THE HUTS, THE JAB, THE POPE AND 3 WATERS TAKE 2

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Just what would it take to foment a revolution in New Zealand, oops sorry, Ah-taya-rower? 

Lots. And lots.

Like Tuhoe burning down all the DOC huts in Te Urewera. Which are not theirs to burn. Like lowering the local voting age to 16 (the premise being that the more immature you are, the more likely you are to vote for Ardern,Robertson&Co).

Like taking powers and positions of authority from your elected representatives and doling them out to unelected Māori who can't be voted out. Like the media being paid to say and print what the government wants.

Like a young plumber in Dunedin being killed by the jab and young women' s menstruation ceasing and young men acquiring heart disease by means of same - you might say by government/Church decree. 

And that brings us to the infinitely more important, spiritual dimension. Are Catholics all that happy with their pope asking priests and nuns to delete porn from their phones?  Would they perhaps see it as doing the Church's dirty washing in public?  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/27/pope-francis-porn-priests-nuns/

Nah. Kiwi Catholics apparently take such things in their stride. Well, were Italian Catholics ecstatic at their bishops' invitation to Italy's leading soft porn rapper and singer to perform in St Peter's Square to an audience of 60,000 teenagers last Easter Monday? That the teenagers were taken to St Peter's Square for the event by 60 bishops?

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/soft-porn-star-to-sing-in-st-peters-square

• Riccardo Fabbriconi: soft porn at St Peter's
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• So, back to the public square and the question of Three Waters, take two.

Three Waters was only the beginning...   (Yesterday) morning, the Government's 'Future of Local Government Review Panel' – a group of 'experts' handpicked by Nanaia Mahuta – released proposals that would fundamentally shift local councils from democratic institutions into unaccountable 'co-governed' fiefdoms. A leaked confidential copy of the report's proposals – called ‘He mata whāriki he matawhānui’ includes: Transferring powers that are currently elected councils’ directly to hapū/iwi and other Māori organisations Unelected positions held by mana whenua are to be given status equal to elected members’,including voting rights. But unlike councillors, mana whenua representatives cannot be removed at the ballot box Requiring council staff to conform with ‘te ao Māori values’ by law Funding of ‘Tiriti-based partnership in local governance’ (no matter the cost to ratepayers, apparently)  Removing the requirement for local referenda before changing the voting system (for remaining councillors to be elected) by imposing STV across the country; and  Lowering the local voting age to 16..  You couldn't make this up: the future of democracy is at stake. In what is either an Orwellian misstep, or an attempt to gaslight you, Mahuta's Panel literally claim that these recommendations are to "strengthen democracy". Imposing co-governance does not increase democracy. There is now no denying where Ardern, Mahuta and the Government want to take New Zealand.Peter Williams <team@taxpayers.org.nz> Even if the rest of the country is happy to take all of this lying down, there is at least one enraged hunter/gatherer/deerstalker - a reader of this blog - who is not. And even in the Wellington beltway there are the likes of Heather du Plessis-Allan, who knows of many more, in Te Urewera:   If you’re interested in the emerging co-governance debate, here’s a tip: Keep an eye on what’s going on with Tuhoe and the DOC huts and the area formerly known as Te Urewera National Park. I think this is becoming the most of obvious example of why co-governance doesn’t work. Tuhoe is doing this despite a huge amount of opposition.  Hunters don’t like it, conservationists don’t like it, trampers don’t like it, and even Tuhoe’s people don’t like it. There were huge protests yesterday. Hundreds of people both Maori and Pakeha protested in Taneatua, waving placards saying “hands off our huts” and “stop state-funded desecration”.  There’s an 8000 strong petition calling for the removals to stop. But what can we do about? What can the conservationists and the hunters and the trampers and even the people of Tuhoe do about it?  Nothing. Because there is no accountability. The iwi's governing body calls the shots.  That is the opposite of how our democracy works. Normally if you don’t like something you can complain to a higher authority or vote them out, but you can't do that with Tuhoe. And that in a nutshell is the problem with co-governance. https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2022/10/heather-du-plessis-allan-unfolding.html? And a crowd called Hobson's Pledge weighs in: The  He Mata Whariki, He Matawhanui report on proposals for reform to local government in New Zealand is another nail in the coffin of New Zealand's democratic heritage. Astoundingly, many New Zealanders believe co-governance is merely due recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi. In reality it is a failed social experiment that has been unable to deliver a tangible benefit to anyone, including Maori. Inability to reach final decisions due to co-governance is crippling progress as endless consultation and consensus decision-making (read giving one side a veto)This is evident in nearly every public service. In a fitting irony, this inability to deliver outcomes is even evident in the development of the next plan to justify “co-governance” even more extensively than is currently done through The Treaty.    Minister of Maori Development Willie Jackson committed to delivering a plan for New Zealand to implement the United Nations Declaration of Rights for Indigenous People (UNDRIP). The plan was for delivery by July. Trying desperately to explain the delays with the new plan, Jackson admits the working group “were a bit off base.” At the end of June Jackson said even he was concerned the report would be thrown out by Cabinet.  If it is not possible for Maori to reach a consensus agreement on something as foundational as “indigenous rights” then how will co-governance work? The founding assumption in co-governance, a term that this Government still refuses to define, is that Maori will miraculously agree on the basis of some universal “Maori perspective”. Look at the fighting between the Maori Party and the Labour Maori Caucus. There is not one Maori view – and that’s besides the many, many Maori individuals who want nothing to do with that side of politics.     Explanations by prominent Maori voices like Tuku Morgan suggest co-governance will be based upon unanimity. Clearly you can keep talking for months and still be unable to achieve a consensus. The voters can just wait until their self-proclaimed representatives are ready. The inability to reach an agreement within Maori is becoming more evident as a self-appointed minority – who claim to speak for all Maori – grapple among themselves for controlling influence. Remember, if you do not agree, you are ridiculed by this Government’s Maori MPs as being “useless” or “not Maori enough.” This week saw another example of division in the Tuhoe iwi. Even Tuhoe kaumatua Paki Nikora, upset by lack of consultation, joined the petition to stop the destruction of Te Urewera huts.  Tamati Kruger, Tuhoe chief negotiator and Tuhoe Te Uru Taumatua Chair, seemed unconcerned about other Tuhoe being unhappy, saying that $2million per annum to maintain the tracks and hut was “miserly”. Although additional funds were available for Tuhoe to invest the huts were allowed to run into disrepair. We can never know how the “miserly” $2million per annum since 2014 has been allocated. Lake Waikaremoana has been noted to have sharply declined since 2014. The importance of tramping huts is explained eloquently by Robbie Burton in “Bushline – A Memoir”  “…. give me the right hut to bed down in. I am not…..talking about the impersonal barns on our great walks but rather the intimate, remote, carefully sited treasures found all over New Zealand. “I’ve been in enough wet, miserable, sometimes collapsing tents to appreciate the bulwark that four walls and a tin roof provide in a mountain storm. It is the simple pared-back hut life I savour, the gentle, comfortable potter of sorting gear, tending the fire, making brews and preparing food and, most of all, the conviviality of spending time with friends, but too, strangers.” This destruction-first approach was applied when the public “mountains” of Auckland were clear felled in an effort to “decolonise” by removing non-native trees immediately, rather than waiting for new trees to gain maturity. It’s hard to see how we are being encouraged to enjoy the Ureweras (sic), as the destruction of huts continues without any plan for alternatives and no requirements for accountability.  Co-governance of natural resources and public services is being justified through a warped interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi. This governance model requires democratically-elected representatives to achieve consensus with groups or individuals who are appointed to represent Maori interests, without any verifiable mandate or accountability – even to the Maori they are supposed to represent. Some commentators naively dismiss co-governance detractors as resisting the evolving culture of New Zealand. This criticism of the legitimate concerns ignores the utter lack of democratic credentials this “partnership” model of governance offers. The National Party claims co-governance of natural resources as a success. National Leader Christopher Luxon is an Uncle Tom, and a woke Uncle Tom at that. The Labour Government also proclaims victory in the co-governance they’ve slipped into the management of Three Waters and the implementation of Pae Ora health reforms. Both are dead wrong. Through the absence of transparency, accountability and democratic process in co-governance, we are delivering enormous power to a small number of individuals who we are expected to believe will act in the best interests of us all. Those advocating for change in how our natural resources and public services are managed like to disparage democracy as being the “tyranny of the majority,” but the alternative offered is just a direct swap to tyranny by an unaccountable minority, who are generally unable to demonstrate support from Maori collectively. Co-governance is not a success and 35 years of “partnership” posturing has entirely failed to improve outcomes for Maori. 35 years ago, we were the nation that proclaimed to the world that in New Zealand we were one people on the water and one people on the land. A simpler time, with better outcomes delivered than now. The difference is striking.Casey Costello <hello@hobsonspledge.nz> This is the Vigil of Christ the King. The Collect for tomorrow's Mass suggests this nation is kept apart by the wound of sin - perhaps primarily pride and a refusal to forgive.  We pray that New Zealand may be reunited "under the sweet yoke  of His rule".    Almighty and everlasting God, Who in Thy beloved Son, the King of the whole world, hast willed to restore all things, mercifully grant that all the families of nations now kept apart by the wound of sin, may be brought under the sweet yoke of His rule - Collect, Feast of Christ the King