Last Thursday The BFD published an article by Dr Muriel Newman called “Call Co-governance What It Really Is…tribal Rule” The core message is that democratically-elected DHBs will be replaced by two agencies, one called “Health New Zealand” and the other a Maori Health Authority, with the Maori Health Authority having the right of veto.
That in itself is bad enough but the real killer bit is this:
Not only has this separatist system been created without proper community engagement – other than extensive consultation with Maori interest groups – the Government has even enabled the Bill to sidestep the usual legislative scrutiny of the Health Select Committee by establishing a new Committee, the Pae Ora Legislation Committee, to deal with it.
The Minister of Health Andrew Little justified this new committee on the basis that “the make-up of the committee would permit the Crown to meet its Treaty of Waitangi obligations in a way that had not been provided for in any other piece of legislation”.
There are two different interpretations of the TOW. One interpretation, and the one accepted by the government, is that Maori never ceded sovereignty. Instead the Treaty gave the Crown the right of “governorship”. The partnership created according to this interpretation is not one of equals, but one more analogous to a married couple where hubby has the final say over everything.
If you accept the interpretation above to be the correct one then giving a Maori Health Authority the right of veto makes perfect sense.
Of course it doesn’t stop at the health system.
Take Maori wards for example. Admittedly I don’t know much about them but I can tell you the real reason they are there is to (eventually) allow Maori the ability to veto any decision made by the Council (the government will of course sugarcoat it by saying, “It’s to allow Maori to have a final say over decisions.”)
Same thing with water, justice etc.
At the governmental level it means having a Maori upper house with the power to veto any legislation passed by parliament. And, taken far enough, it means a parliament consisting of at least 50% Maori (this is critical to understanding the true extent of the quote above).
People will say I’m being racist and that this is an attempt to generate hate. All I’m doing is shining a light on what is happening and what it will mean.