The Minister for Crown-Maori Relations is due to report back to the Cabinet Crown-Maori Relations Committee this month, with a detailed guide for Ministers and agencies on an engagement model. This is following hui held around the country through April and May, seeking feedback on how to strengthen the relationship between the Crown and Maori. Continue reading

Our working group has been campaigning to have the new memorial plaque on the Ports of Auckland frontage removed and replaced with one that reflects the facts. As outlined in the August edition of our newsletter, the Ports of Auckland say they are happy with the wording on the plaque and do not intend to change it. The plaque erroneously states "Te Kawau gifted 3000 acres to establish the City of Auckland." It replaces a plaque which referred to a purchase rather than a gift. Continue reading

The final words go to Dr Muriel Newman, who wrote in her excellent article on the importance of protecting the right to freedom of speech, available HERE. Continue reading

Update on claims made under the Marine and Coastal Area Act The first of case management conferences in relation to 202 High Court applications filed under the Marine and Coastal Area Act 2011 have been held in various locations around New Zealand, overseen by the Honourable Justice Collins. The transcripts of these cases are available HERE. Continue reading

Bruce Moon, a retired physicist and avid historian, was invited by the Nelson Institute to give a talk at Nelson’s Elma Turner Library, on 8th April. He chose to speak on New Zealand's "fake history" related to Treaty of Waitangi issues, billed as “Twisting the Treaty and other fake history”. Continue reading

The Matapopore Charitable Trust Set was up in 2014 to give cultural advice on the Christchurch rebuild anchor projects. It has invoiced taxpayers and ratepayers for $2.5 million of consultancy work since then. Matapopore, which has a monopoly on Māori consultancy for the public anchor projects, describes itself as representing the iwi's "values, narratives and aspirations". Continue reading

New Zealand Refining has been granted resource consent to dredge the entrance to Whangarei Harbour, something it says will let larger crude cargoes of around 1 million barrels to be shipped to Marsden Point. As part of the consent the company will be making the following payments to a ‘Kaitiaki Group’: Continue reading

Auckland Councillor Mike Lee speaks out on the high stakes power play over ownership and control of the Hauraki Gulf, in an article first published in the Gulf News on 21 June.  “The Hauraki Gulf belongs to all of us and should not be handed over to a non-democratic elite and their consultant advocates”, writes Mike. Read Mike’s excellent article HERE. Continue reading

The new memorial plaque on the Ports of Auckland frontage, Quay St, states "Te Kawau gifted 3000 acres to establish the City of Auckland." It replaces a plaque which referred to a purchase rather than a gift. Factual evidence shows that there is no doubt the land was sold. In an attempt to set the record straight, several of our members have contacted the CEO of Ports of Auckland, Tony Gibson, requesting that the plaque be corrected to reflect the facts. Continue reading

Back in 2006, at the launch of the book ‘Public Policy and Ethnicity, the Politics of Ethnic Boundary Making’, Professor Elizabeth Rata warned that public policy, formed along racial rather than egalitarian lines, is undemocratic and that racial divisions, knitted into the culture by government funding policies, are undemocratic and dangerous. Continue reading