THE DELETIONS BILL
Did you hear the one about the bunch of turkeys who went to flying school? After four years they graduated with a full understanding of the theory and practice of flight - then they all walked home.
This reminds me of New Zealand First and its ‘Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill.’ The architects of the DB, for short, promise it will – improve race relations, reduce the money spent on lawyers, decrease the power of judges, improve our health, education, housing and employment systems, break the shackles of victimhood off Maori, stop apartheid happening in New Zealand, and free all of us to fly. It will do all these things by deleting every whiff of the Treaty and its principles from the current and future laws of our country. The current laws that will change include six claim settlement Acts and 22 other Acts that deal with the use, management and control of almost every resource in this country. Interesting that.
To those of you who haven’t got a clue what it is to be in a half-way real relationship, ask yourself these things. If this Bill passes, what will you make of it when every Treaty claim already settled is revisited in the Courts by claimants determined to protect their hard-won gains? How will you feel about the legal aid budget blowing out as those yet to settle do likewise? What will your solution be when almost every indicator of national wellbeing nosedives as we polarise into those who feel they have a stake in this country and those who know they don’t?
I don’t think the DB will gather the numbers to survive its next reading and, as you may gather, I don’t support it. It’s based on the flawed thinking that one partner in a marriage can define everything for the other, including the state of our ‘race relations.’ And all you couples out there have got to know how poorly that turkey flies.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT
In Ngati Kahu we have a lean, keen machine called Victor – our iwi Environmental Manager. Originally from England he made the wise choice to fall in love with and marry one of us. After a couple of decades he made the even wiser choice to bring her home and work for us. His particular bailiwick is largely defined by two things – first, Ngati Kahu tikanga and second, the Resource Management Act.
Of the two the RMA provides Victor with his biggest frustration – lack of notification from FNDC and NRC on way too many resource consent applications. Under the RMA, Councils define who is an ‘interested’ party and who is an ‘affected’ party in any resource consent process. Most people want to be recognised as an affected party because they get more say than those who only have an interest. Victor and his peers have done some sterling work to provide these Councils with a definition process that works for everyone. Me and my mates on the Taitokerau Iwi Chief Executive Forum encourage our NRC and FNDC counterparts to adopt what Victor and his peers are proposing.
Finally, if you’re wondering what the heck the difference is between an ‘interested’ and an ‘affected’ party, think of it like a plate of bacon and eggs. When you see the eggs you understand that the hen has an interest. But the pig – ahh the pig.
Hei konei. Hei kona.
Did you hear the one about the bunch of turkeys who went to flying school? After four years they graduated with a full understanding of the theory and practice of flight - then they all walked home.
This reminds me of New Zealand First and its ‘Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill.’ The architects of the DB, for short, promise it will – improve race relations, reduce the money spent on lawyers, decrease the power of judges, improve our health, education, housing and employment systems, break the shackles of victimhood off Maori, stop apartheid happening in New Zealand, and free all of us to fly. It will do all these things by deleting every whiff of the Treaty and its principles from the current and future laws of our country. The current laws that will change include six claim settlement Acts and 22 other Acts that deal with the use, management and control of almost every resource in this country. Interesting that.
To those of you who haven’t got a clue what it is to be in a half-way real relationship, ask yourself these things. If this Bill passes, what will you make of it when every Treaty claim already settled is revisited in the Courts by claimants determined to protect their hard-won gains? How will you feel about the legal aid budget blowing out as those yet to settle do likewise? What will your solution be when almost every indicator of national wellbeing nosedives as we polarise into those who feel they have a stake in this country and those who know they don’t?
I don’t think the DB will gather the numbers to survive its next reading and, as you may gather, I don’t support it. It’s based on the flawed thinking that one partner in a marriage can define everything for the other, including the state of our ‘race relations.’ And all you couples out there have got to know how poorly that turkey flies.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT
In Ngati Kahu we have a lean, keen machine called Victor – our iwi Environmental Manager. Originally from England he made the wise choice to fall in love with and marry one of us. After a couple of decades he made the even wiser choice to bring her home and work for us. His particular bailiwick is largely defined by two things – first, Ngati Kahu tikanga and second, the Resource Management Act.
Of the two the RMA provides Victor with his biggest frustration – lack of notification from FNDC and NRC on way too many resource consent applications. Under the RMA, Councils define who is an ‘interested’ party and who is an ‘affected’ party in any resource consent process. Most people want to be recognised as an affected party because they get more say than those who only have an interest. Victor and his peers have done some sterling work to provide these Councils with a definition process that works for everyone. Me and my mates on the Taitokerau Iwi Chief Executive Forum encourage our NRC and FNDC counterparts to adopt what Victor and his peers are proposing.
Finally, if you’re wondering what the heck the difference is between an ‘interested’ and an ‘affected’ party, think of it like a plate of bacon and eggs. When you see the eggs you understand that the hen has an interest. But the pig – ahh the pig.
Hei konei. Hei kona.
No comments:
Post a Comment