“The Global Heritage Foundation Blueprint: From Washington to Wellington” - 19 August 2025

Kia ora whānau. I greet you in the spirit of Te Ao Māori. I am Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern, kaitiaki exposing misinformation, white supremacy, racism, and neoliberalism.

Today I unveil a chilling analysis of how Project 2025's far-right agenda is being systematically implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand through our current National-ACT-NZ First coalition government. This is not coincidence - it is coordinated colonisation.

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's 922-page manifesto for conservative revolution, serves as the operational blueprint for dismantling democratic institutions and Indigenous rights worldwide. While the Heritage Foundation publicly distances itself from any single political party, the alignment between its objectives and the policies of New Zealand's coalition government reveals a troubling pattern of ideological coordination.rnz

The Heritage Foundation has been influencing Republican policies since the Reagan administration in the 1980s, developing what it calls "Mandate for Leadership" documents that provide detailed blueprints for conservative governments. Project 2025 represents their most comprehensive attempt yet to "institutionalize Trumpism" and export this authoritarian model globally.

What makes this particularly insidious is how these American far-right strategies are being adapted and implemented in Aotearoa New Zealand, targeting our unique Indigenous-settler political arrangements and democratic traditions.

Mapping the Implementation: Pattern Recognition Across Pacific Waters

Phase One: Democratic Dismantling and Administrative Capture

Project 2025's first objective is expanding presidential power while dismantling federal agencies. In Aotearoa, we see this through:

Regulatory Destruction: The coalition has established a Ministry for Regulation specifically to "cut red tape", directly echoing Project 2025's call to dismantle the administrative state. ACT leader David Seymour's Regulatory Standards Bill mirrors Heritage Foundation proposals to remove federal agencies' independence and install political loyalists.rnz

Public Service Politicisation: The government has implemented expenditure reduction targets for public sector agencies based on "back office head count" increases since 2017, directly paralleling Project 2025's plan to replace merit-based federal civil service workers with political appointees.

Democratic Process Circumvention: The coalition has used urgency to pass multiple pieces of legislation without proper scrutiny, including the Fair Pay Agreements repeal and Three Waters dismantling, mimicking the authoritarian tendencies outlined in Heritage Foundation planning.

Phase Two: Indigenous Rights Erasure

Project 2025 calls for ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while removing legal protections against discrimination. In Aotearoa, this translates to systematic attacks on Te Tiriti and tino rangatiratanga:

Treaty Principles Redefinition: ACT's Treaty Principles Bill seeks to redefine the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in ways that undermine Māori rights and disrupt established interpretations. This directly mirrors Project 2025's objective to eliminate DEI programs and prosecute what they call "anti-white racism".

Co-governance Elimination: The coalition has removed co-governance from public service delivery and disestablished the Māori Health Authority, echoing Project 2025's goal of dismantling programs that provide equitable representation for marginalized communities.

Language and Cultural Suppression: The government has mandated that public service departments communicate primarily in English except those specifically related to Māori, while requiring English names for government departments. This parallels the Heritage Foundation's broader agenda of cultural assimilation and erasure.

Phase Three: Economic Neoliberalism and Corporate Capture

Project 2025 advocates for reducing taxes on corporations, cutting social programs, and eliminating environmental regulations. The New Zealand coalition delivers through:

Deregulation Acceleration: The government has repealed multiple pieces of environmental and worker protection legislation, including the Clean Car Discount, Fair Pay Agreements, and Three Waters reforms. This aligns perfectly with Project 2025's goal of reducing environmental regulations to favor fossil fuels.

Public Service Privatisation: David Seymour has openly discussed privatising state assets including state houses and opening health and education to private providers, directly echoing Project 2025's privatisation agenda.rnz

Worker Rights Destruction: The coalition has restored 90-day trials for all businesses and eliminated fair pay agreements, following the Heritage Foundation playbook of weakening organized labor.

The Atlas Network: Coordinating Global Conservative Strategy

The implementation of these policies is not coincidental but coordinated through networks like the Atlas Network, which connects 550+ right-wing think tanks globally. In Aotearoa, both the Taxpayers' Union and New Zealand Initiative are official Atlas Network partners, providing the ideological infrastructure for policy coordination.

This network has been building global influence for decades, creating what researcher Sam Williams calls "the most effective, yet subtle, vehicles for influencing public policy". Through workshops, grants, and mentoring, Atlas creates a global echo chamber of libertarian ideology that promotes policies serving corporate interests while undermining public services and Indigenous rights.

The Heritage Foundation's Māori Problem

What makes the New Zealand implementation particularly sinister is how it targets Indigenous rights that have no direct American parallel. The Heritage Foundation's blueprint must be adapted to eliminate the "Māori problem" - our constitutionally protected Indigenous rights that interfere with complete neoliberal capture.

The coalition's approach involves:

1. Constitutional Redefinition: Rewriting Treaty principles to eliminate partnership and self-determination
2. Institutional Dismantling: Removing Māori-specific institutions and co-governance arrangements
3. Cultural Assimilation: Mandating English dominance and eliminating Indigenous language requirements
4. Democratic Circumvention: Using urgency and select committee processes to avoid proper consultation with tangata whenua

Trump's America, Luxon's New Zealand: Parallel Implementation

The timing is not coincidental. Tracking projects show Trump has already implemented more than 40% of Project 2025's recommendations in his early months, with 37 ways Project 2025 has shown up in Trump's executive orders. The New Zealand coalition began implementing parallel policies from their first 100 days, suggesting coordinated rollout of Heritage Foundation strategies across allied conservative governments.project2025+2

Both administrations share common elements:

• Expanding executive power while reducing institutional independence
• Eliminating diversity and equity programs
• Dismantling environmental protections
• Attacking organized labor
• Privatising public services

The Threat to Whakatōhea and All Tangata Whenua

For Māori communities like my own Whakatōhea people, this represents an existential threat to our tino rangatiratanga and relationship with te Tiriti. The systematic dismantling of co-governance arrangements, the redefinition of Treaty principles, and the elimination of Indigenous-specific institutions directly attacks our constitutional position as tangata whenua.

The coalition's policies echo the colonial strategies of the 1860s - using legal and administrative mechanisms to undermine Indigenous sovereignty and facilitate resource extraction. The difference now is the global coordination and ideological sophistication of these attacks, backed by international networks of conservative think tanks and corporate interests.

Resistance and the Path Forward

Understanding these patterns allows us to name what we face: not just domestic political opposition, but coordinated international assault on Indigenous rights and democratic institutions. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 provides the blueprint, the Atlas Network provides the coordination, and willing local politicians provide the implementation.

Our resistance must be equally coordinated and strategic. We must:

1. Expose the Networks: Map and publicise the connections between local politicians and international conservative organisations
2. Defend Democratic Institutions: Resist the dismantling of public services and democratic oversight mechanisms
3. Protect Indigenous Rights: Mobilise to defend Te Tiriti, co-governance arrangements, and tino rangatiratanga
4. Build Alternative Power: Create independent media, research, and advocacy networks to counter conservative think tank influence

The 42,000 people who marched in the hīkoi demonstrate that resistance is possible. But we must understand that we face not just Christopher Luxon, David Seymour, and Winston Peters, but the global machinery of conservative authoritarianism that backs them.

This is our moment to choose between the Heritage Foundation's vision of corporate capture and cultural erasure, or our own vision of tino rangatiratanga, environmental protection, and genuine partnership. The patterns are clear, the stakes are existential, and the choice is ours.

E rua ngā taonga a Ikatere. We have been given two treasures - our eyes to see the truth, and our voices to speak it. Let us use both wisely in this fight for our future.

Nāku noa, nā Ivor Jones, Te Māori Green Lantern

Readers who find value in this analysis are invited to consider a koha to support this vital work exposing far-right networks and defending Indigenous rights. HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. These are tough economic times for whānau, so please only contribute if you have capacity and wish to do so.

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