Summarised by Centrist
Free speech advocate Ani O’Brien says elites are branding Richard Prebble an “extremist” after he resigned from the Waitangi Tribunal, calling it a move to turn the Treaty into a socialist manifesto.
O’Brien calls this elitist gatekeeping.
His past stance on Treaty settlements was echoed by Helen Clark’s Labour government, which set a deadline for historical claims in 2008. Yet Clark is no extremist.
O’Brien writes, “What the magisterium-style elites cannot stand is that he does not agree with the narrative that has been constructed around Māori not ceding sovereignty and the political movement propping up Matike Mai and He Puapua.”
She notes that Dame Anne Salmond led the charge against Prebble, claiming he lacked the “basic qualification” to speak on the Treaty.
Prebble, a former Labour and ACT MP, holds degrees in law and history and has advised Māori trusts, hapū, and iwi pro bono. Critics claim he’s unqualified on the Treaty, yet his parliamentary career was deeply engaged with it. Married to Māori journalist Ngahuia Wade, he is neither uninformed nor culturally disconnected.
According to O’Brien, elites seek to discredit people like Prebble because: “They have to show that everyone who TRULY understands the Treaty and its history agrees with them. Everyone else is an uneducated racist buffoon. It is a strategy that betrays the weakness of their positions and their own lack of confidence in what they espouse.”
