pn846. One-eyed, Ultra-Right-Wing, Violently Anti-Māori, Essentially Anti-Intellectual. There is No debate. Everything is Black or White, literally.

 

Dr Muriel Newman

Last week I very nearly made a mistake by  published ­­the results of a Roy Morgan poll which showed National and Act ahead of Labour and the Greens. Then I saw it was conducted in December last year, well before the recent Kantar poll that showed Labour and the Greens still well ahead. 

 But this did not stop Dr Muriel Newman publishing the December  poll in her blog Breaking News! yesterday, with no mention of the Kantar poll. She wrote "This week we examine Labour's fall in the polls". Incredible!  

I was surprised Bryce Edwards' NZ Political Daily provided a hyperlink to her piece today.  His site provides useful links to mainstream articles and only occasionally to reasonably moderate  blogs such as Kiwiblog, Politik, and The Conversation.  Opening the door to the likes of Newman is something of an unwelcome precedent.

Why unwelcome? 

Because her NZ Centre for Political Research (previously Political Debate) and her blog are not the independent think tanks they claim to be.  It may seem hyperbole to say they are one-eyed, ultra-right-wing, violently anti-Māori and essentially anti-intellectual. But they are. There is no debate. Everything is black or white.

Trump-like supporters in NZ, Part II: NZ Centre for Political Research, One NZ Party (pn684)

Dr Muriel Newman

     NOTE the new bird, the Tui, next to the title.

Two weeks ago I published the first in this series on Trump-like supporters in NZ, dealing with Don Brash and his Hobson's Pledge. It was a response to an article by Chris Trotter who thought "the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding". I thought otherwise.  "I don't find it that astounding. Indeed, if you look beyond and behind the largely lumpen-proletariat who comprise the face of Trump supporters you'll find a much more surprising number of highly educated New Zealanders who support  much of what Trump represents" (pn671). 

 Since then, we have had two instances of overt anti-Māori , and Trump-like,  behaviour, the first by John Banks who referred to today's Māori  "stone age culture"(pn677), the other by Don Brash who, for the moment, seems to have been successful in preventing a Māori  ward in Tauranga  (pn678).   It was refreshing to read other views as part of the Waitangi Day celebrations (pn683).