November 28, 2017
Brash defends history shocker Gallagher
Former National Party and ACT leader Don Brash is defending an attack on the Treaty of Waitangi reconciliation process by Waikato business leader Sir William Gallagher.
Sir William, the founder of electric fence pioneer Gallagher Group, told a Hamilton audience in Friday the Treaty of Waitangi is a farce.
To back up his arguments he cited Hobson's Pledge, the campaign founded by Mr Brash.
Mr Brash told Radio Waatea host Dale Husband Sir William was right in saying the official English version of the treaty was not the correct one – despite most historians and the courts discounting other versions.
He says interpretation of the treaty has been stretched to include the notion of partnership and the protection of a wide range of treasures or taonga.
"There are all sorts of definitions of taonga. Of course in the 1830s, 1840s, taonga was what you could protect with a spear – which was your land certainly and your whare and your marae or what have you. There is no reference to fisheries or forests, for example, in the treaty," Mr Brash says.
He says the fact Maori lag behind on health and wealth and make up a disproportionate percentage of those in prison can't be blamed on colonialism but on poor choices.
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