Peter Dunne's New Zealand Day Bill has passed its first reading - with the support of the government. Labour has said it is only supporting the bill to select committee, and that it does not mean that they will support it to become law - but the fact that they are doing so at all shows how far they have shifted. Because fundamentally, this bill is about giving the finger to Maori. It is about denigrating the place of what happened at Waitangi in our constitution and history. And why? Supposedly to discourage protests - but you don't do that by changing the name, you do it by addressing the underlying issues. Instead, this bill will symbolicly write Maori out of our history. I'm sure the rednecks will be pleased.
I think the point is that the protests aren't about anything anymore. It is fair enough to protest the foreshore and seabed legislation, but lines like "Honour the Treaty" and "Tino Rangatiratanga" don't actually mean anything, and if they do, Maori have done a crap job of explaining it. Most New Zealanders realise that protests around these phrases will never abate purely by the nature of their indefinability.
ReplyDeleteThe protests have ceased to be about a goal and have become traditional, institutional and a part of what defines Waitangi Day. Renaming the day is an incomplete gesture, but it helps reclaim it from these bullshitters and marks the first step to taking possession of a national day we can be proud of.
Blair: I think that if you ask a proponent of te tino rangatiratanga about it, they will have quite detailed ideas about what exactly it means. Sure, Pakeha may not be interested, but I don't think we should be writing Maori out of our history just to protect the precious sensibilities of those who want to remain willfully ignorant on the issue.
ReplyDeleteAs for institutionalised protests, that's what you get when you have institutionalised grievances. And there's an obvious solution - but those who wish to erase Waitangi from the national consciousness clearly aren't interested in putting the time, effort, and patience into it.
Despite my reservations regarding the motivations of some of those supporting this Bill, I support this Bill. I dispute that it would 'delete' the Treaty from the national consciousness
ReplyDeletes4 of the Bill actually protects the commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. That's much better than what we've got currently, when the Govt can ignore Waitangi as it sees fit. I'd love to see an injunction forcing the Government to be present at Waitangi should this Bill pass into law...
What I find particularly entertaining is that this is the second time around for this bill. The first time around Dunne wanted to change it to Aotearoa New Zealand Day. And he wanted to do this to reflect the diverse nature of this country (can get you the exact Hansard record tomorrow). And now? Apparently Mr Dunne is suffering from amnesia....
ReplyDelete"Clause 1 states that the title of the legislation is the Aotearoa
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand Day Act 2000. That title has been chosen deliberately. It is not supposed to be some sort of sop, nor is it supposed to be some politically correct reference to our national title - and those people who have said to me that it is a subtle way of changing the name of the country are 100 percent wrong.
What this title seeks to do is acknowledge our bicultural tradition, and bring those two
streams together in a title that is truly reflective of our national
day in our modern, multicultural environment."
Peter Dunne 24 May 2000 First Reading of the Aotearoa New Zealand Day Bill.
Given that, what exactly is the reason for him changing the name of the Bill in reintroducing it? To ignore our bicultural tradition, and not bring those two streams together in a title that is truly reflective of our national day in our modern, multicultural environment?
Curiously, when the Bill "ackowledged our bicultural tradition", Labour opposed it at First Reading and it failed. Now that it's been stiffened up and shifted to the right, they've supported it. Dunne ain't the only one suffering amnesia.
i say fuk the maoris and any 1 that support them they dont have the right to do what they do in this country we didnt steal the land we payed market value at the time fuk house prices are ova the top at the moment but if some that sold thier house 5 years ago when they wernt so good cant go and claim it back because they didnt get a fair price can i what a load of crap that the maoris can do this we all pay tax to that they can bludge on the dole and get fat and beat people up and cost us even more money can this country seee what they are fdoing to us they make us look like a crime ridden country that we wouldnt be if we just put the cunts in jail and them them rot
ReplyDeletethanks for reading this my email is sexy_sk8_chik_14@hotmail.com if any 1 wants to argue the point more