Monday, February 23, 2004
So it isn't just hysterical reaction
A Massey University study has shown that there is real concern and division over the role and status of The Treaty of Waitangi.
"The survey of a thousand people conducted before Christmas showed 55 percent of people believe the treaty should not have an influence on government decision-making.
Seventy-seven percent think the treaty mostly creates division."
The most interesting thing is that this was taken well before the Orewa speech. So one thing is confirmed, below (and even before) the hype exists a serious issue that needs an inclusive, informed and respectful debate about our current constitutional framework (or lack of it).
Go back to a Bill English speech in May 2002. It makes me think what a shame it was that Bill lacked some of the key qualities and traits of political leadership, because more often than not, the man spoke sense;
"It’s against this background that we need a deeper debate about the principles of the Treaty. Questioned in the House on the principles of the Treaty, Labour evaded answers and then ultimately fell back on the 1989 statement by the Palmer Government. This is no basis for the Attorney-General’s preference for judicial activism to interpret the Treaty. Our judiciary is competent and intelligent, but they breathe the same thin air as the politicians on Treaty issues. They cannot make mature consideration without deeper, more open debate about the Treaty.
Unless more New Zealanders become aware of the content of modern Treaty discourse, and where that discourse will inevitably take us, we are going to wake up one day, and find that New Zealand has been reconfigured more or less as that shown in the TV3 documentary "2050 - What if … ". Then New Zealanders, Pakeha , Pacific and Asian, and Maori too - for most Maori want to be ‘just New Zealanders’ - will ask "How could this have happened?" And the judges will keep explaining in their judgments, and the Ministers will remain silent, the media will bite on the sensational aspects of it, and no ‘ordinary’ New Zealander will be any wiser."
Well said.
