If maworeefication is a word...

What's the one for...

If 'Maworeefication' is a word, what's the one for:

My Great-grandmother's generation having their lands and homes confiscated, my Nana's generation being beaten for speaking their only language at school and being told to scrub the brown off their skin, my Dad's generation's names being changed by their teachers from Māori to English and having to pretend to be Spanish so they could get into establishments that didn't allow Māori... and then pretending all of that didn't happen so that when this generation (like those before) try to address some of those impacts, we get called activists and the songs we perform get called ‘a load of crap’?

What’s the word for leaders who only serve their own interests?

Or leaders responsible for taking us to a better tomorrow, who can’t see past today?

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Last month, the Leader of the House, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister - as in, the current leaders of our country and Government - showed us how little they understand about the world outside their bubble, or beyond their seat at an awards night.

The Leader of the House felt comfortable enough while sitting next to the Minister for Treaty Negotiations, to call a celebration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi the Aotearoa Music Awards, "a load of crap."

When asked about it, he said "I probably should have kept my thoughts to myself."

Not: 'maybe I should reconsider if celebrating the Treaty - a key component of our constitutional framework - is actually a load of crap.'

Not: ‘I know that within a couple of generations of the Treaty being signed to ensure Māori wouldn’t have to change who they were in our new nation, Māori children were beaten at school for speaking their own language, ancestral lands and homes were confiscated, and the document itself was put in a draw and literally lost for decades - so we all need reminding of its importance.’

Not: ‘I know the school system carried out the Government’s policies of assimilation, punished and traumatised Māori children for being themselves. I know those children then carried that experience through to become adults raising their own children still traumatised about their very identity and culture.

It wasn’t a surprising reminder. His last job before becoming an MP for National and Leader of the House... was lobbying the Government on behalf of the tobacco industry - ie. finding ways to get around any public opposition to how people are being harmed/killed by a $1.5 trillion dollar industry profiting more (literally their purpose).

The Deputy Prime Minister's only real comment on the Treaty being a load of crap, was "It may be that people will agree with him." and that people will make up their own minds.

The Actual Prime Minister didn't think it was worth commenting on at all.

These reminders are consistent. It's giving tobacco industry: If I'm not the one being harmed - why should I care? People can make up their own mind, right?

But that's the job of Government, and of any leader: to care not just about the people who look and think like you (even if that's who votes for you next time). Leadership means thinking about more than just yourself. It also means thinking further ahead than just today.

While giving us these reminders, these guys and Winston Peters agreed with ACT to introduce something called the Regulatory Standards Bill which in effect means all new laws, and those laws that currently exist, will need to be reviewed and approved by David Seymour's direction as Minister of Regulation and a Board he'll set up. It removes the current approach to law-making and replaces it with one from a guy who thought he should get to re-write what the Treaty means.

This bill will give the power to shape 100% of the actual laws we live by, to an extreme view party that 8% of the population voted for.

If you don't think that's a good idea - make a submission today. It takes 40 seconds to complete - you don't have to make an oral submission - just tick 'No' to that question.

Just click here to make a submission.

If you disagree with this bill you can copy and paste from here (you can add more if you’d like but you don’t need to):

Comment: I oppose this bill

Recommendation: This bill should not proceed

We have 3 days left to make a submission. If you don't, this bill will likely go ahead - and yeah that's 30 seconds of your life gone today but think about what tomorrow might look like if these are the guys re-defining and creating the laws our children and their environment are shaped by.

I’m sure you can find the time.