THE Kiwi “Voice” bureaucracy, otherwise known as “co-governance” operatives, are on a vandalistic rampage against “colonial vegetation” ie the century-old oak, pine and other European tree species that partially cover old volcanic cones across the city of Auckland.

Strangely enough, the indigenous wildlife doesn’t mind perching or nesting in exotic tree species but they don’t get a say in this and, ironically, have lost swathes of their habitat as the rabid neo-Marxists attack the imperialist trees that invaded the pristine landscape a century or so ago.

In Auckland a “co-governance” body called Tupuna Maunga Authority (TMA) is now in charge of these little mountains. They are made up of six tribal (iwi) representatives and six representing “the other people of Auckland”, as they are officially referred to. The non-Maori representatives are people who are actually elected council representatives. The “iwi” are appointed by themselves because they are at least part indigenous, and this makes them special, apparently.

According to the TMA in a media statement replacing exotic trees with natives on an Auckland volcanic cone will restore and enhance its “wairua and mauri”, which for the uninitiated means “spiritual essence and life force”. According to this new indigenous regime, such concepts are only understood by and affect indigenous people – or at least the part of their genetic make-up that is not English, Irish, Scottish or otherwise.

Dominic Wilson, TMA’s head of co-governance, told media in 2021: “The mana whenua world view is that the maunga (mountains) are distinct from other parks and open spaces, in that they are wāhi tapu – sites of immense spiritual, ancestral, cultural, customary, and historical significance to mana whenua.”
This is the standard indigenist spiel whether North American Indian, Australian Aborigine or New Zealand Maori or anywhere else facing this same UNDRIP political operation.

This “indigenous” (in reality Marxist-globalist) takeover of geographical features in New Zealand and Australia has been targeting so-called “sacred mountains” for some time now, starting with Ayres Rock/Uluru and now affecting other locations across the country including rocky climbing peaks in Western Victoria, Mt Warning in NSW and now the Glasshouse Mountains in Queensland.

But as suggested by Reality Check Radio host Paul Brennan, there’s something symbolic about chopping down non-native trees. Brennan is right, because destruction of colonialist history is part of the Marxist program. The Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters who went on a rampage across the US and UK in the summer of 2020 made a point of attacking and toppling statues of historic figures in public parks.

Auckland’s volcanic cones were handed over to Maori trusts under the so-called Treaty of Waitangi settlements and are now managed under the co-governance system, which is little more than “indigenised” corporate control, in this case with the City of Auckland municipality. And of course the weak-kneed council bureaucrats go along with the UN-endorsed, politically correct program.

Auckland woman Averil Norman told Brennan the “iwi” plans to return the cones to a “pre-European state” involved the removal of 2200 mature trees, many more than 100 years old. In December 2019 she and her husband took the TMA and council to court and lost a judicial review. Then in March 2022 they won on appeal to stop the tree removals.

But this month the tree removals started again on Mt Richmond, Otahuhu. The TMA simply ignored the court ruling because it claimed it obtained a resource consent (permit) from the city in September 2021 to remove 300 exotic trees for “health and safety reasons”.

The TMA had already removed a grove of 100 olive trees at the same location, where native owls roosted. Mrs Norman said other exotic trees that had been removed were a nesting area for herons. The TMR has a budget of $28 million a year or $40,000 a week per mountain for maintenance – provided by Auckland ratepayers.

When TMA got resource consent in September 2021, residents of Otahuhu had the opportunity to object, but had no funds to fight the inevitable legal battles so they had to let it go.