Tuesday, January 20, 2004
For those who can stand more than a sound bite
My post earlier today prompted me to revisit a speech by Simon Upton to the Knowledge Wave Conference in 2003. It is a quite weighty, but admirably neutral and constructive peace, delivered before the High Court decision on the Foreshore and Seabed. It seems more relevant now than ever.
Anyone with an interest in matters constitutional, and who believes that the Foreshore and Seabed debate overlooks addressing the crux issue of nation building and establishing a modern day New Zealand, would be well advised to print it and take it home for a peruse. The relevant text is largely found in the middle third. Here's a taste:
"The truth is that the Treaty is shipwrecked between three bodies - Parliament, the Courts and the Waitangi Tribunal, none of which can claim, simultaneously, the authority, the legitimacy and the public respect needed to point the way forward. So my first practical proposal is very simple. We must -
* carve out a space and find the people who can bring this debate back in touch with the public at large and propose solutions that an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders not only feel they can live with, but solutions that will come to be actively grasped as the basis of our nationhood."
Defining New Zealand, not just the beaches
