Friday, October 15, 2004
"It's in my Department, but I'm not responsible"
Social Steve is having a bad time of it of late, after cock up followed debacle, the last thing he needed was an embarrasing revelation. Queue the release of some preposterously PC bollocks from Housing NZ;
Disclosure of the content of the corporation's training manuals is potentially embarrassing for the Government, which has been trying to dispel suggestions it is pandering to Maori since National Party leader Don Brash accused it of entrenching Maori privilege.Now it would be easy to dismiss this as the work of a typical Government Department leather elbow cardigan clad plonker - but there is something a bit more disturbing than that. For a long time now the Government has been quizzed on what exactly is meant by "the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi" which has found it's way into all sorts of legislation and Government Department mandates. If this is an interpretation accepted by this Government - God help us.
Included in the manuals – prepared by Switch Trainers and Consultants – are a series of statements about what Maori might reasonably have expected when the Treaty was signed in 1840. They include the assertion that:
# There would be limited British settlement areas where British law would apply; and
# The bulk of the country would still belong to the tribes, which would rule themselves as they wished, with some Pakeha settlers there by agreement and observing Maori law.
But what Maori got, the manuals state, was:
# An imposed Pakeha government making laws for all without reference either to the Treaty or to Maori needs.
# The deliberate undermining and destruction of Maori authority and social systems.
# Wars of conquest launched against them by governments.
Asked on Wednesday if he agreed that Maori expected to retain control when they signed the Treaty, Mr Maharey said that was a "little different" from his understanding. But he told Parliament yesterday the assertion was "a fact".
