Equal rights? We're already ready, Bill

"New Zealand citizens have been ready for equal rights for a century and a half," reports Libertarianz spokesman Tim Wikiriwhi today, in response to Bill English's weekend comments. "It's a shame that it's taken this long for Bill to notice," says Wikiriwhi, "but thank the polls someone finally has!"

Wikiwirhi says that while NZ citizens have been ready for equal rights since 1840, it has taken the law a while to catch up - and in recent years "the law has been going rapidly backwards." The Maori Representation Act of 1867 he says was "purely a stop-gap measure to allow Maori suffrage while they were registered for electoral requirements. Only 12 years later did European males gain the same suffrage, when property qualifications were done away with, and only 36 years latter were gender qualifications done away with." Wikiriwh maintains it's now time to take the "necessary final step," and remove the Maori seats altogether. To continue with them, he claims, is to endorse apartheid.

"New Zealand citizens have been ready for equal rights since the birth of this nation," says Wikiriwhi. "It is the recognition of them that is long overdue. Libertarianz has been saying this for a long time now but if National want to turn up late to the party that's better than never turning up at all." Extending the olive branch, Wikiriwhi concludes that if Bill English is "serious about ending our sorry apartheid state, then other items from the book of Libertarianz Party policy are open to him."

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