‘Unfair, discriminatory’ Treaty Principles Bill slammed in scathing Waitangi Tribunal report

Friday, 16 August 2024

The Waitangi Tribunal has slammed the Treaty Principles Bill as ‘unfair, discriminatory’ and will ‘belie’ the partnership between Māori and the Crown

ACT’s proposed bill would define the principles of the Treaty to what ACT says was actually written and signed in 1840 - the same rights and duties for all New Zealanders

The Tribunal said while Māori wanted treaty principles enshrined in legislation, they highlighted Māori have not been consulted at all throughout this process

The Waitangi Tribunal has released its interim report into the Treaty Principles Bill, slamming it as “unfair, discriminatory” and will “belie” the partnership between Māori and the Crown.

However ACT leader David Seymour, who spearheaded the bill, has rejected that claim, and said New Zealand needed to have a ‘national conversation’ about the Treaty of Waitangi. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, who is in Australia, has labelled the bill a compromise with ACT that he’s not happy about.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says the the tribunal’s report is an opportunity for the Prime Minister to abandon ACT’s bill and heal the rift between the Crown and Māori.

The Tribunal’s over-200 page report was released on Friday, finding both the Crown’s Treaty Principles Bill and Treaty clause review policies were inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The bill, proposed by ACT, would define the principles of the Treaty to what ACT says was actually written and signed in 1840 - the same rights and duties for all New Zealanders.

“For the Crown to entertain ‘principles’ that contain inaccurate representations of the text and spirit of the Treaty/te Tiriti and warped interpretations of te reo Māori from te Tiriti o Waitangi is a breach of the duty to act in good faith and to act reasonably,” the Tribunal noted in its report.

The Tribunal said te Tiriti created a partnership between Māori and the Crown, in which two spheres of authority would be recognised - tino rangatiratanga and kawanatanga.

While Māori wanted treaty principles enshrined in legislation, they highlighted Māori have not been consulted at all throughout this process, the report said.

“Māori did not want this policy and in fact many have been strongly opposed to it from the beginning.”

The Tribunal found that the Treaty Principles Bill policy was unfair, discriminatory, and inconsistent with the principles of partnership and reciprocity, active protection, good government, equity, and redress, and contrary to Article 2, a guarantee of rangatiratanga.

It is also in breach of the Crown’s duty to act honourably and with the utmost good faith.

The Tribunal detailed four recommendations:

1. The Crown immediately drop the Treaty Principles Bill.

2. The Crown should constitute a Cabinet Māori–Crown relations committee that has oversight of the Crown’s Treaty policies. The Tribunal does not consider it appropriate that Treaty policies are considered by the Social Outcomes Cabinet Committee.

3. The Treaty clause review policy be put on hold while it is re-conceptualised through collaboration and co-design engagement with Māori.

4. That the Crown consider a process in partnership with Māori to undo the damage to the Māori–Crown relationship and restore confidence in the honour of the Crown.

“The policy of a Treaty Principles Bill ‘based on existing ACT policy’, as the coalition agreement requires, is a solution to a problem that does not exist; there is no policy imperative that justifies it; it is ‘novel’ in its Treaty interpretations; it is fashioned upon a disingenuous historical narrative; its policy rationales are unsustainable; and its current text distorts the language of the Treaty / Te Tiriti,” the report states.

In regards to the Treaty clause review policy - the Government’s plan to review or replace all references to Treaty principles in legislation - the Tribunal found the policy would result in a reduction of “treaty protections for Māori”.

‘What is the place of a non-Māori child born today?’

In a statement, Seymour said some of the ‘worst events in history’ have come from treating humans based on ‘their membership of a group’.

“If the Treaty is a partnership between the Crown and only Māori, what is the place of a non-Māori child born today? Are they born into second class citizenship where some public positions are not available to them because they have the wrong ancestors?

“Every time we say that people have different rights based on ancestry, we breed resentment. And more importantly, we create the idea that which group you're a member of is more important than your basic value as a human being.”

Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Seymour said they would not strike down the bill as recommended by the Tribunal.

He added that ‘one person cannot speak for an entire race’.

“There are clearly some people who don’t like it, that’s politics. What I reject is the idea that all people who are Māori think the same way. That assumption comes through in what so many people say, and it actually, by definition, is racist.”

Seymour said he had consulted a number of treaty experts, but refused to name at least one.

“The Treaty of Waitangi should be a document that all New Zealanders can live proudly together under…New Zealanders by and large have not been happy with the way things have been running.

“The Waitangi Tribunal is expressing a view that has prevailed in many quarters over the last few decades, but we are not certain it is actually a prescription for New Zealand to go forward.”

Seymour said he had consulted a number of treaty experts, but refused to name at least one.

“The Treaty of Waitangi should be a document that all New Zealanders can live proudly together under…New Zealanders by and large have not been happy with the way things have been running.

“The Waitangi Tribunal is expressing a view that has prevailed in many quarters over the last few decades, but we are not certain it is actually a prescription for New Zealand to go forward.”

Treaty Principles Bill a ‘compromise’ - Luxon

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has labelled the Treaty Principles Bill a compromise he’s not happy about.

“As a National Party leader, it hasn't been something we supported as an ACT Party leader, they want to take it through to referendum.

“We found a compromise that I suspect both, neither of us are very happy about but actually that's our commitment to each Government's commitment,” he said.

However Luxon said the Waitangi Tribunal report was “premature” given the bill is yet to go to Cabinet.

“I haven’t had a chance to read the report … I think it’s a bit premature for the Waitangi Tribunal to come out the way that it has today,” he said.

Luxon reiterated his previous position on the bill which is that National will not support it past first reading.

“In the coalition agreement which is actually what the government has committed to we have said we will undertake a first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill and there’s no commitment beyond that.”

The Waitangi Tribunal report says that the bill is “fashioned upon a disingenuous historical narrative” and that it's a “novel interpretation” of the Treaty based on the ACT party's reading of it.

Luxon wouldn’t be drawn on whether he would be involved in the drafting of the bill and defining the principles.

“Again, the Treaty Principles Bill has not come before cabinet, so there hasn't been a discussion in cabinet about that.”

‘Luxon can no longer hide behind his coalition partners’ - Ngarewa Packer

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said Luxon can “prove his worth as a leader of a Pacific nation” by striking down the bill.

“Luxon can no longer hide behind his coalition partners. Either he has given full control of his government to David Seymour, or he is using the coalition agreement as an excuse to pursue his own anti-Māori agenda.

“The Tribunal have given the Prime Minister an opportunity to restore some honour to the Crown, and to himself, by abandoning the Act Party’s anti-Treaty policies and beginning the process of healing his relationship with Māori” Ngarewa-Packer said.

“If Luxon ignores these recommendations he will go down in history as having led the most anti-Māori government in generations,” co-leader Rawiri Waititi added.

Green Party Māori Development spokesperson Huhana Lyndon said the treaty binds people together.

“At Waitangi, Christopher Luxon told Māori that Te Tiriti was our past, present and future. If he truly meant what he said, he would not allow someone to attempt to re-write our history with such a lack of understanding and regard for this nation’s founding agreement. He would also not allow another member of his government to remove Treaty Clauses from different pieces of legislation,” she said.

“It is high time that his rhetoric matched the reality of his actions when it comes to standing up for Te Tiriti. He has stood by and watched as Treaty protections were removed from state care, as the Māori Health Authority was scrapped and as Māori wards were essentially erased.”