For your weekend read: it all started over five years ago, when TRM’s famous book, “TONGARIRO Skulduggery“, prophesised the removal of the Waitangi Tribunal. Now another political party has announced a major new policy reform targeting the Waitangi Tribunal. I daren’t name them, as they intend to strip the Tribunal of its contemporary jurisdiction and disestablish it entirely once historical settlements are concluded. Great! We wonder if they adopted the plot from TRM’s book, since the report reviewing the Tribunal hasn’t been released yet?
Of course, the book was promoted and sold as a fictitious “mockumentary” to tease the bureaucracy and avoid liability for legal action. But now some twisted troublemakers have taken it far more seriously, as shown by their howls of protest at the suggestion to disestablish the Tribunal. It took until last year for them to rediscover TRM’s plot when the Government called for a review of the Tribunal. The review has still not been officially published. This will be a major turning point for democratic accountability and equal rights in New Zealand.
Normally TRM’s posts would never dream of dabbling in the mysteries of politics, but we were caught up by the book’s plot, published in 2020 during the COVID crisis, when negotiations to pay me compensation in 20 various ways included removing the Tribunal. So what has this to do with TRM reports?
For over 20 years, TRM has posted these fishy reports on our website, but an organised rabble of objectors now claim we racists had a sneaky political motive all along. I have been advised they are impossible to negotiate with, so rather than argue, we take the easy option and accept we must be guilty. How can I deny it? It is in the book.
In the last month or so, these accusers posted some nasty blogs which listed racism tendancies amongst my many crimes, plus stalking young boys, being dirty, anti-Maori, lacking respect for guests, spreading political propaganda and misleading information in posts for the last 20+ years, etc., but worst of all, using TRM blogs to encourage readers to vote for someone other than their Maori party, so how could I argue?
Most readers will confirm my devious duplicity after reading about the T2T (Turangi to Taupo) bike trail proposal for many years. Now, in this week’s authoritative political Taupō & Tūrangi Times, a feature article on our MP for Taupō, Louise Upston (Tongariro photo below from August 2020), confirms she is still committed to upgrading State Highway 1 between Taupō and Tūrangi, so we cannot deny having dabbled in political issues before by promoting the T2T bike trail ahead of her, in 2007! What a wonderful MP!
Despite Council’s reluctance to commit, TRM has promoted the need for TDC to fund a tourist bike trail to Taupō for about 19 years. Once again, we are able to provide photo evidence of Louise Upston inspecting the proposed bike trail route at the Pillars of Hercules bridge in 2007, which proves that we have been politically active on projects to help Turangi and the Tongariro River for at least 19 years. Oh, the shame…
But did you know she negotiated the TONGARIRO Skulduggery deal for the Government? For that, she gets our vote.
But these other so-called political excursions such as the bike trails never attracted such crass critical abuse before either. Naturally, I sought professional advice from TRM’s senior political advisor, SWMBO, who recommended ignoring them. Then we checked with TRM staff as they knew who some of these people are and would be insulted as well. They agreed I should ignore them. I even checked with more knowledgeable neighbours who understand how the digital world works, and they also advised me to ignore them.
But that was too easy. Instead, I agreed with them. Then they can’t argue! And then I can mention it again without worrying about them…
A guest trying to be inconspicuous, parked outside of Unit 6 back in 2017.
To show their frustration at the delay in the Tribunal review over the last couple of months, a tiny band of Maori protestors have directed their venom at TRM to try to destroy our reputation. As expected, they have failed, but again displayed their lack of understanding of history. They only understand their biased version.
The vast majority of TRM viewers have confirmed they fully support this step. While our long-held position has been the complete abolition of the Waitangi Tribunal, our stance has always been rooted in properly finishing genuine historical redress. The newly announced policy aligns directly with that principle.
The Tribunal’s original purpose was to assist with historical redress and determine where the Crown may have breached rights. But the institution operating today is unrecognisable. The Tribunal has morphed into an activist body that continually interferes with decisions made by democratically elected governments.
Instead of focusing on past grievances, the Tribunal regularly passes judgment on modern-day government policy, attempting to steer executive decisions that belong strictly to Parliament and the voters.
Just about every decision it renders goes against the Crown, revealing a biased, expensive, and expanding waste of taxpayer money.
Just in recent months, the Waitangi Tribunal has been investigating the Government’s education changes, its decision to clarify Treaty clauses in legislation, disability support and more. These are matters for our democratically elected Parliament to debate and consider, not for an activist Tribunal trying to insert itself onto TV news.
If, like me, you are still struggling with the various interpretations of the Treaty, this is the best reference: The Treaty of Waitangi, written by lawyer and Member of Parliament Sir Apirana Ngata in 1922, sets the record straight about the original meaning of the Maori version of the Treaty. It challenges the re-interpretations activists use to justify their “Te Tiriti” Treaty ‘partnership’ fabrication and undemocratic co-governance.
To help the protestors, this matter was subject to a recent post by TRM on August 24, as follows:
Where is the Waitangi Tribunal review?
Above: Ngātokimatawhaorua (the world’s largest ceremonial waka taua, measuring about 35 meters long and weighing 12 tons). Built for the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
TRM questioned:
TRM blogs usually focus on trout fishing or the Tongariro River and other tourist stuff. However, following the recent promotion of TRM’s best-selling TONGARIRO Skulduggery book, certain readers have also jumped at the opportunity to review our innocent intentions. As such, we must respond.
It all started after the last copy sold in 2026, as the demand increased from guests who had started reading the copy provided in their unit and wanted to buy their own book to finish the tale. When advised that we were sold out, they pinched the unit copy instead. So to discourage them from pilfering, we ordered another print run.
This interesting book was originally published five years ago during COVID as a bit of fun poking at the many curious idiosyncrasies that surround the trout fishing politics on the Tongariro River. We called it a “Mockumentary” as that is exactly what it was.
With the wonderful benefit of hindsight, I guess I was a bit too casual and never anticipated that the moment anyone dares to question historic matters, such as whether or not Māori were the first settlers here, we would immediately get branded as racists. If you imagine this is an exaggeration, TRM was attacked by a local Māori Trust last month for posting a 14-year-old photo of a local meeting house.
For the sake of the book plot, the Government had agreed on mutually agreed compromised compensation to fund a schedule of twenty improvements needed in Turangi, including everything from restoring lost angler access tracks to forming new tourist bike trails to DGLT (Destination Great Lake Taupo) to prepare and fund a comprehensive 30-year business plan to promote Turangi as “The Trout Fishing Capital of the World”. So you can interpret the general tone was not too serious.
But Item 13 was! It recommended abolishing the Waitangi Tribunal!
The accompanying notes suggested “it was considered completely obsolete. Others have accurately referred to it as the grievous industry and a gravy train. Too many legal consultants (?) had abused the Tribunal to generate excessive professional fees. After forty years, it has served its primary function. Some tribes had received several full and final settlements. It was now too late for more iwi to manufacture more claims, etc.”
Other tabled evidence that upset TRM’s objectors was from the “Truth & Reconciliation Commission” in South Africa, which had a similar role to the Waitangi Tribunal. In far more difficult and challenging conditions, it was wound down after five years, as it had completed its task.
Perhaps we should not have been surprised at the huge level of response, which suggests readers may be more interested in the wider politics involved in a recent review of the Waitangi Tribunal. So the following newspaper article is today’s “fishing report”. We call it fishing for the truth…
(The public dangers and threat to cultural relations were made clear in the recent ban on TRM’s website blog from showing any photos of a local meeting house, so it will be interesting if the ban also applies to the image below of the Waitangi Meeting House…)
Unreleased review recommends Waitangi Tribunal keep key power
Nearly a year after a major review into the jurisdiction and powers of the Waitangi Tribunal reported back to ministers, Cabinet has yet to make a final decision on how to respond. I think that means the report did not tell them what they wanted to know.
Behind the scenes, there are still disagreements over the extent to which the tribunal’s powers should be reformed. The National-NZ First coalition agreement commits the Government to “amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation”.
But it is interesting to ponder how the Government could advise that the review, which has not been publicly released, does not recommend removing the tribunal’s ability to launch kaupapa, or topic-based, inquiries, when it has not been released and they claim not to have read it? It’s called politics… But New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones says he is pushing for that change.
