not Traveor’s words but the total lack of action to support his words. He has spent how many months so far looking for race based policies and hasn’t managed to find a single one. If he wants to go into the election on the basis of “We looked but could not find any” please make my day.
Vote:July 29th, 2004 at 1:46 pm
Hey Jordan!! You lefties all go to the same boxing school? Hell, you all lead with the chin. Your opening para actually confirms YOUR AGREEMENT that Littel Donny actually read accurately the opinions and mood of Middle NZ. (as he continues to do on other issues) Where the hell were you and your latterday converts before Orewa? Running around paying $1.5m to Tainui, that’s where you were.
Vote:July 29th, 2004 at 3:56 pm
Half the speech indicates the reason Mallard was put into this role in the first place. It sounds half-way reasonable and not as wack as other fruit loops in the party would present it. The other half is typical Labour dishonest spin. Don Brash said X and X met with popular appeal. Mallard basically says, “Oh, we’ve been saying X all along. Don Brash is saying Y.” Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has *always* been at war with Eurasia, eh, Duck-man?
Vote:July 29th, 2004 at 9:52 pm
There is a good side to TM’s speech, being that there is sufficient time before an election to test its substance. I sense this speech as Labour laying a platform. True, no substance in it per se. But could in be a tactical platform from which to launch future strategically-timed forays. Would it be too long a bow, for example, to suspect a change in attitude to Maori seats hidden behind this wordplay??? Hmmmm.
Brash is setting the agenda. Labour are performing miraculous u-turns and getting branded as disingenuous. This looks like a 90 degree turn to me, to set the stage for the remaining 90 degrees later, with neither 90 attracting the u-turn label.
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