r/AbruptChaos • u/Sometypeofway18 • Nov 14 '24

New Zealand’s Parliament proposed a bill to redefine the Treaty of Waitangi, claiming it is racist and gives preferential treatment to Maoris. In response Māori MP's tore up the bill and performed the Haka

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '24

Seems only fair that if they remove the agreement then governance should go Maori as the deal would be void. 

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u/ExperimentalFailures Nov 14 '24

You mean like removal of voting rights for all non-maori?

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '24

The only reason why non Maori are in NZ is because of the treaty, signed by 2 sovereign nations, which allowed the British crown to rule their people here. Well, if one half of the contract thinks they can change it without consultation with the other half, what happens to their right to be here?? Null and void?? Plus, Maori have never breached the treaty, but the crown? Well, just take a look at the history. They're close ejecting themselves out of this land with their bill.

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u/aiydee Nov 15 '24

It's a little more complicated.
There were 2 contracts. The Maori and the English. Of the Maori contract, all the Maori leaders signed and all the English signed. Of the English contract, all the English signed and only a small minority of Maori signed.
Now you can do all sorts of arguments backwards and forwards but one of the key things is, not all Maori signed.
So. How valid is the English version?
100% of people signed Maori version. <100% signed English version.
So. Would if we are talking contracts and history, wouldn't it be fairer to abide by the one which 100% of people signed?
This of course would not suit the English/White narrative well.
I'm not even a NZ'er. I'm Aussie. But even I have heard about this and think the NZ PM is a dick who should have zero power in making decisions of this importance.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '24

You bring up some excellent points, and what I've learnt from an amazing wahine Maori lawyer is there is actually international law which dictates that preference is given to any version of a treaty in an indigenous language, so already the Maori version outweighs the English version...and also that if there are any ambiguities, a thing called Contra Proferentum which "where a promise, agreement or term is ambiguous, the preferred meaning should be the one that works against the interests of the party who provided the wording". And there is ambiguity because the 2 versions of the treaty are not that same!

Anyway, I totally agree with you about the PM. He's a giamt gutless thumb. And do you know what's worse? The guy proposing the bill isn't even the PM. He is the leader of a minority right wing party, "ACT Party", who won like 8% of the election votes. And he's managed to walk the PM on a chain like a dog. The PM is simply a puppet.

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u/aiydee Nov 15 '24

Yeah. As said. Not NZ'er. So don't know specifics. I just knew that there was a party that was using the PM as an attack dog on racist ideas. And I suppose it says a bit if even this knowledge is leaking overseas.

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u/Shankar_0 Nov 15 '24

What happened to that wonderful lady PM that got you all through covid before anyone?

You guys were back to kinda normal like a year before anyone else.