Let The People Free

The Green Party's call for Kiwis to consume themselves in a vast national hui is the same 1960's student dogma the Prime Minister believes in - somehow, if people only talk long enough, they'll come to agree with their leaders, ACT New Zealand Maori Affairs Spokesman Stephen Franks said today.

"We've politely listened to arcane drivel about the Treaty for 20 years. No amount of `partnership processes', `protocols' or other preaching will make us want to endure more," Mr Franks said.

"The Greens' dialogue will be with people like themselves. We don't want to see our neighbours in race terms first - and only after that as fellow Kiwis, residents, shoppers, churchgoers, sports fans, drivers, and other things we do as equal citizens of this country.

"We've had enough mystifying Treaty references in school charters, nurses' job descriptions, and laws and regulations of every kind. We've been treading water while Asia and the world caught up and overtook, for two decades.

"Even the patient ordinary New Zealander is saying, `I've had enough. I want to live in a country where race is irrelevant, where the law treats everyone with scrupulous equality, where there is enough freedom for each of us to choose to express our culture, religion and other values so long as they do not interfere with others.'

"Two years ago, in the Justice and Electoral Select Committee, I tried to get an inquiry into the Treaty's fake principles. I hoped it would allow the Greens, Labour and New Zealand First - who have been voting for these principles - to see just how obscure they are, and how little the people understood. Now it's too late.

"The Labour and Green members of the Select Committee blocked it. Now it's too late. I believe people have made up their minds. No amount of sanctimonious lecturing from on high will get them to vote for politicians who think they need even more of it," Mr Franks said.

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