On buying council seats for Maori
The other day the NZ Herald reported that Tainui had made a submission to the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Auckland Super City regarding Maori seats.
Tuku Morgan,the tribe’s executive chairman , was quoted as follows in that article:-
“We’re investing significant amounts of money in this city and what do we get? Nil, none, korekau – it’s easy to find the words to describe nothing.”
Mr Morgan appeared to be suggesting that because Tainui were investing in Auckland they should be given a Council seat as of right. Litte notice appears to have been taken by mainstream media of this most peculiar suggestion. WhaleOil has made one of his pithy comments here, with which Adam agrees.
Why on earth should a corporate any corporate get a council seat or parliamentary seat becuase they make an investment. Why on earth should ethnicity be a reason to allow a group of people to buy the right to make decisions which impact everyone in the Auckland region.
If anyone other than Mr Morgan or one of his fellows suggested such a thing, all hell would break loose. Yet what do we see; no significant comment. Which in itself says quite a lot about the state of affairs in NZ.
However, Adam read this letter in today’s NZ Herald:-
Letters to the Editor - NZ Herald - 13 July
Dr Rata puts the matter very well. She disposes of the nonsense being put about by many most clearly.
Associate Professor Elizabeth Rata is Deputy Head of School (Research) in Critical Studies in Education. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Political Studies and a founding member of the Politics of Social Regulation Research Group which hosts the Anatomy of Power Symposium Series. In 2003 she was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Dr Rata wrote her doctoral thesis on “The Emergence of Tribal Capitalism’. Thus it would be fair to suggest based on that and her research interests that she is knowledgeable in these matters.
It is time that NZ moved forward and not on the basis of privilege or entitlement for any one racial grouping, especially one that is extensively inter-married, but where activists seem to promote in many cases one aspect of their ancestry and heritage in order to obtain economic advantage.
Let us heed the commonsense stated by Dr Rata in her letter and progress accordingly.
