I Stuart

D Dawson’s letter of Beacon, March 12 (Special treatment and practising separatism) is a mixture of disinformation and propaganda.

First, I will say that I am proudly woke. This means I am awake, aware, conscious of the world around me. I take the use of the word woke as a compliment.  

Yes, it is true that some Māori entities pay 17.5 percent tax on income.  These are Māori trusts set up under the 1993 Te Ture Whenua Māori Act.  

And in 1993, Jim Bolger led the National Government that passed this act. One can hardly blame Labour or the Greens for this one. And in the last 30-odd years, it has not been repelled.

Mr Dawson claims there are non-elected Māori on our councils. Can he name these councils?  

It is true that some Māori children are getting $4 lunches. These meals are prepared by the iwi or hapu, not by the Government’s bulk supplier.  

As a supporter of education for all, I fail to see the problem with school lunches.

Hungry children do not learn well, which means they will probably not succeed in our education system.  

This creates problems in the future.  I am sure most would agree that a $3 or $4 lunch now is a good investment, considering the future costs of poor education, up to an including $150,000 per year to house and feed our prisoners.

Add to that the likely healthy effects on poorly educated people.  And finally, the results of poor educational achievement mean lower employment outcomes, reducing the earning power, and therefore the taxpaying power.

All in all, school lunches are a great investment for the future.  

Mr Dawson’s letter claims that Internet NZ supports co-governance and employees must comply with the Treaty or find another job.  

The National Government supported co-governance, and set up one of the first co-governance structures (even if they did not call it that). The obvious case is the local co-governance structure to administer Te Urewera was set up in 2014 – by the John Key National-led government.  

Two years ago, former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson (National) said of co-governance, “just get on with it”.  (Available online).  

Mr Dawson can hardly blame co-governance on Labour, the Greens or Te Pati Māori.  

Yes, the Oranga Project was given $4 million to research kauri dieback, but not all of it was spent playing whale songs to the trees.

The $4 million was less than 12 percent of the total of what was spent on this research.

Māori are not claiming 90 percent of the foreshore and seabed.  Some may still want to push that claim, but it has long been settled.

The claim is so generalised it includes Māori such as Winston Peters, Shane Jones and maybe David Seymour. I don’t think that any of those Māori are making such a claim.  

Mr Dawson’s railing against Treaty courses for professionals seems misplaced in his lived context.  

The population of the Beacon’s circulation area is 59 percent Māori (Whakatāne 48.6 percent, Ōpōtiki 63.7 percent, Kawerau 61.7 percent). Clearly the majority in this region are Māori – the dominant culture of the Eastern Bay.

In such a situation, don’t people working here need to at least be functional in the dominant culture of the region?

And it is about culture, not about ethnicity. The difference can sometimes escape people.  

Our population statistics foreshadow a coming future for our country – when the dominant culture is Polynesian (Māori and Pasifika).  This is predicted to occur within the lifetimes of some people reading this.  In 2022, the birth rate for Māori people was 79.3 births per 1000 women of reproductive age, the birth rate for European or other women was 49.3 births per 1000 women of reproductive age, and the birth rate for Pacific peoples was 70.1 births per 1000 women of reproductive age, while the birth rate for Asian women was 50.3 births per 1000 women of reproductive age.

The birth rate for European descent women (commonly called Pākehā) is below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, with a rate of 1.75, which means the Pākehā population is decreasing while the Polynesian population is increasing.  

How can we best prepare our population for the time when the dominant culture is Polynesian?  

Having worked in education, the purpose of such courses is for people to understand.

There is a difference between understanding and believing. Only religious courses, such as those taught in seminaries and/or aimed at a religious vocation, require belief. All others only require understanding.

So, with our population statistics, any professional is more likely to be dealing with people of Māori descent than non-Māori. Being able to do so clearly and easily is beneficial for the business.  

And finally, a return to First Past the Post elections would be a disaster for our country.

Previous FFP elections have produced many governments which did not gain a majority of the votes – and therefore were not elected by a majority of New Zealanders.

Mr Dawson claims there are great divisions and civil unrest in our country.

I fail to see it, unless he is referring to the hikoi in response to David Seymour’s bill, or the protests here over the closure of Whakatāne Hospital obstetric services.  

There is certainly a very vocal minority (I suspect around 6-7 percent, the current polling of the Act party).

But I am not sure that such a low number counts as civil unrest.

I Stuart