Thursday, May 06, 2021

The spanner in the works for separatism

 

More Maori men and more Maori women are married to or cohabiting with Europeans than other Maori.

Updated data:

Comparing the 2001 and 2013 data a number of patterns are evident:

1. There has been a small but important decline in the proportion of partnered Māori who

have a Māori partner. In 2001, 53% of partnered Māori men had a Māori partner. In

2013 this declined to 48%. For Māori women the decline was from 52% to 47%.

Wednesday, May 05, 2021

What happened to the 'shecession'?

Remember all the belly-aching by feminist pollies and journos about how hard done by women have been due to Covid?

Here's a sample from The Ministry of Women's Affairs:

The impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls.

Some groups of women will experience greater impacts than others. Women who fall into multiple groups experiencing existing inequalities may feel the combined effects of factors such as race, age, sexuality, and disability with gender.

Wāhine Māori and Pacific women are already impacted by existing inequalities while being more likely to have additional financial and caring responsibilities for extended family members. 

Women are often disproportionately affected by downturns in the labour market and that’s likely to be the case again with COVID-19’s economic impacts. New Zealand’s labour force is highly segregated by industry and gender, with women more likely to work in lower-paid jobs and perform unpaid and voluntary roles.

That was just a smidgen of it.  I countered with data showing more males had to resort to the Jobseeker and Covid Income Relief payments.

Well, the latest unemployment figures are out.

The rate for men and women is identical - 4.7% 


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.


Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Green MP likens Oranga Tamariki social workers to Mongrel Mob

Two Green MPs went to a hui with Mongrel Mob. I don't particularly have a problem with MPs talking to gangs. Problems never get solved without people talking. But I draw the line at this statement from one of those MPs, Elizabeth Kerekere:

“Let’s talk about the criminals here - let’s look at the recent uplifting of children. In a different world they would be prosecuted for their behaviour. They are protected at the moment, but we need to do things in a different way.”

This is absurd. Gangs are one of OT's biggest clients:

A total of 3,516 children of gang members were recorded as being the victims of abuse or neglect that had been substantiated on investigation by Child, Youth and Family. This is 60 per cent of the total 5,890 known children of gang members.

If those social workers charged with protecting these children would be "prosecuted for their behaviour" in a "different world", what could we expect for gang member's children? The mind boggles.

Kerekere says her favourite part of the Mongrel Mob event was meeting the Wāhine Toa (the women’s chapter of Mongrel Mob Kingdom), which the women in Waikato formed and is starting to spread out among the country.

”I’m very excited by this. This is where we see women leaders are stepping up inside that particular gang and across the country particularly in caring for our tamariki.”

"Women leaders" no less. What do we know about gang women?

The alleged perpetrator of abuse or neglect of gang member’s children was more often recorded as the child’s mother than the gang member father.

I shudder for the kids if this "different world" comes to pass.

 

Employing 'B' to make sure 'A' gets the job done

 Or, in other words

Deputy PM Grant Robertson setting up new 'implementation unit' to make sure Government policies actually happen

You couldn't make this stuff up.

Still, it's always good to start the day with a laugh.


Sunday, May 02, 2021

Damien Grant: "Here's your problem, National: You need to take your leader seriously"

"Around 400,000 formerly blue voters abandoned National at the last election. If recent opinion polling can be trusted, they have not come back.

National’s review of why this happened is out, and a sanitised version has been released to the public. The report wants the party to focus on diversity and recruitment. Both recommendations fail to address the party's malaise.

National does not have a diversity problem, and even if it does, it does not matter.

I do not care about the racial make-up of any political party. Neither, I suspect, do most Māori, given that the Māori Party only collected 33,000 party votes.

Indeed, the last time National was polling in the forties it was buoyed by widespread Pākehā support, despite being led by two individuals with Māori heritage. If National believes that dragging Shane Reti around to every photo shoot is going to boost its support among those who identify as Māori, it has a shockingly low opinion of the Māori electorate.

National can embrace the Treaty if it will make it feel better, but diversity isn’t its problem."

More

"I think the Treaty has been breached"

Oh really?

This from the Minister for Children, Kelvin Davis, regarding Oranga Tamariki's uplift of Maori children and their over-representation in state care.

"I think the Treaty has been breached"

What else has been breached?

A child's right to be nurtured and protected?

The child's innate trust in their mother?

A families responsibility to rally around a newborn child to enure its wellbeing?

The Treaty being breached is way down the list of what matters to that child.

It's got months, a couple of years, to receive the crucial input it needs.

Meanwhile racial politicking drones on ...