the truth and nothing but the truth

I have said before that John Minto is one of the people I look up to. He is honest, sincere and very smart and his latest post on ACT, their advertising and brash is genius. It is brilliant that John is interim co-vice president of the Mana Party.

NZH

There was the obligatory reference to wanting the best for Maori and the need to do something about the awful social statistics which bedevil indigenous communities worldwide, but that was just the cover for a vicious attack on Maori who dare to stand up for a better deal. Maori privilege is a sick joke and Maori benefits from the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process are no better.

Since the first Treaty settlement 19 years ago, the total amount paid out so far to iwi groups is barely half last year's $1.7 billion taxpayer bailout of South Canterbury Finance.

And the total value of settlements is well below 1 per cent of the actual value of the land stolen from Maori by the dirty dealings of the Crown, even before the Crown denied Maori the right to argue their case for title over parts of the foreshore and seabed.

He warns of creeping separatism but it's not the gap between Maori and Pakeha which is the problem, but the chasm between the tiny elite who claim most of this country's wealth and income as their own and the majority of New Zealanders who struggle with the leftovers.

And talk of Treaty rights being a form of apartheid is so much rubbish. Apartheid discriminated against people on the basis of race. Redressing Treaty abuses and entering dialogue with Maori groups is the opposite.

Won't it be great to have John Minto in parliment as a member of Mana - his voice is strong, his heart is true and his aim is deadly.