Hobsons Pledge is reasonably happy .

[tripple alliance 1,215]

Here's Hobsons Pledge interpretation of todays events and well done Casey Costello she's  sure to make a very competent minister . E MAIL X Hobsons pledge .

We have a coalition government!

We've spent the past few hours going through the agreements between Act, NZ First, and National, as well as the ministerial appointments, with a fine-tooth comb so we can provide you with the highlights.

First of all, I’m sure I speak for all those who have supported Hobson’s Pledge since our formation in 2016 when I say how absolutely delighted we are that Casey Costello has not only been elected to Parliament but has stepped right into a ministerial role inside Cabinet.

Casey will be Minister for Seniors, Minister of Customs, and Associate Minister for Health, Immigration, and Police.

We can be confident that there will be at least one minister at the Cabinet table speaking up for what we stand for!

The three parties have agreed to 'On-going Decision-Making Principles' to underpin their work together. I want to draw your attention to the principle they are calling 'Pro-democracy':

"upholding the principles of liberal democracy, including equal citizenship, parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law and property rights, especially with respect to interpreting the Treaty of Waitangi."

Reading this in the list of 8 principles, I couldn't help but feel hopeful about the rest of the document. And that hope wasn't misplaced. Both the Act/National and the NZ First/National coalition agreements have significant policies for Hobson's Pledge supporters.

NZ First/National: 

• Abolish the Māori Health Authority.
• Commit that the name of New Zealand will not change unless a referendum is conducted.
• Ensure all public service departments have their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Māori.
• Require the public service departments and Crown Entities to communicate primarily in English.
• The Coalition Government will defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law, with the same rights and obligations, and with the guarantee of the privileges and responsibilities of equal citizenship in New Zealand.
• ...will not advance policies that seek to ascribe different rights and responsibilities to New Zealanders on the basis of their race or ancestry.
• Commitment to remove co-governance from the delivery of public services.
• ...it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race.
• Restore the right to a local referendum on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards, including requiring a referendum on any wards established without referendum at the next Local Body elections.
• Stop all work on He Puapua.
• ...the Coalition Government does not recognise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as having any binding legal effect on New Zealand.
• Amend section 58 of the Marine and Coastal Area Act to make clear Parliament’s original intent.
• Conduct a comprehensive review of all legislation that includes “The Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” and replace all such references with specific words relating to the relevance and application of the Treaty, or repeal the references.

Act/National (we won't repeat the policies already mentioned above):

• Restore balance to the history curriculum.
• Examine the Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme (MAPAS).
• Immediately issue stop-work notices on Three Waters (with assets returned to council ownership).
• Uphold the principles of liberal democracy, including equal citizenship and parliamentary sovereignty.
• Ensure government contracts are awarded based on value, without racial discrimination.
• Issue a Cabinet Office circular to all central government organisations that it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race, within the first six months of Government.
• Repeal the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Act 2022.
• Introduce a Treaty Principles Bill based on existing ACT policy and support it to a Select Committee as soon as practicable.

Notable ministerial appointments:

• Simeon Brown - Local Government
• Paul Goldsmith - Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations
• Judith Collins - Attorney-General
• Tama Potaka - Conservation, Māori Crown Relations

As you can see, we have a lot to be excited about. However, there are a few areas of weakness that we will be keeping our eyes on. Most obvious, is the specific language of removing co-governance from public service. That wording leaves room for co-governance of natural resources which the Prime Minister has previously expressed a willingness to continue.

Tama Potaka will be a minister to watch as he is the new Minister of Conservation and will have direct involvement with co-governance arrangements in places like the Ureweras. He is also the Minister of Māori Crown Relations.

It is disappointing to see the concessions David Seymour had to make regarding Act's proposed referendum on the Treaty Principles. However, the Treaty Principles Bill being supported to select committee will allow Hobson's Pledge and all our supporters to make sure we are heard. We will keep you in the loop with this bill when it appears.

These commitments and agreements are only worth the paper they are written on until they are actioned. It is crucial that we don't get complacent and take our eye off the ball. We need to be ticking each thing off the list until we can safely say that New Zealand is a nation where people are treated equally before the law.

We also need to be vigilant for anything that councils are sneaking through while the Government is getting established. Up and down the country there have been last ditch attempts to bring in Māori wards and race-based rights. I will email you in the next couple of days about one such matter.

I hope this summary has been helpful and that you get behind the Hobson's Pledge team as we hopefully see these changes implemented swiftly!

Many thanks,

Don Brash
Trustee
Hobson’s Pledge

 

[HVE 0]

CHB District Council just brought in Maori wards only 2 weeks ago. So true  the statement of last ditch attempt. No referendum whatsoever:-(

[tripple alliance 1,215]

18 hours ago, HVE said:

CHB District Council just brought in Maori wards only 2 weeks ago. So true  the statement of last ditch attempt. No referendum whatsoever:-(

Same here if a referendum is forced the cost should come out of the pockets of those who voted for this they know what the new governments position is  on this and once again we see the word , partner just complete bullshit .

21 November 2023

Hutt City Councillors have voted to create a Māori Ward for the 2025 local government elections.

Mayor Campbell Barry said the decision taken by Council today to establish a Māori Ward represented Council’s ongoing commitment to bring Māori voices into the heart of our decision-making in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai, Lower Hutt.

"Over recent years we have been focused on deepening our relationship with our Mana Whenua partners and Māori across our city. Establishing a Māori Ward is the right next step to deepen and build on what we’ve done so far.

"I look forward to seeing a Māori Ward councillor around the council table from 2025, and to work with them and our Mana Whenua partners to advance the wellbeing of Māori and all those who live in our city."

[tripple alliance 1,215]

Real estate issues , brainwashing .Latest E Mail .

Just a quick update on Janet's situation.

As I shared with you previously, the Real Estate Authority (REA) said they were going to cancel real estate agent Janet Dickson's licence for five years because she would not take a compulsory Māori culture course. 

Then, the real estate company she worked for decided to terminate her contract. We couldn’t share this with you at the time because it was important for Janet’s lawyers to try to save her ability to earn a living. Thankfully, they were successful and she has been offered her role back. 

Her legal team have also ensured that Janet will remain licensed until the outcome of the High Court proceedings. The hearing will be in June so she can keep working at least until the decision.

Hobson’s Pledge supporters like you got in behind Janet. You’ve ensured that she wasn’t forced to cave in the face of the REA’s decision to go down the track of expensive litigation. Janet could not be more grateful to her lawyers, and to you who made it possible.

The REA isn’t making things easy for Janet though. They’ve applied for what is called "security for costs". This says they think that Janet won’t be able to pay up if she loses. They claim that only Janet benefits from winning the case, dismissing the great public interest in the case, including public support from the Deputy Prime Minister. They are also ignoring the many other real estate agents in the same boat. We’ve heard from a number of them.

We cannot understand how the REA can think that it is serving its proper purposes, or helping real estate customers and agents, in using its powers and funds to suppress dissent, instead of welcoming a chance to have the court decide who is right on the proper scope of its powers.

The next phase for the legal team is preparing for her judicial review. Meanwhile, Hobson’s Pledge is looking to find out if other Kiwis are experiencing similarly outrageous situations with their employers and licensing bodies. We are hearing that this goes far beyond the real estate field and that professions of all kinds are abusing their powers to force licencees into brain-washing with ideological cultural training.  

We’ve been told that lawyers, teachers, doctors, nurses, and public service workers are all under this kind of pressure.

Send me a message if you have an experience that you would be willing to share with us. We can redact names and identifying details if need be.

As you can see, without the backing of our supporters Janet would not have had the excellent legal representation. It has proven its value already.

It makes me proud to see how Hobson’s Pledge can contribute to not only influencing policy and legislation, but also can actively protect democratic freedoms for a Kiwi who is standing up against the racialized politics we fight to resist.

Don Brash,   Hobson's Pledge <hello@hobsonspledge.nz>

[Ohokaman 6,313]

Time they did something about this bullshit.  Try getting Maoris to take a compulsory European culture course….

The Real Estate industry has been a financial rort for too long.

In America agents commissions have just been scrapped and long overdue….

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/6-commission-fees-for-real-estate-agents-are-going-away-what-to-know-about-the-new-rule/5238942/

[Ohokaman 6,313]

Really quick note - Janet has had another victory! 

The Real Estate Authority's application for an order that Janet Dickson put up $15,000 in security to pay the REA’s costs if they win has been DENIED by Justice Grau in the High Court.

The REA tried to argue that Janet Dickson doesn't have the means to pay costs should the case go against her and suggested that Hobson’s Pledge’s fundraising efforts indicated this.

Thankfully, the judge disagreed.

The REA have badly underestimated the frustrations of not only their own licensees, but also the strength of feeling on the matter in wider New Zealand. We saw in the response to our emails just how fed up supporters like you are with the forced indoctrination going on in workplaces.

On a personal note, I was really pleased to see that Hobson's Pledge is making a difference and has ensured that Janet is able to fight off these spurious litigious attempts to outspend her by an REA that has clearly lost its way.

This judgement demonstrates just how much merit there is in pursuing this judicial review. It is in the public interest and engages issues of rights protected under the Bill of Rights.

Of huge interest to us was the revelation in the judgement that there are 92 other real estate agents objecting to the imposition of the Te Kakano cultural training course! Incredibly, the REA tried to persuade the judge that this was not relevant because it is only “a small number”.

Janet is not alone as the REA would like her to think. This information should give confidence to any other real estate agents who would like to speak out but have been suppressed by the threat of job and licence loss. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if that is you. 

New Zealanders should be able to go to work without having highly politicised cultural ideas forced on them. No one should fear losing their livelihood because they don't agree with their employer's Treaty politics.

The fight goes on!

Thanks for your ongoing support,

[tripple alliance 1,215]

A good result so far  Ohokaman Hobsons pledge do a great jobH

 

[tripple alliance 1,215]

Have a read and then what happened next in following E Mail .

I have received several emails asking what Elliot and I wrote on behalf of Hobson's Pledge in our submission on the Fast Track Approvals Bill. I thought you might be interested too!

It is short and to the point and we will elaborate when we get a chance to speak to the select committee.

Submission on the Fast-track Approvals Bill by the Hobson’s Pledge Trust

• The Hobson’s Pledge Trust was founded in 2016 to promote the fundamental principle that all New Zealanders have equal political rights, as acknowledged in Article III of the Treaty of Waitangi. We named the organisation after Governor Hobson, who is understood to have said, as each chief signed the Treaty, “He iwi tahi tatou” (“We are now one people”).  We are convinced that acknowledging that equality of rights is the only way forward for a peaceful and harmonious New Zealand.

• From small beginnings, Hobson’s Pledge has grown to the point where some 130,000 people receive our regular emails.

• As an organisation, we take no position on the need for the Fast-track Approvals Bill. There is no doubt a wide range of strongly felt views on the Bill among our supporters.

• We respect the effort which the Bill makes to ensure that property rights are respected.

• But we are dismayed that the Bill gives a much greater priority to the rights of iwi than to the rights of other New Zealanders. The word “iwi” appears 56 times in the Bill, and the proposed four-person panels by which projects are to be evaluated are to include one person nominated by the relevant local authority and one person nominated by the relevant iwi. This apparent equivalence between local authorities and iwi authorities seems to us totally inappropriate, and is likely to result in the concerns of Maori New Zealanders being given much greater weight than the concerns of other New Zealanders.

• This not only causes us dismay: it also causes us surprise. During the election campaign, both the ACT Party and the New Zealand First Party made much of their commitment to equal citizenship.  In the coalition agreements which both parties signed with the National Party in the process of forming a Government, there were numerous quite specific promises to eliminate the racial preferences which have crept into New Zealand law in recent years.  The National Party’s constitution includes a specific commitment to “equal citizenship”, and of course it too was a party to the two coalition agreements which enabled the formation of the new Government.

• Clearly, in approving any new investment project under this Fast-track Approvals Bill Ministers must be mindful of the property rights of those New Zealanders who could be affected by the new project. But this principle should surely apply to all New Zealanders, whatever their ethnicity.  As drafted, the Bill fails to acknowledge that principle.

• We wish to appear before the Committee to present this submission.

[tripple alliance 1,215]

Ex Don Brash .

As I write this I still can't believe this has happened to us. We hear of political interference happening overseas, but today Hobson's Pledge has been the target.

Facebook has deleted all of our posts that sent supporters to submit on the Fast Track Approvals Bill including paid advertising we were running. 

At first our team thought there must have been an error and attempted to post again. It became clear that anytime we used the link to the Government website to make a submission on the Bill, Facebook either blocked us or removed the post minutes after it went up.

As we were aware that the Māori Party were also promoting submitting on the Bill, we checked out one of their posts and found that there we could access the Government submissions page with no problem at all. 

This is discrimination and political interference. Will you stand with us against it?

For a start Facebook should not be able to block links to the Government website and impede democratic engagement.

They certainly shouldn't be able to pick and choose which organisation can help their supporters to access the submissions page.

It is nearly impossible to reach an actual person at Facebook to ask what on earth is going on.

Are they taking stances on all political issues? Or is this something an individual staff member has taken it upon themselves to do? Maybe it is simply that their systems are vulnerable to bad faith activists overwhelming them?

We would love to know. 

We will be doing our best to follow up and ensure that this kind of thing doesn't continue to happen.

Every New Zealander should be free to encourage submissions and indeed to submit. We would never dream of attempting to prevent Māori Party supporters from having their say. We live in a democracy!

Don't let political interference get in the way of you having your say on the Fast Track Approvals Bill and opposing special rights for iwi when it comes to consultation and decision making.

CLICK HERE FOR THE BANNED GOVT SUBMISSION PAGE!

I cannot overstate how much of a political intrusion this is. Hobson's Pledge already experiences significant hostility from the media and we use emails and social media as a way to go around the patronising so-called fourth estate to reach New Zealanders.

For our ability to use social media to be threatened is truly concerning. In today's online world, it is an attack on our right to freely engage in politics. 

I will keep you updated on where this goes. If there is any action we can all take, you can expect an email straight away.