Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Politicking is only a by-product

Henry Cooke from Stuff says:

ACT voters are definitely more likely to be susceptible to racialised politics than the average voter.

It contains a odd word. "Susceptible".

In the context of the piece, the word "susceptible" implies that as an ACT voter I am being manipulated by the party.

Quite the contrary. I am relieved that there are some MPs in the house who share the same views as I do.

Yes, politicians play at politics. That's their job. To get elected to implement or protect the ideas of those who vote for them.

But the politicking is only a by-product of any issue that causes deep division.

Cooke can write his smug opinion pieces framing He Puapua as a mere plaything the right have latched hungrily onto - despite some of what it contains being already under way. He fails to mention the compulsory history curriculum demanded by the report. Or the UN submission confirming New Zealand wants to lead the world in enshrining the rights of indigenous people.

In the first half of last century I would have fought for the rights of Maori to be treated equally under the law. There were instances when this did not happen and that was wrong.

But to go beyond individuals having equal rights - for instance He Puapua clearly states that in some cases Maori would have greater say over resources - is dangerous and unworkable. It also invokes a chill about collectivism or tribalism which will not serve Maori equally.

We need to heal the division of the past (why the Waitangi Tribunal existed before it moved into the area of policy advocacy) and move forward together all sharing the same democratic framework.

I can't remember a time when this simple idea felt more remote.


3 comments:

James said...

I have to say, I've stopped reading Stuff.co.nz, and my blood pressure and stress levels have definitely improved!

I think that I am not the only one, going off readership reports. Stuff is now a left-wing advocacy site, not objective and fact-based journalism.

In addition to deciding for myself that their reporting lacks integrity, balance and fairness, I also had a run in a few years ago with their sports editor when I was refereeing his sports team. He personally argued with me the entire game (itself a breach of rules), then when I red carded one of their players for violence, the entire team stormed off making all sorts of threats against me. Fortunately I had the entire thing recorded on camera, so when Mainland Football held their disciplinary hearing, they looked at his written evidence (where he made implied threats as a "senior sports journalist"), then they looked at the video footage and decided themselves that his reporting "lacked credibility".

This guy is a key leader in their organisation, and lacks all integrity. The whole website is full of left-wing PR advocates, not journalists.

The question is, will ceasing reading the garbage from Stuff, including this piece by Mr Malpass, be overall beneficial? It has been for me, but now I am more ignorant about whatever far-left nonsense is being spouted and believed by a large portion of the country.

Max Ritchie said...

Everyone who suffered from the wrongs committed in the 19th century (and note that that includes a lot of Maori subject to what we now call war crimes, committed by their Maori enemies, as well as the land confiscations and again note that they were mainly hunting grounds) is dead. People alive today benefit more or less equally from the foundation laid after the treaty was signed. The “less” is most of us, the “more” is the elites, a few white, most of them various shades of brown. Time to move on. We all come into this world with nothing. For most of us what we have when we leave is the result of what we’ve done between arrival and departure. The best start is finishing school with the ability to read, write and count. Those that do will not suffer the appalling health results of obesity, smoking and so on. They’ll access our excellent public health facilities and live useful, healthy, normal lives. Those that come out of school unemployable will not. So simple yet so difficult.

Hilary Taylor said...

Like James I either skim or avoid the Stuff pieces by the 'usual suspects'.,,Press is far quicker to read these days! I held off re=subscribing til the last minute and then held my nose and paid it...ChCh is a big village and there's local stuff I prefer to know about. (Yes, I can read if for free at the library).

Lindsay, thanks for being an indispensable 'read'. I'm on your wavelength & I appreciate the stats and graphs you work at, that give the lie, often, to the platitudes, the massaged messages from govt and the utterly partisan media cheerleaders of same.

Good class of commenter too.