Posted on November 29, 2015  on NZCPR
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The surrender is almost complete.  When Governor Hobson invited Maori chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, he clearly thought that he was inviting those chiefs to accept the sovereignty of the Queen and to live in New Zealand, with the gradually increasing number of British settlers, as one people.  And it is clear from the speeches given by many of the Maori chiefs at Waitangi prior to their signing that they too understood that that was what was involved in the Treaty.

The proposed amendments to the Resource Management Act announced just a few days ago make it abundantly clear that we are well down the track of accepting that we are not really one people at all, but two distinct groups with different political rights – one group claiming at least one Maori ancestor (even if with a majority of non-Maori ancestors) and the other larger group with no Maori ancestor.

In one sense, we shouldn’t be surprised.  The original Resource Management Act passed into law in 1991 already required local governments to consult with their community and with Maori – not with the community including Maori, but with the community and Maori, as if Maori were in some sense not really part of the community.

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