OPINION
NZ media, still soldiering on as Labour’s propaganda machine, lived up to its name following Pene Henare’s unfortunate outburst at Waitangi: largely ignoring it. He said:
When you take off your jacket, it’s to get ready for a fight. The bugle has sounded and we have heard the call, This is a fight that will not be fought just in Parliament. I lift my gun, and I let the shots do the talking. That’s a figurative gun, not an actual gun.
In the interest of balance, credit is due to Newshub for being the only outlet which dared report Henare’s ‘eloquent’ diatribe directed against the new Government (essentially because they have turned off Willie’s money hose and the left are revolting).
Newstalk ZB‘s Adam Pearce only reported, ‘The bugle has sounded” and cut off the rest of the war-mongering utterance, with complicity from Francesca Rudkin who surely must have known about the outburst. This is editing to protect the foolish Labour list MP who let his ‘oratory’ (aka hate speech) run away with him.
However, at the same time, I must (in the interests of balance!) applaud Newstalk for balanced reporting following Hosking’s interview with NZ First’s Casey Costello. The crucial piece of information unearthed by Hosking, to disprove the emotive media’s ‘Get Casey’ campaign, was that the list of items for consideration she provided to public servants also included ‘How to get rid of big tobacco’. Hardly the intent to ‘promote’ smoking or Big Tobacco.
Whilst media outlets have been religiously reporting Radio New Zealand’s one-sided coverage of this non-event, they completely ignored Hosking’s interview and subsequent ZB news item clarifying the issue because it clashed with their ‘Casey bad’ narrative. This is blatant manipulation to suit their agenda and makes our media one of the most biased and dishonest in their reporting in the Western world.
TVNZ’s apologist and advocate for Maori, Maiki Sherman, was quick to agree with the bumbling Henare, explaining to us great unwashed it was ‘Maori rhetoric’. The woman presents well and can be effective on other issues, but dives in as a commentator on Maori issues forgetting her role as ‘reporter’ and is given free rein to express her own opinion. She should not get the senior reporter role, but probably will.
Katie Bradford, who should have got the job originally, like most NZ media is also of the left persuasion, but has almost perfected the art of more balanced reporting and would be a more suitable replacement for now departed Jessica Mutch McKay.
In the end, all of this ‘rhetoric’, litigation threats and bullying will be so much ‘fire and fury signifying nothing‘ as Labour well know, fresh from their heady experience of forcing unmandated and unwanted policy (most of which will be repealed) on a fractious public.
The New Zealand Government is protected by a law passed in 1987 which gives them parliamentary sovereignty. In effect, our Government is the highest court in the land and although The Supreme Court may pass down rulings, the current Government can accept or reject them.
In passing the Constitutional Act 1986, effective January 1987, New Zealand ‘unilaterally revoked all residual United Kingdom power.’ New Zealand, as of 1987, became a free standing constitutional monarchy whose parliament has unlimited sovereign power.
Although there does now exist the proviso any major ‘constitutional’ change must have the support of 70% of Parliament. This gives balance and neutralises to a degree its power, preventing the last government, the most radical in our history, from doing any real damage. We can be thankful for that.
And as for the Waitangi Tribunal, it is in effect toothless. Only the rabid media dishonestly perpetuate the myth that Maori have power to change anything through this vehicle, unless the ruling party really want it.
Their bullying and coercive approach should be challenged more by the PM who should take note of how Seymour and Peters control media conferences and fractious reporters.
And God willing, Shane Jones will work to make changes to curb the Tribunal’s enthusiasm and stated intention to trifle with our constitution, during this term.
So is Dr Shane Reti playing nice or humouring them in giving the Waitangi Tribunal a month to pontificate over the dismantling of the Maori Health Authority which is going to go ahead anyway?
Gosh, I wonder what their findings will be?
Do he and the Prime Minister not have the fortitude to tell them: ‘Sorry, we won, your side lost and we are implementing our policies which, unlike your mates, we campaigned on. Don’t waste your time and taxpayer money on this pointless task.’
Tim Beveridge opined on Newstalk why Waitangi is always so negative “Maybe media have played a role in whipping it up, picking one issue and blowing it up.”
You don’t say.
And this year, predictably, ignoring the left’s faux pas.
Thomas Coughlan wrote my favourite headline this week when he asked Labour,
‘How does it feel to be irrelevant?’
Proving there is some balance, but you have to really search for it.