Jun 28, 2008

Does National Have A Cullen In Its Midst?

That is what John Armstrong asks this morning in the NZ Herald. He is not talking about the Cullen who criticises John Key for making historical comment that he has made himself, or the Cullen who has nationalised big chunks of the economy, or the Cullen who was ideologically opposed to tax cuts. He is talking about the Cullen who delivers big Treaty settlements.

The Hive sees a great working relationship between Iwi and National so is not quite understanding Armstrong's motivation here. Chris Finlayson was donkey deep in Treaty settlements as a barrister and was working for Iwi so that would be the first answer. We also recall that it was National who really started to get the Treaty settlement process going. Finally National is talking about productivity enhancing policies and getting the emissions trading scheme right. This will benefit Maori more than any other group given that they are more heavily involved in fisheries, forestry and agriculture than any other group in our society.