Bill English wants to set limits on Māori again

According to Audrey Young in the NZ Herald today, Bill English says that the Crown needs to find its footing and give greater clarity about the limits of partnership with Māori.

Hundreds of thousands of frightened Pākeha leaned forward to hear about those limits that might save them from a takeover again - what was Sir Bill saying now?

Limiting the partnership has been an eager concern for many conservative Pakeha over the past centuries and it was no surprise that the same old group were busy bringing forward influencers and obsessing with defining clear limits again now that the Atlas Network had kicked off it's campaign in New Zealand.

"You can't rely on a Government and a bureaucracy to save someone else's language," said Bill English on 17 January 2018 which neatly summed up the notion that to Bill, Māori were someone else - not part of a Government in this country.

To be fair Sir Bill learned a "limited amount " of Te Reo in order to deliver a 3 minute speech in Te Reo - clap clap clap, but limiting the "other" has a long history - but we are familiar with some of the limits that have been applied to Maori by Pakeha so I will cherry pick a few examples :

Limiting Māori voting rights, limiting representation first to 4 electorates then 7, limiting the right of Māori to learn Te Reo at School, limiting Maori medicines, limiting land rights for Māori - plus forcing unproductive land into use, limiting the return of private land that may have been stolen, limiting what claims the Waitangi Tribunal can hear, limiting the binding nature of Waitangi Tribunal recommendations, limiting the direct interpretation of Te Tiriti with principles, limiting the fiscal envelope in a unilateral way so all settlements were cumulatively no more that $1 Billion, limiting customary fishing rights, limiting Maori participation in local government, limiting Maori voices over water, limiting their ability to run their own health department cos the pakeha one was not working, limiting the used of Te Reo in Government, limiting Te Reo road signs ...and now it was time to be clear about limiting things again.

Conservative pakeha were the greatest limiters of all the limiters and Audrey was using Sir Bill to call out to them to get uptight about more limits.

Perhaps Sir Bill suffered from a poor memory - after all he could not recall anything about Todd Barclay when it suited him, much like Sir John who could not recall anything about so many things ( What the Hekia !! ) , but we all recall the Double Dipping and how Bill was there in the 1990s as a Nat MP while lots of unilateral limiting of Māori was going on, and Don Brash reckoned Sir Bill was set to get rid of Maori electorates back in early 2004, plus Sir Bill proposed Military Boot Camps, was against medical cannabis, and failed to attend Waitangi Day in 2017 based on some excuse which cannot be verified.

So it all made sense that we should listen to Sir Bill especially as the campaign to influence the public kicks off.

Audrey was definite about what was "likely" - which means she cannot be sure at all - when she wrote that :

"Act will introduce a bill rewriting the principles which it wants to put to a referendum but is LIKELY to be voted down eventually by National and that pleases English."

“The Government has been really clear about that, which I think is important,” said English.

Backing up the truck here, Sir Bill is saying Luxon has been very clear about what is unclear and only "Likely".

Wow - so Bill was not worried about that lack of clarity - only clarity around the limits.

According to Audrey, Sir Bill did not think the largely uneducated and the limited media driven debate between commercials undermined the concept of partnership.

“It is about a bit of clarity about where the limits are. The public needs some reassurance about that.", said Sir Bill, dog whistling to pakeha fears as they clutched their pearls and trembled at the unknown.

Where were those limits again?

Surely there were no limits needed when it came to applying more limits and Sir Bill was not worried about limiting Act and it's wrongful rhetoric and interpretations of Article 2 of Te Tiriti.

“An expert on this said to me recently, the Māori side is quite clear about its direction and its structure. If anything, in the last five or six years the Crown has lost a bit of a sense of itself.” - said Sir Bill.

I think Bill meant Jacinda had brought everyone together and we had had the best two Waitangi Days in recent memory as she helped dish out the kai.

To me Sir Bill sounded like he was saying Labour were lost - because they facilitated some progress and allowed a Māori Health Authority plus the idea of Mana whenua representation over water infrastructure.

The by Pakeha for Maori approach was resulting in lower life expectancy and poorer health outcomes so let's try something new that may work?

What about imagining something like decolonisation and a federal plurality inside our Government?

But conservative pakeha suffer from very limited imaginations and cling to limits like they cling to bank accounts.

Whilst it is true that Labour did not take all of the frightened conservative pakeha along with them - Sir Bill and Audrey conveniently ignore how the way the "He Puapua" report was seized as a political football by right wing media - ignited a well funded Atlas Network campaign ( via the Taxpayers Union ) over who was stealing your water pipes and the misleading notion that the Government was being taken over and there would be no more "One vote" or "One law for all".

Labour had not supported Nanaia Mahuta adequately according to Chippy - and so she had been attacked brutally and we all saw the racist backlash - in various forms, the "mother of all protests" slogans about Māori - and the small town "Stop Three Waters" campaigns and the "Mahuta the Looter" social media content from conservative pakeha.

Julian Batchelor and The Platform were busy cranking up the fear, offended at being labelled racist, Julian had a misinformation pamphlet for the ignorant and ran 80 small town hall meetings - and conservative pakeha wanted some limits - we needed more limits - and the NZ Herald fretted via Fran and Jim Bolger about what to do, what to do...cos we needed limits and they needed to be spelt out clearly.

Luxon appeared with some limits - he would limit Māori so they could not do that by Māori for Māori thing in the Public Service - hooray for more limits and National picked up conservative pakeha votes for this.

"At last a PM who is not afraid of debate", said Fran, but yeah he was afraid of ruling anything out and he was introducing "pakeha fear" and "the tyranny of the majority" to a contract between the Crown and Māori - something he negotiated away when he signed that Coalition Agreement - a bit like thirty pieces of silver and a kiss.

In my opinion the real purpose behind Audrey's influencer article today lay in softening up and inviting the public ( fearful conservative pakeha ) to get involved in the limiting process - limiting what can be made law or constitutional from a contract between Maori and the Crown.

"It’s important through all of this to remember that it is not just Māori and the Crown who are participants. It’s the public, who are often forgotten but have a capacity, particularly through the ballot box, to express a view." said Sir Bill.

That was the crux of the limiting.

Deploy a new mechanism, introduce a "popularity based third party" no matter how uneducated - to establish more limits and even extinguish Māori rights all together.

“In that discussion, the Crown has to be pretty clear about the ground it is standing on,” said Sir Bill English. “It has to be pretty clear about the Crown as the unifying concept of the country. I think that debate could get a bit unruly if the Crown is not sure what it’s on about.”

It was pretty clear the Crown was introducing a new party to the contract using the "Sovereign right to rule" of the government and that was causing division, division Sir Bill was confident we would handle, although as previously mentioned Bill was not so confident at Waitangi in 2017 when he failed to show.

"“On any given day you can be worried; I just think we have got a good track record of dealing with the worries of the day, one way or another.” - said Sir Bill.

I recalled Bastion point and the batons and the paddy wagons and, I recalled the chopping down of the flagpole, the limits, the impoverishment, the low paid jobs, the failure to compensate ex servicemen, the formation of gangs, the land marches, the 2 cents in the dollar settlements - and the Seabed and Foreshore Hīkoi, the egging of Don Brash, the ruffling up of Sir John and I wondered if Sir Bill's memory had faded - remember Todd Barclay and the tapes Bill?

Not likely but Sir Bill scored a lucrative contract to look into Kāinga Ora for Chris Bishop - so it's pretty clear he has no interest one way or another.

It's all about unifying and clarity.

There's a limit to my sarcasm, let me be very clear about that.

Bill English wants to set limits on Māori again

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