Maoris get more say than anyone, actually

Richard Treadgold | January 12, 2013
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The unique and enchanting Maori method of making friends with you. Much as I love them, they don’t deserve, they haven’t established a right to and should not claim special political privileges. The IPCC is deeply misguided to allege that Maoris suffer under “inequalities in political representation,” for the exact opposite is true. Maoris and their supporters should be consistent, and acknowledge for others the same democratic rights they claim for themselves. Granting rights to representation on the basis of race only leads us down the same obnoxious path as South Africa’s apartheid.

Our friend Warwick Hughes draws our attention to a section of the AR5 which features the Maoris. Not New Zealanders, note, but Maoris.

In it, the IPCC expresses particular concern for Maoris, who, they predict, will be disadvantaged by the progressively worsening effects of anthropogenic global warming. They claim that Maoris’ “choices and actions continue to be constrained by … inequalities in political representation.”

Warwick raises his eyebrows at this and asks whether climate change is a hot topic in Maori society. But the allegation of inequality is so far from true that we can only jeer. Read more… »

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