Treaty Principles Bill

I am probably going to get myself into trouble here, but after all of the news about the Principles Of The Treaty Of Waitangi bill I thought that I would have a look at it myself. Parliament is looking for submissions on the bill by Tuesday, January 7 2025 (Sunlive Treaty Principles Bill Submissions).

The bill itself is very simple. The premise seems to be that any legislation based on the Treaty Of Waitangi should be based on the actual text and intent of the treaty. The treaty has three clauses:

• The Chiefs ceded government of New Zealand to the British crown
• The Chiefs were granted full possession of the lands, homes and other possessions. The crown has the right to buy land from the chiefs.
• The Maori people have all the rights and privileges of British subjects.

The Treaty Of Waitangi Act 1975 created two new concepts which are not in the original text. One is the concept of Treaty Principles, and the other is the concept of partnership. Subsequently, the Waitangi Tribunal, the courts, and parliament have extended the meaning of those two concepts, including by adding them into the legislation. This is problematic, because it has the effect of altering the meaning of the original treaty, so that many of the loud proclamations about the treaty are actually about these concepts which have been retrospectively added in.

The bill before Parliament is simply stating that Parliament should only recognise the actual text and intent of the original treaty, and should not recognise any concepts which have been added in retrospectively post treaty. To me this seems eminently sensible. Certainly in contract law it is not accepted that one side can be allowed to arbitrarily rewrite the contract to their own benefit.

New Zealand is no longer a British colony. We are an independent democracy. Certainly it has been important to try and mitigate the historic injustices. However, as a democracy, we should all be treated equally with no special treatment based on race or any other criteria. It is also important that the New Zealand government has the sole sovereignty over the country.

The important parts of the text of the bill are shown below, or view the actual text.

The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are as follows:

Principle 1
	The Executive Government of New Zealand has full power to govern, and the Parliament of New Zealand has full power to make laws,—
	(a)	in the best interests of everyone; and
	(b)	in accordance with the rule of law and the maintenance of a free and democratic society.
Principle 2
(1)	The Crown recognises, and will respect and protect, the rights that hapū and iwi Māori had under the Treaty of Waitangi/te Tiriti o Waitangi at the time they signed it.
(2)	However, if those rights differ from the rights of everyone, subclause (1) applies only if those rights are agreed in the settlement of a historical treaty claim under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.
Principle 3
(1)	Everyone is equal before the law.
(2)	Everyone is entitled, without discrimination, to—
	(a)	the equal protection and equal benefit of the law; and
	(b)	the equal enjoyment of the same fundamental human rights.

I think that the Treaty Of Waitangi is a very important document for the founding of New Zealand, and of our modern democracy. It is very important that the meaning of the treaty is honestly defined, and understood and agreed to by the people of New Zealand. I think that this bill is very important in that it is trying to help achieve that.

The retrospective additions to the treaty have very serious implications for our national sovereignty and the functioning of our democracy. We should be allowed to have honest discussions about that.