The Waitangi Tribunal has reported back on the government's proposed Treaty "Principles" Bill, and as expected, declared it to be a steaming pile of racist horsehit:
In her letter to Ministers the chair of the Waitangi Tribunal Caren Fox said both policies were part of an alarming pattern of the Crown using the policy process and parliamentary sovereignty against Māori.The latter is particularly important, as the Tribunal has exclusive authority "to determine the meaning and effect of the Treaty as embodied in the 2 texts and to decide issues raised by the differences between them". So you'd expect them to know what they're talking about better than a bunch of weirdo racist bumpkins from ACT and NZ First. As for solutions, they recommend that the bill be dumped, that the review of Treaty clauses be put on hold and re-done in partnership with Māori, and that the Crown should consider a restorative justice process to mend its relations with Māori.By engaging with this policy the Crown was sanctioning a process that will take away indigenous rights, she said.
"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 letter highlighted multiple problems with the Bill: including that it "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."
While these are formally only "recommendations", like those of the Ombudsman, they should be taken extremely seriously by the government. Te Tiriti is one of the foundations of state legitimacy in Aotearoa, and a government messes with that at its peril. The Tribunal has both the expertise and the mana here, and the government should listen. That approach is implied by the structure of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975: Parliament established the Waitangi Tribunal to inquire into alleged breaches of te Tiriti. In giving the Tribunal the power to inquire into proposed legislation before it is placed before the House, Parliament clearly envisioned that such inquiries would have an element of preventing such breaches before they occurred. Having done this, it is incumbent upon Parliament and the government to listen when the Tribunal speaks and address its concerns. And if they can't be relied upon to do that informally, then we need to bind them and require them to do so formally.
The full report, "Ngā Mātāpono – The Principles", is here.
