The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations towards Māori children, enabled partnerships with Māori organisations to provide support, and helped rebuild some of the trust Oranga Tamariki had lost. So naturally National and ACT want to get rid of all of that, as part of their uber-policy of being as racist as possible.
The Waitangi Tribunal has been conducting an urgent inquiry into the proposed repeal, and yesterday they issued an interim report. While they it makes no formal findings or recommendations, it clearly warns the government that continuing down this path will breach te Tiriti and cause actual harm to children. It also politely suggests that maybe pursuing a (required anyway) statutory review would be a better way to consider the issue. It is also absolutely scathing about the policy process and evidentiary basis "justifying" repeal:
To the extent there is any evidence to support the idea that section 7AA is causing unsafe practice, it is entirely anecdotal. We have seen none. Crown counsel and Crown witnesses have confirmed that the government’s decision to repeal section 7AA is not based on an empirical public policy case. The Minister’s repeal proposal as approved by Cabinet is said to reflect a political or philosophical viewpoint not reduceable to empirical analysis. Accordingly, officials were instructed to proceed in an instrumental way to give effect to the policy, representing as it does a commitment in the coalition agreement between the National party and ACT.(So much for the "evidence-based decision-making” promised in the National-ACT coalition agreement...)
The problem for the government is that, as Ministers, their obligations under te Tiriti override any commitments made in a coalition agreement, as "once Ministers are sworn in and the government is formed, the executive so constituted are responsible for meeting the Crown’s obligations to Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi". The Tribunal also notes:
It is a Treaty of Waitangi, not a proclamation of Waitangi, and the Crown does not have a unilateral right to redefine or breach its terms. The obligation is to honour the Treaty and act in good faith towards the Treaty partner....which sounds like a shot across the bow on ACT's efforts to unilaterally redefine te Tiriti with their "Treaty Principles Bill" as well.
Another point to note is that this interim report was released to get these findings out there, and prevent the government from silencing the Tribunal again by introducing a bill to deprive them of jurisdiction. Which is not the sort of relationship you normally see between different branches of government. But I guess its what you get when you have a government that believes "comity" is a one-way street, owed solely to them.
Of course, the government can ignore this report, as it has ignored many before it. But the cost of that is further delegitimisation. National and ACT might not care about that. But the rest of us should, and should be asking the other parties what steps they will take to undo whatever damage these racist vandals cause.
