Yet again we have the settlement (sic) of a Maori land claim. This one involves $25 MILLION (how many more police would that put on the beat?), the inevitable apology and some of the most valuable land in Wellington, for which, we are assured, iwi will be excellent custodians. This Treaty Tribunal that considers such matters and by resolution makes recommendations to the Government; what do we know of them? We know they are political appointees; we assume they have a predisposition to such matters (which is to suggest a bias) and they are based in Wellington (so they are bored). But what is their mandate? What is their brief? What is their protocol? Am I too cynical in suggesting that their brief--indeed predisposition--is not so much to determine the validity of a claim as it is to determine how much? I get back to the point of an earlier Fryday: we are a small country with big issues. We cannot afford these treaty payouts. The money spent on them would be better spent on trying to rectify a broader breadth of social problems such as health, crime and education--in all of which Maoridom itself seems to be disproportionately represented. Maori are not being well served by these vacuous settlements, nor are the rest of us. Everybody hurts. Let's have that money spent where it will do most good. Maori can have the apology: coming from this politically correct, fashion-challenged prime minister it doesn't mean much anyway.
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