Eliora
He Puapua means a place where waves break. Maori should be given a break and given more control over their lives. The Vision 2040 – He Puapua is a document recently made publicly available. It is a plan for the Labour Party of Aotearoa to give Maori self-governing rights by 2040.
The He Puapua plan should not be dismissed as silly. In fact, He Puapua does not go far enough for Maori. The best way ahead for Maori is to give Maori their own Inland Revenue Department.
Maori tribes will be able to use taxes obtained from all working Maori to pay for their organisations and services. Grant Robertson, the Finance Minister, is a very clever operator. He can open another bank account for Maori. One to deposit all income from Maori taxes. The other bank account can remain for Pakeha-only tax revenue. To ensure everything is fair, Maori IR can receive 15% of all taxes that cannot be ethnically identified, such as GST and petrol, and they can pay 15% towards their share for infrastructure such as roading, bridges etc.
Democracy is not equitable for the people of the land. Maori have a right to self-determination over every area of their lives in Aotearoa. Maori tribes can agree among themselves who is Maori, then the chosen ones can appoint their own Minister for Health, Minister for Housing, Minister for Education, justice, social welfare, etc. They can have Maori-only hospitals, schools, banks, courts, social welfare, even taxis, buses and trains. Maybe even some shops. This way Maori do not have to deal with Pakeha all the time.
An example of how He Puapua can be used in a positive way is to quickly put two trains on the Hamilton to Auckland line. One for Maori only and the other for the rest. They would be reducing the effects of the “climate emergency”, by catching their train rather than using cars and motor bikes. It makes sense for Maori to travel in a relaxing manner from Hamilton to Huntly, for work, especially when local coal mines are reopened. The power station at Huntly needs local coal to operate and it would be a way of saving money for their whanau. Aotearoa could cancel the coal order from Indonesia.
Jacinda Ardern knew local governments operated unfairly for Maori. “You know it when you see it,” she says, so she set up Maori Wards in 20 local bodies to right this inequality. The advice all Maori Aotearoreans should give to Jacinda is to go “hard and early,” putting apartheid into practice.
There is already a Maori All Black team. Now we need an All Black team for all the rest. Apartheid can be done well when both sides want to be separate. MPs like Davidson and Mahuta will be happy as they tuck into their own kai in their Maori only, sustainable Ika and Kumara shop. He Puapua is a brilliant document.
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