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Mike's Minute: Will the Govt listen to the people over co-governance?

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Mon, 11 Apr 2022, 9:44AM

Mike's Minute: Will the Govt listen to the people over co-governance?

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Mon, 11 Apr 2022, 9:44AM

So let's try again, shall we?

The co-governance paperwork is off to Cabinet today. It was delayed a week because of bereavement in the Willie Jackson family. So off we go again today.

Jackson claims they have already had 70 hui. Now I don’t know whether he means hui, as in the Maori word for meetings, was with all and sundry or was exclusive to Māori. I suspect it’s the latter.

The rest of us get to have a say, I use that term in the loosest possible way, at a later date. The reality is this will be your typical consultation. You say whatever you like, they nod, say thank you, and then ignore you.

Anyway, Jackson claims he's had all sorts of feedback and is expecting it to get fairly extreme by the end of it all.

I don’t condone extreme. There is too much extreme all over the place these days. I don't know whether it's social media, Covid, the Government, or a combination of it all. But the mad stuff we have seen of late, whether it be the Parliament protest, the white supremacy stuff, the gang violence, the crime rate, or the vile postings of some on social media, the whole thing is out of control and we have lost a certain decency and decorum.

Be opposed, be vehemently opposed, but do it with some brainpower, fact, and some eloquence.

So, Jackson's onto it, this co-governance is trouble. It is trouble for a very good reason, it's dangerous. The danger comes from interpretation. The United Nations treaty that is quoted as being the justification for this is a document that is open to how you perceive it and react to it.

It's not a prescription, it's not a dictate, it's an idea, and it's a concept. What Labour have done with it has allowed it to camouflage a dangerous agenda. Handing bits of the country over to anyone based on race is wrong. Having separate systems based on race is wrong.

When things don’t work, do them differently by all means but not so differently you leave large chunks, in this case, the majority of the population, either behind, offside or both.

Old people don’t get co-governance, the low socioeconomic strugglers don’t get co-governance, and the Pacific Island community don’t get co-governance.

Those who need help of any description through the state get help from the duly elected government of the day. It's called democracy and despite its faults, we like it and can't think of anything better. Co-governance is certainly not even close to being better.

I hope Willie Jackson and his mates hear that view loud and clear if they are even slightly open to listening to what any of us has to say.  

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