(National Party media release)

Our public housing system is bursting at the seams with record high numbers of New Zealanders waiting for a state house, National’s Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

Figures released today show there are now 22,521 people waiting for public housing, roughly four times as many as when National left office. On average, people will wait 177 days to be housed.

These are Kiwis classified as ‘at risk’ with a ‘severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately’. Roughly half of those waiting for a home are families with children, Ms Willis says.

“While it’s good to see many of the public houses National planned in Government are now being built, it’s not enough to keep up with the surging demand. In the past year the wait list grew by 7652, while Kāinga Ora built just 1150 houses.

“The state house waiting list is exploding because more and more Kiwis are being priced out of the private market as rents surge and construction fails to keep up with demand.

“National proposed constructive solutions to address the root causes of New Zealand’s housing emergency and unlock a surge in new house building.

“We have offered to work with the Government on temporary emergency measures like those used after the Canterbury earthquake to make more space available for development. We can’t afford to wait until 2024 for RMA reform to take effect.”

National has also asked the Government explore these immediate actions:

1. Strengthen the National Policy Statement on Urban Development: The Government should bring this urgent rezoning of land by local authorities forward, and increase the competitiveness margin, to enable intensification and growth.
2. Remove the Auckland Urban Boundary: This arbitrary line has been found to add $50,000 or more to the average cost of houses in Auckland. The Government committed to removing it in 2017 but progress has stalled.
3. Make Kāinga Ora capital available to community housing providers: Proven social housing providers have land and consents for new housing projects ready to go. The Government could make these projects happen immediately by releasing some of the taxpayer funding ring-fenced for future social housing.
4. Establish a Housing Infrastructure Fund: This would help local government finance the pipes and roads required to accelerate rezoning of land for Greenfields developments.
5. Implement new finance models: The Government should work with industry to develop finance models that leverage Accommodation Supplement and Income-Related Rent entitlements to drive new housing development.

“National will continue to put forward constructive ideas to address this country’s housing shortage,” Ms Willis says.

by Geoffrey Churchman

It was no surprise: while Crs Holborow, Buswell, their protégé, young Sophie Handford and Elliott were always going to vote for it, there were mild hopes that James Cootes and Rob McCann might reject it, but it was not to be.

I arrived at 9:15 am yesterday for the marathon session which began at 9:30, but was told that the public seating was already “chocker” and they could not put any more chairs in for “health and safety” reasons. So I headed home to watch it online, not a fantastic experience as you only get a fuzzy picture of the council table and the backs of the public speakers’ heads. Another problem is that after refreshment breaks the live stream does not automatically reappear; you have to keep refreshing the page manually.

Much of the seating at that point was allocated to the mayor’s iwi friends who at one stage gave an approximately 5 minute long haka, which suitably impressed young Sophie who stood up and began dancing along.

Some of those who Mr Maxwell had paid to produce favourable reports for him came along to support what they said, but there were several opponents who also spoke. The result was that inclusive of the breaks, public speaking was still underway at 2:30 at which time I had another meeting to attend.

At about 5:30 came the Councillors vote: the opposition was led by Gwynn Compton who pointed out that the visitor numbers and economics simply didn’t stack up. But “wellbeing” and other ethereal, nonsensical notions held sway. Rob McCann might like to consider how many new social housing units could have been bought for $4.6 million and would have provided actual wellbeing to their tenants.

Siding with Gwynn were Bernie Randall and Martin Halliday as was always expected. There was a reasonable chance that the present Waikanae ward Councillor would be swayed by the views of the WCB members to join the votes against and that’s what happened.

So, the present mayor will get his legacy anti-colonialist white elephant, although exactly what it will consist of is not yet clear. In the meantime, Eva and I like the rest of Kapiti ratepayers are going to have to find our compulsory annual contribution to pay for it, in addition to the thousands of dollars we already have to pay for Mr Maxwell’s bureaucrats and consultants…

Seen in Omahi Street, a 1956 Austin A40 — the same age as Geoffrey, as well as a few other Kapiti notables including Nigel Wilson, Guy Burns, and Kerry Bolton.

The next National Government will repeal the Maori wards legislation passed by Parliament tonight under urgency, Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins says.

“Electoral law reform should not be rushed through Parliament under urgency like this.

“Jacinda Ardern and Labour did not campaign on this issue at the last election and have not adequately consulted with New Zealanders. This is shoddy law making.

“Labour only gave the public two days to make submissions. There were 12,506 of them, with 76 per cent opposed to the changes.

“Parliamentary select committees normally take six months to properly consider legislation. In this case, the Labour Government took less than a week.

“The way we elect our councils is a fundamental part of our democracy. This legislation takes away the ability of New Zealanders to have a voice in this decision making.

“National isn’t opposed to Maori wards if councils and their communities want them, but it is for communities to make this decision – a right the Government has robbed them of tonight.

“National trusts New Zealanders to decide who they elect to their councils. This legislation should not have been rammed through Parliament under urgency in two days.

“National will restore New Zealanders’ democratic rights.”

The presentation of a Mayoral Letter of Commendation was one of the tributes extended to Professor Les Holborow at a function to mark his retirement as Chairman of the Mahara Gallery Trust Board.

Professor Holborow is standing down after serving as Mahara Board Chair for almost 5 years.

Kāpiti Coast District Mayor K. Gurunathan presented Professor Holborow with the letter of commendation in recognition of his services to the arts.

“The Mayoral Office formally wishes to recognise the outstanding work Professor Les Holborow has contributed to the ongoing success of Mahara Gallery and its flagship role in promoting and inspiring the arts in our Kapiti communities,” said the Mayor.

“Professor Holborow has brought a wealth of arts governance and fundraising experience and delivered these with a level distinction that’s a credit to the Board, Kāpiti’s arts community and Kapiti at large.”

Mayor Gurunathan described Professor Holborow as a tireless champion of the Gallery redevelopment project among the arts community, his friends and political contacts.

“Over the five years he had chaired the Mahara Gallery Trust Board, he has succeeded in getting the Gallery Redevelopment Project on track and raised a significant share of the funding.”

The Mayor’s comments were echoed by the incoming Chairman Gordon Shroff and by Board Secretary Kevin Ramshaw.

Gordon Shroff said that Professor Holborow’s contribution had been significant in a number of areas including a keen interest in the arts, a wide network of contacts across the cultural scene, long experience in applying good governance processes and good humour to complex problems and, not least, a very close and positive relationship with KCDC.

“It is my good fortune to be taking over as Chair at an exciting time when the investment of time and effort and advocacy by Prof Holborow and other Board members have finally borne fruit and we can look forward with real confidence to starting construction,” said Gordon Shroff.

Professor Holborow was presented with an artwork by Anna Layzell who had exhibited in the Gallery’s recent 100 Days–a Journey 2020.

While he is stepping down as Chairman, he will continue to serve on the Gallery Board.

By Roger Childs

45 people packed the Kapiti Uniting Church Meeting Room on Tuesday evening to hear Andy speak about the detail of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and the claim he made to the Waitangi Tribunal. He spelled out the facts that the only valid treaty is the one signed on 6 February 1840 and that the Tribunal incorrectly uses the bogus 1840 Freeman Treaty which did not have official approval at the time.

Freeman had changed the wording from the original and added flourishes of his own.

(Reference my WW article on the Treaty of Waitangi)

Andy made a number of other key points.

• The Treaty applied to all the people of New Zealand — both native peoples and settlers.
• The chiefs and tribes did cede sovereignty to Queen Victoria but were able to retain full possession of their lands, dwellings and property.
• Maori were not specifically named as a group in the Treaty as the word with a capital M only came later in the 1840s.
• Maori was used as an adjective with a small m, meaning normal, ordinary when referring to people.
• There is no such thing as “race”, however the Tribunal will only accept claims from a member “of the Maori race”.

The claim to the Tribunal

Andy outlined his long battle with the Tribunal to get his claim accepted. They were very slow in replying, but he wasn’t about to give up. However he ran into the brick wall of having to be a member of the Maori race. 

He pointed out that he had a Maori wife and son, was knowledgeable on Maori history, had been brought up with Maori in Cannons Creek amongst many things, but the Tribunal wanted details of his whakapapa and wouldn’t define what being a Maori meant.

It was probably a case of not being able to give a definition as the concept of race doesn’t exist. As Andy said: How did a people who came from Taiwan, via Papua New Guinea and the Pacific become a race?

Excellent feedback

Not surprisingly Andy’s talk generated a wide range of questions and there was a lively discussion which clearly indicated that people generally agreed with his argument and evidence.

As one member of the audience observed:

He echoed my thoughts exactly when he said history is important as long as it is told truthfully and based on established facts, however the concentration and focus should be on our future, not past grievances.

Andy’s talk is encapsulated in the following YouTube video

Social commentator Prue MacSween says Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg “thinks he’s invincible”, but the ban on Australian news will leave his business model stuffed. It comes after Facebook implemented a ban on Australian news amid growing hostilities over the federal government’s media bargaining code. Ms MacSween told Sky News host Peta Credlin she believes Mr Zuckerberg is the kind of guy who “thinks he knows it all.” “He’s had incredible power, he’s got incredible power through money and through manipulation, I just think he believes he’s invincible,” she said. “He will never – I believe – be able to recover from this, and his business model is stuffed.”

“Marxists get up early in the morning to further their cause. We must get up even earlier to defend our freedom” 

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1978

Last week, the Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon released a report claiming racism against Maori has been escalating since the onset of Covid-19.

He explained: “The most common forms of discrimination reported by respondents were receiving online negative comments or abuse, being stared at in public, being excessively avoided beyond the usual social distancing, and receiving negative comments or abuse in person.”

Whether any of those “online” complaints were generated by the activist group Action Station, which receives support from government funded agencies to professionally train “keyboard warriors” to roam the internet and disrupt those who speak out against separatism, is unknown.

While admitting that many of negative comments related to the illegal roadblocks being run by tribal activists, Meg Foon went on to claim, “All racism in Aotearoa began with colonisation and represents a contemporary extension of colonial suppression”.

It is totally unacceptable for the taxpayer funded Race Relations Commissioner to denigrate colonialism and settler descendants. Instead of healing the racial divide, through such misrepresentations of history, the Office is deepening it.

Such promotion of fake history is a real concern to historians like former MP Michael Bassett, who worry that the planned teaching of New Zealand history in schools is an exercise in ‘propaganda by those with axes to grind’: 

“Students will be given a lop-sided picture of our early history if the curriculum ignores or romanticizes the pre-1840 period where several Maori tribes… killed between 40,000 and 50,000 Maori, approximately 25% of the total number of Maori in the country at that time, eating some, and enslaving others… 

“In other words, ‘bleeding heart’ versions of our history which push the line that everything was lovely in Aotearoa until the colonists arrived, and that they were responsible for depriving Maori of their livelihoods, are telling dubious bits of the story. Maori had killed more Maori between 1810 and 1840 than the total number of Kiwis killed in World Wars One and Two combined.”

Please click HERE to make a submission on the draft curriculum – the closing date is 31 May.

The sanitisation of Maori history has become so extreme that activists are now trying to deny that Maori was a Stone Age culture prior to the arrival of the Europeans. At least, that’s what former MP and radio host John Banks discovered earlier this month when he was dismissed by the Magic Talk radio station for making the Stone Age culture claim on air.

According to the Maori Council executive director Matthew Tukaki:

“Maori culture was rich and strong before anyone else came along. We were growers of our own kai, cleaners of our own rivers, and developers of our own land. That is not a stone age culture, that is a sophisticated society.” 

But the facts of history tell a different story: Maori was a Stone Age culture, for the simple reason that the technology associated with the production of copper, bronze, and iron – that transformed societies around the globe – had not reached Polynesia by the time those early immigrants set off for our shores.

In his 1907 book Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture, Professor John Macmillan Brown of Canterbury University explains that Polynesia remained in the Stone Age until the arrival of the first Europeans:

“First of all it remained in the Stone Age till Europeans broke into its isolated seas with their metal implements and weapons. It had no trace of any metals… the last migrations from the coast of Asia must have missed first copper or bronze, and then iron, by the merest accident… The Polynesian immigrants doubtless saw and felt the power of the new and incisive weapons… but they were driven off in their canoes without learning their use or the art of making them.”

This point was reiterated in an address given in 1956 by the Director of the Department of Maori Affairs, Tipi Tainui Ropiha, on the on-going difficulty some Maori were having adapting to European culture:

“at the time of Captain Cook’s arrival in New Zealand, the Maori was still in the Stone Age, so when settlers arrived later he was asked to bridge the gap between 500 B.C. and 1800 A.D.”

The Director explained that those Maori that adopted western values advanced, while those who clung to traditional culture did not:

“The result is that there is on the one hand a group of professional men, and on the other, another group very little removed from the living conditions which existed in pre-European days.”  

In 2006, the author Alan Duff concurred:

“a Stone Age societal model patently does not work in this modern world. When are we as a nation, starting with the Government, going to say enough is enough? To continue with the collective, whanau, hapu, iwi societal model is a fatal mistake. For in not developing individuality we continue down the declining slope of anonymity in a collective. Of no one willing to make decisions, especially unpopular decisions, for fear of standing out from the crowd, going against the collective will. Individuality is as fundamental to a society’s development as property rights.”

While their support for tribalism may well be holding back Maori families and creating disadvantage, it is convenient for iwi leaders and governments to blame colonisation and racism for the disparity.

Read the rest on the BFD website

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It’s suggested that Neolithic rather than Stone Age is a more accurate and less pejorative term to use, less likely to provoke tantrums from Cultural Marxists and the Woke Brigade. —Eds