We expect a chorus of indignation and outrage swelling to a climactic crescendo in Parliament this week. Something truly terrible has happened in the land--the kind of thing so bad that mothers clutch their children to their breasts in mortal dread.
A Maori tribe has sold--yes sold!--land given to it as part of a treaty settlement. Te Uri o Hau was awarded some land near Mangawhai just north of Auckland which consisted of 616 hectares of forest in prime coastal land. They are selling off a third (230 hectares). Who is going to stand up to protest?
Well, we expect that the Mana Party, the Green Party, and probably the Maori party are going to express moral outrage at the betrayal of Maori being disenfranchised from their land with which they have a deep spiritual connection, and in communion with which Maori hear the ancient spirits talking to them.
Now it will be gone for good. With whom will the mokopuna--and generations yet to come--commune now? Their birthright is being stripped from them. They will be alienated from their own Maoritanga. We expect the Maori Council will rush the now well-beaten path to court seeking an injunction to stop the sale.
But wait. It's worse. Is that possible? Alas, it is. The traitorous hapu, Te Uri o Hau have sold the land to foreigners. To outsiders. Expect Winston Peters, the champion of national economic autarky, to arise to his feet in Parliament and thunder against precious coastal land being alienated from the people of New Zealand and sold to foreigners. The grossly incompetent Overseas Investment Office approved the sale. The government is betraying us all.
Peters will be followed hard on heels by David Shearer, leader of the Labour Party decrying not just the destruction of prime forest in order to clear the land for sale--a traitorous economic act to be sure--but to see the Chinese in control of coastal land just north of Auckland where Aucklanders love to slurp coffee and wine in boutique sea side cafes of a weekend is just too much for the ordinary Kiwi bloke to stomach. It's an insult to our national mana and confirms that the Government is indeed betraying us all.
One of his colleagues will whisper in Shearer's ear that his press secretary had it wrong. The land had not been sold to the Chinese. It has been sold to an American. Ah, well. That's different. But no. Wait. Not just any American--a multi-billionaire. An exploiter of the downtrodden masses. This odious man is taking precious land from poor, animist, taniwha loving Maori and using it for his own exploitative venal purposes. Marx and Lenin and Mickey Savage would be turning in their graves.
Before Shearer has even had a chance to wipe the egg off his face and sit down, Red Russel, co-leader of the Greens will join the fray. Russel cites reliable sources that have told him the purchaser of the land, Mr Kayne an odious man from California who runs a firm called Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors (and doesn't that name say it all, Mr Speaker) is not just a capitalist exploiter, he is a climate desecrater. I have been told, Mr Speaker he insisted that the land be cleared of trees before he expropriated it from New Zealanders. The global warming meter has gone off the scale. The wicked Mr Kayne is willingly complicit in the destruction of the planet. And he is coming to live here! In New Zealand. What will that do, Mr Speaker to our Clean Green brand? Huh? Have you thought of that Mr Speaker? Oh, sorry. Of course you have not. You cannot think. I rest my case. Anyone who disagrees with me or doesn't understand my soaring logic cannot think by definition. I am my own self-autheticator of my own facts. No-one else counts.
Will we hear the chorus? No. Not at all. We will be deafened by silence. But if Mr Kayne had in fact been the CEO of KungShu Capital Advisers, out of Beijing we would have required ear plugs to get some rest. Therein lies exposed the jingoistic hypocrisy of the raggle taggle collage of opposition parties masquerading as national leaders in our Parliament. Their hypocritical silence serves as loud and clear condemnation.
Meanwhile, let's give genuine credit where it is due. Firstly, a big thumbs up to Te Uri o Hau which sold the land in the first place. With an eye to prospering their own, they plan to use the proceeds to invest further into dairying, where, they argue they have more competitive strengths. Moreover, they believe, according to the NZ Herald, that under Mr Kayne's ownership the local community would benefit substantially from the sale.
Te Uri o Hau said the development . . . would add about $5.9 million to the local economy and the complex would create about 30 jobs.What development? What complex? Hah. An international golf course (a la Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs). Now you are talking! Top marks Te Uri o Hau. More power to you. Thanks, boys. Job well done.
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