National’s woke project is going gangbusters. First Maureen Pugh was attacked by Christopher Luxon and the deputy scold, Nicola Willis, for wrong-think regarding climate change. Pugh was sentenced to remedial reading on the topic. Now Joseph Mooney is in danger of being sent to the re-education camps for wrong-think on the Treaty of Waitangi.

The National Party spokesperson for Treaty Negotiations has demonstrated a limited understanding of the treaty, academics say, after he claimed New Zealand’s founding document guaranteed tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) to everyone.

Joseph Mooney, National MP for Southland, made a series of statements on Twitter, focusing on article two of te reo Maori version which assures hapu unqualified chieftainship over their land.

In one tweet, Mooney referenced a news article relating to co-governance settings within the Three Waters reset.

“I would suggest @Kieran_McAnulty has a read of Ko te tuarua (Article 2) of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga to “ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani” – every single person in New Zealand,” Mooney tweeted.

Kieran McAnulty is the Local Government Minister in charge of the water reforms.

When challenged, Mooney doubled-down by posting screenshots of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, encouraging critics to re-read the article.

Stuff

Joseph Mooney is, of course, absolutely right. But his problem is that the media lickspittles and the Government have a Pollyanna-ish revisionist view of what the treaty actually says: inventing co-governance.

The original treaty – not the one somebody, Geoffrey Palmer, if I recall, brought out in the ’70s or ’80s – gave “cedence to the Crown” to every man, woman and child in the country.

It appears that National’s wokester leader is also on the same page as the Government:

Mooney’s view did not have the backing of National Party leader Christopher Luxon.

“I have confidence in Joseph Mooney as a hard-working spokesperson,” Luxon said.

“However, I don’t think it is helpful to start a debate on constitutional arrangements on Twitter and I don’t think he’s got it right on this occasion,” Luxon said.

“What I want National to be judged on is our track record of completing Treaty settlements based on Article Two and that is something a government I lead will continue if we are elected in October.”

So, Joseph Mooney is probably off to the re-education camps to mend his ways. I hope he enjoys his hair shirt and ritual floggings and beating with a taiaha.

People who don’t know or don’t want to know (either through choice or ignorance) about Maori issues are obviously now easy targets by virtuous media types who do know. If you want to be a politician and fall into the ‘don’t know’ category, you are easy pickings by the media wokesters. 

When you add in a woke and going broke National leadership, you get this cringing subservience to Maori wonderfulness that is poisoning society.

National’s woke project is sending them broke, though I’ve heard Joseph Mooney’s donations skyrocketed today after this news broke.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...