The joke story of the weekend was the revelation that DOC, as in the Department of Conservation, is handing out money it doesn’t have to reward people for learning to speak Māori .

I say money it doesn’t have because DOC has a multi-million dollar operating shortfall.

What makes the story a tragic tale of our times is that there is no actual requirement in any of the jobs they do for there to be Māori spoken. Tasks are not getting done because they are short of Māori speakers.

This is the insidious Māori fication of the country that has so many upset. There is nothing wrong with the Māori language. Learn it all you want.

But it is not up to the taxpayer, for no specific or particular reason outside of a bandwagon, to foot the bill to pursue a woke ideology.

I note it's not known how many other Government departments are on the Māori train either.

The department doesn’t know what it will cost and they will only have a look at it if asked through the Official Information Act, that well-worn excuse machine the Government has turned into a fine stalling art.

Learning Māori in a job that doesn’t require any Māori at all is similar to this place paying me to learn to juggle.

I might get something out of it, I might argue that the dexterity and coordination has such an effect on my wellbeing it wards off Alzheimer's. But that’s still not the employers job to entertain me, or dabble in my recreational pursuits.

Māori and Māori fication has become an obsession.

The incorporation of everything to do with the Treaty has become wasteful and energy sapping.

People speaking a language that is of no use to them in their work is not a Treaty response. It’s a nice-to-have dabble.

They have failed to see, or understand, that the forcing of anything onto a population is counterproductive.

The trick to any change or mind shift is to argue the case, persuade people, encourage people, lead the way and build a support base.

The moment you cajole, threaten, battle, enforce, ignore, override and generally become overbearing and obsessive, is when you lose the room.

They have lost the room.

And they are using our money to do it.

It’s the swing voter who needs to be riled by this.

Will they be though? Or will this just add to a long line up of shemozzles that get forgotten about come polling day?