Monday, October 19, 2009

Good post on Roarprawn

Awesome post from BB on Roarprawn about the ETS and maori owned forestry land. BB lays her case out well with some strong arguments.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder why BB thinks it is okay for the Crown to keep ripping Maori off - whether they be NT or any other iwi. Apparently ripping NT off while Mark S is "in charge" is somehow acceptable.

The simple fact is NT paid iwi cash at above market rates for the forests at a time when the Crown had information which they withheld from the negotiators. The essence of good faith bargaining is the essence of durable treaty settlements.

The Labour government wanted to keep all of the benefits ripped off from not only NT but other iwi and compiled a dubious report to support their case. I see Nick Smith has conceded that the Crown did withold information and so good on him for at least being honest. Why BB would choose to denigrate NT for asking the Crown to honour its agreeements with Maori is beyond me.

However, given that every post ends with - lets change the table - then her judgment is clearly clouded by other matters.

Marty Mars said...

Yes anon - it diminishes the debate to always come back to that, "get rid of mark" line IMO.

Anonymous said...

I have been disappointed that there has been very little information from yourself or Richard on what is happening re elections. While folks on BB criticise Makaawhio, which held a direct vote, no examination has been carried out on the other Runanga who are engaged in the process.

For some Runanga, like Oraka Aparima, there was simply no contest. Other Runanga there is clearly shenagins going on. Waewae held the postal vote months ago using a mailout list which excluded almost all the Tuahiwi members.

Taumutu held no postal ballot and were not even going to hold interviews before re-appointing their Rep. Talk about pre-determination...

Otakou takes the prize so far. They had enough numbers to hold a postal ballot but the names were not quite right. So the Chair re-opened nominations and guess what the father in law of the Chair and a couple of others put their names forward. And then they held a ballot run from the runanga database and low and behold enough of the "right kind of people" are now on the apppointment committee.

And now, it seems that the Chair of the Runanga wants to be the Rep and the other applicants have been told they are wasting their time in going through the process.

And who is the Chair and the Rep in waiting, let me think ... ex CEO Tahu Potiki. Until he clears up the question of the alleged double payout when he was CEO he has a damn cheek.

I am surprised that Edward would allow himself to be involved in such shenanigans - to participate on an appointment committee when your son-in-law is a candidate is pretty damn dodgy.

It is clear that BBs mates are trying to arrange a change at the table to bring in the same trouble makers who were making headlines earlier this year.

There motives are definately suspect and the modus operandi of how they intend to get into power speaks for itself.

Marty Mars said...

It is hard to know where to begin.

On one hand i think the elections are just a load of rubbish. The same people doing the same thing for the same reasons. No democracy, no fairness.

Two have finalised their election and 16 have yet to. There are 11 weeks until 2010 - the maths doesn't add up.

i have heard of kaumatua not being included, taken off, changed and adjusted. All without proper process.

When we register as Ngai Tahu our whakapapa is recorded. Most runaka have asked for members who think they whakapapa to them, to get in touch with them - this is just a joke. We have already registered and it is the runaka's responsibility to write and contact us to vote - not the other way round. My runaka haven't contacted me and the only one that has - had a kaumatua that we weren't descended from as one of our tupuna.

Who owns this? The runaka asked that TRONT leave it up to them. TRONT's duty is to it's members who are the members on the roll at TRONT.

I have reread the comments from all of the hui regarding this election process.

My thoughts at this stage are -

1. It is not a fair or democratic process.
2. The responsibility for enrollment and ability to cast a vote should be the runakas but they have abdicated their responsibility and now no-one looks after members.
3. The electrol college approach is flawed and part of the reason for the low interest.
4. Each runaka has set up their own criteria and process - they are not all equal or equivilant.
5. The process whereby if a runaka has the same nominations as places and therefore it just puts people in, without election or debate, is not democracy or giving people choice.

Trying to get information is difficult. No ones wants to put their head up because the whole thing is so bogus that that they will be tarred with the brush.

I am not giving up but i think what will be will be and the results from this flawed process will become very evident quickly - and then we can fix it. Maybe at hui a tau someone will raise the questions.

Our mana has not been enhanced by this.