Lindsay Mitchell
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com
Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio,tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.
National MP Paul Goldsmith says that on balance colonisation has been good for Maori.
But his colleagues and leader equivocate.
Chris Luxon says the opposite. “Colonisation was not good for Maori as we saw with breaches of the Treaty and we saw with Land Wars as well.”
But wait.
Goldsmith has found at least one ally in the house in ACT Party leader David Seymour.
“I think there was always going to be an impact when New Zealand reconnected with the world,” Seymour said. “That’s not saying that it’s justified, it’s about balancing everything that’s happened.
“The question is on balance, has colonisation been a good thing, and the answer is yes, because New Zealand is one of the most successful societies in human history to grow up in today,” he said.
When asked how Maori dying seven years younger than non-Maori was good for them, he said it did need to be improved, but framing everything in light of colonisation was not going to solve it.
On that last point colonisation is apparently an ongoing process. If it is so bad for Maori how come their life expectancy has risen dramatically and faster than non-Maori?
What has come over National?
Put aside the pressure to be woke and falsely empathetic (and craven), the facts are against them.
Yes, Maori feature overly among the worst social statistics but that’s at the extremes of the population.
On balance, life has improved for Maori in the same way as it has improved for all New Zealanders.
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