AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
My comments last week about Waitangi Day, and the need for a thorough process of constitutional review towards making this country an independent republic in the Commonwealth, and changing the name of our national day along the way attracted the ire of someone called Tapu Misa in the New Zealand Herald (at least she was brave enough to put her name to her column) and some emboldened, but anonymous, editorial writer for the DominionPost, against whom no such accusation could ever be made. Both totally missed the point I was making about the need for widespread constitutional change. Instead they found it easier to sneer that my call to rename Waitangi Day was contrary to the “spirit” of the Treaty of Waitangi. (Now, what on earth does that mean? Surely we have not now moved on from the vagueness of Treaty “principles” to the even vaguer adherence to its “spirit”?). Moreover, they both argued a bit of dissent and argument on our national day was no bad thing, and showed how grown up we were as a nation. (So the best families are those that fight amongst themselves on birthdays? I must remember that.)
As I say, the point about Treaty “spirit” is no more than the type of meaningless mumbo jumbo one expects to drip from neo-populist columnists’ pens, while the suggestion that dissent is a normal part of the way countries celebrate their national days is simply fatuous and says more about the intellectual infirmity of its author than anything else. Be all that as it may, neither were points that I was making. I was arguing for a much broader and more determined process of constitutional review that appears to be on offer at present. A sophist deal between the National and Maori parties that enables both to save face on the future of the Maori seats is hardly that. Yet it is apparently something we are supposed to hail.
After the level of Ms Misa’s and the DominionPost’s analysis and the usual round of “fresh, young country at the crossroads, bravely facing the future, marching forwards hand-in-hand” type speeches of recent days, I am for the first time feeling somewhat disheartened about the prospect of real constitutional change in our country. It might require too much thinking. And besides, the Wellington Sevens and beating the Aussies was much more fun over a long weekend.