Aotearoa Divided.
Hey, hey, hey
There's no need to panic
This is just how it is
Your pulse is fast and frantic
And it feels like you'll explode
Panic isn’t the right word, although sometimes I feel a bit that way when I think about things. Despair is probably more accurate. And sadness.
Those are the things I feel when I look at how our country is going, and what is to come in the next few years.
Some might say - oh for goodness sake cheer up, what have you to complain about?
That’s true, it’s a beautiful day, and I have much to be grateful for. Thanks to the lovely people who pay for subscriptions to Nick’s Kōrero I get to write this newsletter as my job, and I appreciate that tremendously. My family are all pretty happy and healthy, I’m not a religious man - but that is a true blessing.
But my country seems to be going in the wrong direction, and some people seem to quite like it. Although the jury is still out as to whether this new government will make them happy, or whether they’ll just find something else to moan about.
This is what you wanted
This is here and now
This is what you came for
But you leave disappointed
Cracked skin and furrowed brow
My friend G, posted the following conversation starter on his page last night - “Do National voters realise what they have done?”, and I replied:
“Yep, hard as it may be for many of us to believe many of them are either ambivalent to what’s going on, or they actually like it. Apart from some of the concessions made to the bigots from ACT and NZ First, they're getting pretty much what they ordered.
Bit less of the Māori stuff thanks, haka at the rugby's enough surely?
Sick of all this kindness, I just want a new jet ski.
Life's just a game with winners and losers, can we stop talking about the losers already - no one cares.
During Covid it seemed for a while like we were all in this together, but the truth is that half the population are more worried about themselves than others and quite frankly a lot of them aren't very nice people.”
It made me wonder how we’ve ended up with such disparate outlooks on what’s good for our country and what it means to be a Kiwi.
Many people who didn’t like the last government accused them of dividing the country.
In the comments sections of some of our lower quality news platforms people would complain vociferously that they were the most divisive government in our history. Having grown up when Muldoon was PM I found their position hard to understand, or quite frankly to take seriously.
The cries of division started over simple things like wanting to address Climate Change. The need to make changes to our agricultural practices to reduce our impacts on the planet, and not limit its ongoing ability to support human life as we know it. These were painted as attacks on farmers, and it was positioned by some as a conflict between town and country. National literally went around the country saying “Labour hates farmers”.
They grew with Covid as others claimed that the government’s actions were dividing us. Again I found it hard to take seriously. I mean c’mon they were just trying to keep people safe and healthy.
But no, apparently the government was dividing us into those capable of understanding basic science and those who couldn’t. It was elitist - why were the government not being more respectful of the alternative views of others? Surely their right to free speech mattered more than following sensible health precautions?
Then the cries of division grew even louder when the government started talking about Three Waters and co-Governance. Where some of us saw it as only right that tangata whenua should have a seat at the table, that the measures the government was taking were essentially meeting our Treaty obligations, others decried it as the end of democracy.
Interestingly I note that some of the same people that are opposed to anything Māori have not exactly advocated for democracy in the past. For example one of the figures behind anti Māori group Hobson’s Pledge, Peter Shirtcliffe, also lead the campaign to retain First Past the Post rather than move to MMP.
The former system disenfranchised many. Unless you lived in a marginal electorate your vote was essentially meaningless. Major parties could win elections with only minority support and Third parties could forget about it. Voters got to choose the lesser of two evils in what seemed at times like slightly different shades of basically the same thing.
That’s certainly not the case now. The difference between National/ACT/NZF and Labour/Greens could hardly be clearer.
Actually you might have seen a bit about Hobson’s Pledge in the last day or so, and their endeavours to make the country less divided by defending the rights of those opposed to learning.
When it comes to her principles and what really matters in life, Real Estate agent Janet Dickson has decided that the ditch she wants to die in is standing in opposition to learning about Māori culture.
If everyone gets 15 minutes of fame Janet wants to be known as the martyr who was willing to be stood down from her career for five long years rather than submit to the tyranny of a 90 minute training course.
Hey, hey, hey
This is what you wanted
This is why you came
This is what you asked for
Yes, I heard you beg
And you came, then you broke it
Threw it out of the room
Flushed it, down the toilet
Even though it was your precious
The last thing to call your own
Of course Janet has no intention of anything of the sort, this is all about publicity. No one in their right mind is that racist, surely?
Tell us about it Janet…
No, on second thoughts please don’t! But Janet has, appearing on The Platform, which is what sane people, with reasonable things to say, do. In case the sarcasm in that last part was not clear it sure as heck will be if you watch this bunch of complete bollocks:
In this clip Sean and Janet provide a critique of the course, that neither of them has attended. I was amused when Sean asked Janet if she’d be similarly affronted if asked to take part in a Catholic mass. This rather backfired when Janet indicated that the mass wouldn’t be a problem.
It also gave an insight into Janet’s claim that learning about Māori culture would be “against her religion”.
She said, “that’s one of the things I’m at odds with over this is, because I really won’t bow down to foreign gods of any kind, that sums it up.” Janet went on to say that “the superstition and mythology and stuff didn’t align with my christian values”. Janet had applied for an exemption from doing the course on that basis.
I couldn’t help thinking there was small amount of irony in a person expressing their belief in Catholicism while saying there was no place for superstition and mythology! It also left me wondering why so many people, that profess to be supporters of the guy, seem to think Christ had such awful values.
Turns out that perhaps Janet might be a few nuts short of a Picnic bar. Although that doesn’t appear to be a hindrance to the people supporting her.
As has been well publicised Hobson’s Pledge are Janet’s knights on white horses, as if they’d be another colour, riding to the defense of all those threatened with education and gaining understanding.
The NZ Herald published a Facebook post made by Hobson's Pledge appealing for donations to help fund Janet Dickson's legal fight. I’m hypocritically about to do exactly the same, although I’m pretty safe in the knowledge than none of you are likely to donate to the cause!
People sometimes give me grief for writing about awful things, particularly for including photos of those involved, as if criticising them or mocking them is somehow supporting them. I do kind of get it, but unfortunately bad things don’t go away if we just ignore them.
Meanwhile serious things have been happening that are actually hurting people.
I spoke to the person who wrote the following, they were happy for me to include it, but understandably preferred to keep things anonymous. While people like Janet Dickson are playing petty little games, other people are actually suffering genuine hardship.
Kia ora Koutou,
I hope you all had a wonderful week. Today I had the privilege of sitting in on a virtual conference. The main areas of conversation circulated around Māori business owners and kaupapa led services.
What stood out for me was two different recruitment agencies (which will remain anonymous) who shared that since the new government has taken office:
82 Māori led job roles were disestablished and pulled from the recruitment agencies listings.
7 other consultants have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment.
9 Māori led advisor roles have been made redundant
The pain I heard in their voices was not nice and was super difficult to listen too. I suspect this is not a surprise, but thought I would share this kōrero with you all.
Funnily enough there is no Hobson’s Pledge/NZ Herald campaign to help these people. No their focus is on a bigot who’s affronted at the thought of having to learn a small amount about the first people of this land.
It’s just pathetic. But it gets worse.
Not only does Janet have the backing of the vile Hobson’s Pledge crowd and the free advertising from the Herald, but even the deputy Prime Minister, Captain Cabbage Boat himself, is going in to bat for her.
As stated in the article above from Newshub, “Winston Peters is irate a woman's career may possibly be temporarily halted after she refused to partake in a Māori values course.”
Like someone that he reminds me of more and more each passing day, Winston took to Twitter…
It’s a beautiful sunny day outside. I can hear the cricketers on the playing fields and the cicadas in my favourite tree, much to enjoy and be grateful for. There are things I’m worried about in this country, but a “dangerous future of cultural wokeness” is not one of them.
I felt like we were making progress, that small initiatives to gain a better understanding were positive. But now the things that should have reduced division are being turned into negatives by people that wanted us divided all along.
Those with closed hearts and closed minds, like Janet, who don’t want to know about others, and who don’t want to learn. Is this what they wanted?
Hey, hey, hey
This is what you wanted
And you got it, now you hate it
'Cause it's a disappointment
Your expectations were way too fucking high
Now you're angry, frustrated
You've created your own special hell
Where it's Arctic and it's barren
And it's silent and it's white
Your own prison cell
Hey, hey, hey
There's no need to panic
It’s certainly not what I wanted, how about you? What do you think about the actions of Janet Dickson or the direction we’re heading in?
It has been found that Janet hasn't sold a house since 2021. She is retirement age. That her agency yesterday took her off the website. Think this is a moment of fame probably recruited by Hobson's Pledge after a winge to them
I often write about the entrenched ignorance we have as a country about our own history, especially from the post 1840 period. Remember at school not being taught a lot about NZ history but heaps about Britain etc. Ignorance can, with education, be got rid of. Sadly most Pakeha don't know their ignorance so never bother reading NZ history. Its all there in our libraries and book shops, on the web, everywhere. People get sick of hearing from some Maori, but they don't understand or even know about the wrongs perpetrated by successive governments.
It's almost criminal that the history of the NZ Wars isn't remembered like the foreign wars New Zealanders fought and died in. Remembrance would bring Maori and Pakeha much closer. Many descendants of those who took part, many dying.