Non-Maori votes enfeebled as unelectable Maoris never face elections

There is a hostility building among conservatives in Middle New Zealand at the Labour government’s blatant vandalism of our democracy.

Their radical, race-based alterations enfeeble non-Maori local body votes in, for example, the Canterbury Regional Council area, by depowering them to less than 40% of the value of a Maori vote—about to be boosted to over two-and-a-half times the value of the non-Maori vote.^[1]My apologies, these figures are wrong. They compare the numbers on the Maori and General electoral rolls, but it’s more appropriate to compare the two populations, as the NZCPR does here.

This comes on top of an already complex mish-mash of widely varying electoral rules governing the election and appointment of Maori councillors.

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That lopsided Maori power is boosted by granting tribes the right to bypass electoral law and appoint council members. Naturally, they will choose their own people. So candidates without the skills, knowledge, speaking ability, charisma or popularity to command a winning share of the vote can now simply be appointed, as they are in Auckland and the Bay of Plenty, and democracy again be damned.

Meanwhile, reasonably expressed objections bring taunts of racism from the radicals. It turns out that’s a fairly effective tactic, since you need not be guilty to fall silent, and all the time it is only the tribal activists themselves who practise racism.

The country desperately needs an open public debate on these and all reforms. In education, justice, penal policy, health, water infrastructure, taxation, local body electoral reform and all civic business, we “non-Maoris” are vitally interested and involved. After all, we invented these civic services and bodies to make our nation attractive and prosperous, with warfare now unknown. Multitudes wish to live here.

We freely granted all Maoris (not only the landowning Maoris) the vote in 1867 (155 years ago) and welcomed them into the Parliament the following year. But they are not entitled, and we will not suffer them, to impair our vote. Their reforms are outrageous, their shallow reasoning revolting, their view of democracy repugnant and we will strongly confront them.

We demand that the blind, self-centred Maori caucus in this piss-poor Labour government moderate their appalling legislative programme, publish their complete schedule of reforms and organise a genuine debate on them under a wise convener.

Because if they cling to these immoral and corrupt reforms, come Hell or high water, their obstinacy will not conquer the hostile whirlwind they have stirred up that is ready to engulf them.

Let us all fight for this full exposure, for a complete and honest debate. May we all contribute and let the democratic majority fairly determine the outcome.

Let us lay down principles for a long and satisfying future.

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400 words