When National Party MP Paul Goldsmith unfashionably remarked, last Tuesday, that colonisation benefited Maori, the howls of outrage from some Maori MPs were hysterical, and quaint, considering their generous salaries and perks courtesy of the coloniser system are proof of advantage.
Former Labour Cabinet Minister Michael Bassett, a professional historian, did the best smack-down.
After noting that Goldsmith is a first-class honours graduate in history with a number of well-researched books to his credit, and after referring to Peeni Henare and Willie Jackson as “two of the weaker minds in our ministry”, he said that a disturbing aspect of the attacks is that far too many of his National colleagues seem to be siding with Henare and Jackson’s twaddle. See Colonization gave Maori cause for hope?
Conservative commentator Cam Slater joined the debate when he created a fictitious dialogue between a Debbie, a Rawiri, Hone, Ngahiwi, and a Rangi which ended with Debbie being forced to concede that the British brought peace, along with sanitation, medicine, education, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, the Treaty and public health. See What did the British ever do for us?
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