{"id":9038,"date":"2016-03-25T12:59:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=9038"},"modified":"2016-03-27T10:38:49","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T21:38:49","slug":"why-maori-voters-overwhemingly-rejected-the-flag-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/?p=9038","title":{"rendered":"Why M\u0101ori voters overwhelmingly rejected the flag referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"avatr\"<\/a>\u00a0Joe Trinder<\/p>\n

\"flag\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The seven M\u0101ori electorates had the highest rejection for flag change in the country. The most resistant electorate was Te Tai Tokerau voting 78.5% against flag change. Even former MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Hone Harawira made an appeal to the electorate for change. His anti colonial argument for change made sense and I changed my vote based on his argument. It doesn\u2019t make sense why M\u0101ori voters would support the Union Jack considering Hone Heke chopped the colonial \u201cButchers Apron\u201d down. Several Tai Tokerau voters felt the alternative flag was such an unattractive option, might as well stick with the old one.<\/p>\n

\"hone<\/a> Many M\u0101ori voters are disgruntled with the National Government and for good reason the discrimination against M\u0101ori \u00a0is at an all time high during the flag debate. In fact the National bias media discriminated against M\u0101ori \u00a0and the Prime Minister condoned that discrimination. John Key represents Farmers and urban home owners on over valued real estate. Unfortunately in this referendum he needed to bring all New Zealanders together including M\u0101ori.
\nThe Kiwimeter survey by state broadcaster Television New Zealand. In the survey the question was asked \u201cM\u0101ori should not receive any special treatment.\u201c. This question had an ulterior motive to condemn Treaty settlements where billions of dollars of confiscated real estate is offering minimal compensation of a few million dollars less than 2% of its current value . What if the Kiwimeter survey asked this racist question \u201cPakeha should not receive any special treatment.\u201d the Prime Minister would have fired the CEO of TVNZ immediately. Although that question has more merit considering the generational wealth inherited by the descendants of British colonists on the backs of M\u0101ori \u00a0land confiscations.
\nThe Prime Minister made this statement in regards to the Treaty of Waitangi \u201cIt was the foundation stone of where we were equal and treated equally\u201c. John Key the Prime Minister is out of touch with history of his own country with this colonial rhetoric. The Treaty of Waitangi was designed to protect indigenous rights from colonial land thefts. More importantly Ngapuhi only signed the M\u0101ori version of the Treaty and never ceded sovereignty.
\nThere is a fear amongst some M\u0101ori that New Zealand Aotearoa becoming a Republic puts degree of separation Treaty settlements will not be settled fairly and land not returned to its rightful owners. Before we start the New Zealand Republic debate we need to start the colonial land theft debate.
\nOn Waitangi weekend PM\u2019s loyal propagandists Mike Hosking and Paul Henry slagged off M\u0101ori considerably in demanding the PM abandon Ti Tii Marae . How do you welcome someone on your marae, who signed the TPPA compact with foreign countries, undermined the mana of the Treaty and the sovereignty of Aotearoa , the day before the annual commemoration of the “Treaty partnership?” In exceptional circumstances, like rape, murder and theft when tikanga protocols do not apply to the manuhiri.
\nThe Kyle Lockwood flag was given an entire week on the Harbour bridge although it represented no Nation. The Tino Rangatiratanga Flag was only permitted 24 hours on the Harbour bridge yet it represents the M\u0101ori nation. Why should M\u0101ori voters take the Kyle Lockwood flag seriously when the Tino Rangatiratanga Flag is consistently condemned by critics as being separatist.<\/p>\n

Some may ask why wasn\u2019t the Tino Rangatiratanga Flag in contention as our National Flag? “The Tino flag has its own mana, identity and national recognition amongst many M\u0101ori. Papatuanuku (red), Ranginui (black) and the koru of Te Ao Marama (white) remind us of our responsibilities to our taiao and simple enduring values from our past to guide our rangatahi and future mokopuna. The Tino flag is not owned by the state , it is a taonga M\u0101ori and is not to be vetted by others who mock M\u0101ori sovereignty. M\u0101ori are comfortable with the tino flag- which is a modest statement of M\u0101ori identity and is not separatist nor a critiicism of anyone else . Aotearoa is not ready for Tino, for M\u0101ori landlords, it’s not even ready to replace the union jack. ”
\nThe Feed the Kids bill was shut down by the National government yet they managed to find $26 million for a re-branding exercise. There is a housing crisis throughout the country. In the eyes of many struggling families this was a government with their priorities wrong.
\nThe argument was made that voters rejected the flag based on a dislike of John Key.. The counter argument is John Key didn\u2019t establish an unbiased atmosphere of nation building but a political spin doctor driven campaign recruiting celebrities as a propaganda tool to sway the argument. Key was highly critical of loyal National supporters e.g the RSA and for the first time National supporters were exposed to the propaganda and spin progressive\u2019s complain about.
\nUntil the National Government can make genuine efforts to suppress racial discrimination against M\u0101ori \u00a0voters in society it can expect no cooperation or goodwill from M\u0101ori voters. The Prime Minister was taught a hard lesson for any future referendum if you don\u2019t have M\u0101ori support you will lose the initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Joe Trinder The seven M\u0101ori electorates had the highest rejection for flag change in the country. The most resistant electorate was Te Tai Tokerau voting 78.5% against flag change. Even former MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Hone Harawira made an appeal to the electorate for change. His anti colonial argument for change made sense and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","category-tiriti","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9038"}],"version-history":[{"count":105,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9144,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9038\/revisions\/9144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mananews.co.nz\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}