"THE GRIEF THIEF: How Simon Court Stole Six Million Ghosts to Cover His Party's Grave-Digging in Aotearoa's Own Backyard" - 19 August 2026
A minister's colleague weeps on Facebook for history's darkest chapter while his caucus quietly guts 53 te reo teaching roles, buries a $712 million hole in Māori funding, and rewrites the "big idea" of this country's own colonisation out of existence — and dares to call it honesty.
Ko Ivor Jones tēnei, te Māori Green Lantern, and I am done being polite about this.
Not because Simon Court is wrong about the Holocaust — he is not, six million murdered is a historical fact beyond dispute, documented by Yad Vashem, and I mourn every one of those souls without a shred of hedging.
I am done being polite because a man who cannot bring himself to name a single harm his own government has inflicted on tangata whenua has the audacity to lecture this country about "honest understanding of history, including its darkest chapters."
That is not education. That is theft — theft of grief, repurposed as a shield.
Ko Wai Rā, Ko Wai — Read His Own Words Against His Own Party's Record
Court's Facebook post says it plainly: from 2027, Year 10 students will learn about the Holocaust, and
"young New Zealanders deserve an honest understanding of history, including its darkest chapters."
Beautiful words.
Now place them next to his own party leader's words, on his own account, boasting that the
"big idea" that Māori history is "the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand" was deleted from the curriculum framework because it was "dismal, divisive and overly political".
Read that twice. The same government demanding tamariki learn where "prejudice and dehumanisation can lead" cannot bring itself to teach, as a foundational principle, that colonisation happened here, continuously, to Māori.
That is not an oversight. That is a choice, and I name it as cowardice dressed in a poppy.
The Deep Dive Podcast
Listen to a lively conversation between two hosts, unpacking and connecting topics in the sources of this essay. I apologise in advance for the AI's very harsh pronounciation of reo. Please dont shoot me, :).
Youtube Video
Like video? Here is a short video suppporting the essay. Again, don't shoot the messenger please because of AI's pronounciation. :)
Koha Consideration
This essay named a $712 million net loss to Māori education funding and 53 disestablished te reo teaching roles — numbers Simon Court's Holocaust tribute left entirely out of the frame. Every koha signals that whānau are ready to support the accountability that Crown and corporate structures will not provide.
It signals that rangatiratanga includes the power to support our own truth tellers — the ones counting the roles cut and the millions moved, not just the ones posting condolences.
Kia kaha, whānau. Stay vigilant. Stay connected. And if you are able, consider a koha to ensure this voice continues.
If you are unable to koha, no worries! Subscribe or follow the Māori Green Lantern at themaorigreenlantern.maori.nz, kōrero and share with your whānau and friends — that is koha in itself.
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Ngā Tauira mō te Hinengaro o te Pākehā — Three Examples for the Western Mind
Example 1 — The Vanishing Kaiako.
Fifty-three full-time-equivalent Resource Teacher Māori positions were disestablished nationally, with only 48 actually filled at the time of the cut, part of 174 resource teacher roles cut in total, and I have already traced the wider funding assault in "Stanford's Colonial Classroom".
To the Western mind trained on spreadsheets, 53 is a rounding error. To tikanga Māori, each RTM role is a living conduit of whakapapa
— te reo does not survive in a vacuum, it survives through people standing in classrooms teaching it.
Quantified harm: 53 fewer conduits, nationwide, permanently.
The solution: legislate RTM funding as a protected, ring-fenced line item that cannot be "reprioritised" by ministerial press release ever again.
Example 2 — Pyramids Over Rangiaowhia.
Seymour's own celebration of deleting Māori history's foundational status sits inside a wider ideological programme I've already mapped in "The Wrecking Crew" and "The Curriculum Coup".
To the Western mind, swapping curriculum topics feels administrative. To tikanga Māori, it is severing whakapapa
— a classroom that no longer legally treats Māori history as this country's foundation is a classroom that treats Māori children as visitors in their own whenua.
Quantified harm: an entire cohort of Year 0–10 students now taught under a framework with zero legislated foundational status for the country's own colonisation.
Solution: restore the "big idea" in law, not as a discretionary "resource," but as a non-negotiable pillar the way it was written before ACT got its hands on the pen.
Example 3 — The Filing Cabinet Con.
Court's Holocaust post arrives in the same political season I exposed in "The Curriculum Con", where this same government tried to quietly bury Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations in a paperwork shuffle, and the same year $750 million in Māori-specific programmes were axed against a mere $38 million in genuinely new money — a net loss of $712 million by my own arithmetic on their own reported figures.
To the Western mind, timing is coincidence; to tikanga, where mauri-enhancing and mauri-depleting patterns are read as connected, this is cui bono in plain sight
— grief theatre for one genocide, silence over structural harm to another people, in the same electoral term.
Quantified harm: $712 million.
Solution: name the pattern, publicly, every single time it repeats — which is exactly what this essay does.
He Whakamōhio, Ehara i te Whakapae — Disclosure, Not Accusation
I do not allege Court fabricated a single fact in his post — his figures are accurate, his grief plausibly genuine, and I do not dispute the moral case for Holocaust education for one second.
What I allege, on fully sourced record, is a government pattern: this MP's own caucus leader publicly celebrating the deletion of Māori history's foundational status, this government's own budget documents confirming a $712 million net hit to Māori programmes, and this MP's silence on both while demanding "honest understanding of history" from everyone else
That pattern is fact. Calling it theft, cowardice, and grief-as-shield is my opinion — scathing, deliberate, and flagged as such — offered as fair comment on an MP's public conduct in a matter of undoubted public interest (Durie v Gardiner NZCA 278; Lange v Atkinson 1998 3 NZLR 385, qualified privilege).
No malice is directed at Court as a private individual; this is pattern-of-harm critique of institutional conduct, not a personal attack.
Available evidence suggests Court has not addressed this specific criticism. He remains entitled to a right of reply through this platform. Any factual error identified will be corrected under our retraction protocol.
This essay is built from Court's own Facebook post (confirmed via attached screenshot), David Seymour's own public statement, the Ministry of Education's own budget documents, NZEI Te Riu Roa's own consultation paper, 1News, The Spinoff, and four prior Māori Green Lantern essays — every claim linked at the point it is made.
Māuri ora!
Ivor Jones The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right
Disclaimer
This essay by Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern, is commentary on matters of public interest concerning individuals and organisations acting in public or professional capacity. All facts are sourced and linked; opinions and characterisations are clearly the author's own fair comment, grounded in the cited facts, not statements about private motive or character. No criminal conduct is alleged unless separately cited from a court record. Named parties are welcome to a right of reply, and any factual error will be corrected promptly. Produced with AI-assisted research under the author's editorial control.
Kia kaha, whānau.
