National's racism breaches Te Tiriti

In their coalition agreement with ACT, the National government agreed to advance a bill unilaterally redefining the Tiriti relationship. That bill is apparently going through the policy process, and the Ministry of Justice has pointed out the obvious: its a breach of Te Tiriti:

But the ministry raises major compliance issues. It has sent the document, also known as a legal bid, to various Government departments for consultation.

The report's author says: "I expect the Bill may be highly contentious. This is due to both the fundamental constitutional nature of the subject matter and the lack of consultation with the public on the policy development prior to Select Committee.

"The Bill will also change the nature of the principles from reflecting a relationship akin to a partnership between the Crown and Māori to reflecting the relationship the Crown has with all citizens of New Zealand. This is not supported by either the spirit of the Treaty or the text of the Treaty."

[...]

"Developing a Bill that purports to settle the Treaty principles without working with the Treaty partner could be seen as one partner (the Crown) attempting to define what the Treaty means and the obligations it creates."

And if they don't listen to the Ministry of Justice, I'm sure the Waitangi Tribunal will be willing to tell them, far more forcefully.

National has been trying to back away from this ever since they realised that outright racism isn't as popular with the public as it is with ACT's kook supporters. But they agreed to this, so they own it. And if they don't want to be the party that tried to rip Aotearoa down the middle, they need to tell Rimmer and his racist mates to go fuck themselves.

(Meanwhile, Labour has a clear opportunity here to kill this and position themselves on the right side of history and public opinion, just by saying "we will repeal it immediately". But that would require them to actually stand for something, rather than being afraid of their own shadows...)