Friday 21 August 2009

“Just Say 'No!' to Apartheid!” [update 2]

Rodney Hide has got a lot of flak for telling National privately what Tau Henare chose to say publicly – that he’s prepared to hold fast to at least one ACT policy with which he went into the election.

Oddly however, it’s not Tau who’s in trouble for leaking, but Rodney who’s in trouble for grandstanding.  (Not really sure how you grandstand when it’s somebody else letting your cat out of the bag, but there you go.)

Anyway, in a parliament where election promises are forgotten before the new government has even been sworn in, for staying true to one principle in the ACT Party manifesto – the principle of One Law For All – Rodney has my congratulations.  And for everyone else claiming that it’s the person insisting on colour-blind councils who’s playing the race card – yes, I’m looking at you Tau Henare and Tariana Turia and Sues Kedgely and Bradford, and sundry partial bloggers – Lindsay Perigo has a message for you all.  It’s this: Just Say 'No!' to Apartheid!

    The fact that Green MPs Sue Kedgley and Sue Bradford are demanding Rodney Hide's resignation over separate Maori representation on the proposed Auckland super-council is a pretty good indication that Mr Hide is right, says SOLO Principal Lindsay Perigo.
   
Mr Hide is threatening to resign as Local Government Minister if the National-led government does an about-face and approves separate representation.
   
"Judging by the weasel-words emanating from Prime Minister John Key's office, it seems the government is wavering," says Perigo. "National is supposed to be abolishing the separate Maori seats in Parliament. It would be unconscionable to allow such apartheid atlocal government level.
   
"The two socialist Sues are urging Mr Hide to resign regardless. These serial Nanny Statists are terrified that Mr Hide will let the fresh air of freedom into New Zealand's Town Halls. What this totalitarian twosome tout as 'local democracy' is simply a ruse by which their ilk get to ban everything they disapprove of.
   
"Mr Hide is to be congratulated on taking a principled stand. Maori are as capable as anyone else of standing on merit in local body elections. To say in this day and age that they require guaranteed separate representation is outrageously, patronisingly, racist. Maori Party leader Tariana Turia should be ashamed of herself for promoting such redneckery.
   
"The only reason Mr Hide should be made to resign are his shirts and ties and shaven head, which frighten horses, children and the elderly," Perigo concludes.

And finally, to those who are suggesting that John Key should take Rodney’s offer and award him the D.C.M., may I suggest you consider that while election promises are for National no more than something to say in November and forget about at the first Budget, National was once nonetheless enormously popular for that very policy, One Law For All, for which Rodney is now under fire.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if a National Party with Bill English as second-in-command were now to sack the Minister of Local Government for espousing the very policy that rescued National from the near-oblivion into which that same Bill English once plunged it,

UPDATE 1: You want to see someone playing the race card, Tariana?  Then look no further than the US of A, where you can be an “official poll watcher” who carries a night stick and issues threats to voters at the entrance to a polling place, just as long as you’re a member of both the Democratic Party and the “New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.”  As far as Obama’s Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perelliis concerned, ‘dem threats is alright with us jez as long as you is black. Read the story here: Now THIS is what a racist Administration looks like.

UPDATE 2:   Eric Crampton suggests that having separate Maori seats would end up reducing Maori influence rather than increasing it.  I think he’s offering that as a reason not to include Apartheid seats, rather than the reverse.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The whole Super City is morally and intellectually bankrupt, so I find it difficult to cheer Hide on.

If I were Maori I would want nothing to do with it.

Peter Cresswell said...

Couldn't agree more on both points. My support for this is severely limited.

Just for the record, I'm one-hundred percent in support of Hide's stand on the Maori seats in the new amalgamation. And one-hundred percent against the amalgamation itself.

Nick said...

We'll see another test of the Nats principle when the vote on VSM comes around PC...

Anonymous said...

The whole Super City is morally and intellectually bankrupt,
Well it was Hellen's idea to ensure a permanent Labour majority, so of course it is gerrymandered!


But really, I find it pathetic that Rodders is willing to resign over this but not over:
* rates capping
* taxpayer franchies
* and especially raising taxes when he happily lead his party in to lobbies for National!

Anonymous said...

Quite right anon.

I have an intense dislike for Hide that is not entirely rational :-) and I suspect that Key, coming from a real world corporate environment, will not take kindly to his posturing and blackmailing.

I hope he calls his bluff.

Anonymous said...

Rodney Hide resigning on a point of principle - yeah, right!

Eric Crampton said...

Having separate Maori seats might well wind up reducing Maori influence rather than increasing it.
http://offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.com/2009/08/auckland-maori-seats-good-idea.html

LGM said...

Key has lied and prevaricated and fibbed and dissembled. Wonderful example of a politician. Certainly not something for anyone to be proud of. Certainly nothing he can be proud of. Was he like this when he worked in the corporate environment? Is this the type of creature the big money corporate finance houses breed? Unprincipled spivs?

Where are all those national party acolytes we used to see? Remember all those pieces insisting that national would be the saviours of the NZ? Come out of hiding guys. Let's see some apologies.

LGM

Anonymous said...

The update on this post seems to confirm that swathe of public discourse "libertarian" is not a philosophical affiliation at all, but a grace note one adds to one's conservatism as a distinguishing feature.

Negroes should not have guns, you know.

Libertyscott said...

What is the purpose of local government? This government wont answer this question. The last one did - the answer was "whatever the elected members choose, following a standard consultation process".

National and ACT opposed this, and most of the public would probably be happy with local government sticking to some core "knitting" at the most. The objectors are the vested interests on the left who are loud but relatively small in number (and will only get much support if they scaremonger on utilities like water).

The Nats would have been better waiting for the report and then saying it needed to be reconsidered in the light of its local government policy - rather than the basis for defining it.

Anonymous said...

Having separate Maori seats might well wind up reducing Maori influence rather than increasing it.

Precisely. I mean last time I looked the House of Lords was a conservative idea. I have no problems with Maori having an unappointed constitution role in NZ and in the super city.
And I am most certainly willing to trade that off in favour of a ratepayer franchise for Pakeha!


That's where the Maori seats came from in the first place, remember, when NZ had a property qualifiacation. Get that back into the super city, and then you'll start to see some progress

Comrade MOT said...

I am usually crying out for you to give ACT credit where credit is due, however I have a bone to pick with Rodney over this one.

Rodney was rather ambiguous with his stance over parlimentary Maori seats going into the election. He in no way made it clear that he was against them and even in one leaders debate appeared to support entrenching them. All of this to get on side with the Maori party. While Rodney's comments were not reflective of the wider party's views (apparently making those comments off the cuff during the debate), he did not show his current principled stand earlier in the peice.

Interestingly in contrast, National did better in regard to the parliament Maori seats. John Key mainted his "prefference" to get rid of them before the election but said that that was not a bottom line. While Key didn't get them abolished, he managed to make an agreement with the maori party that didn't involve entrenching the maori seats. Entrenching the maori seasts was something the Maori party had earlier suggested would be a bottom line and something rodney had appeared willing to give up his previously held (and apparently now regained) principles to support.

LGM said...

MOT

Key is one of those who'll sell out any stated principle in order to pursue what seems convenient at a particular moment. He exhibits a type of intellectual prostitution commonly referred to as "pragmatism". The result is that he can't be trusted on any topic. He is unprincipled.

LGM

Comrade MOT said...

LGM, I dont disagree as such on other issures, but, I am only talking about one issue. You have to give key credit for not entrenching maori seats, despite the fact it would have been the easy thing to do to keep the Maori party happy.

Hide also deserves criticism for being willing to give up his previous principles to keep the maori party happy.

The Tomahawk Kid said...

LGM SAID:

The result is that he can't be trusted on any topic. He is unprincipled.

This is the essence - Well said LGM

The Tomahawk Kid said...

If only these people would stick to their principles - none of this would be an issue!

The moment you COMPROMISE, the shit hits the fan from all directions, and everything gets covered in it.

I hope Rodders sticks to his promise on maori Seats, and loses the job. It will save him from embarrasing himself in the future,