References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Repeals) Amendment Bill

on behalf of the Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I move, That the References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Repeals) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill.

I introduce the references to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Repeals) Amendment Bill to the House today. This bill will repeal targeted Treaty provisions where the Government considers that their relevance and application is unclear, duplicative, or inappropriate. The bill gives effect to the Government’s review of references to the principles of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation.

The review looked across the statute book at how Treaty provisions that reference the principles are currently framed and how they work in practice. It was supported by a ministerial advisory group, whose recommendations helped shape this package. The bill repeals seven provisions across six Acts that refer to the Treaty or its principles. These are targeted repeals. They apply where the relevance and application of a Treaty reference is unclear, where a provision duplicates another provision in the same Act, or where provision places Treaty-related requirements on private entities in a way that the Government considers inappropriate. The purpose of this bill is to reduce uncertainty and improve the workability of the affected legislation. Removing provisions that are unclear, duplicative, or inappropriate will help readers, agencies, regulated parties, and the court understand how the law is intended to operate.

The select committee process will provide an important opportunity for everyone, including Māori, to test the detail of these proposals and for the committee to hear a range of views. I expect the committee will carefully consider both the submissions it receives and the details of the bill.

To conclude, this bill is about improving the clarity and workability of legislation. It does not change the Treaty itself or the Crown’s commitment to it. It ensures that, when Parliament refers to Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation, those references are clear, appropriate, and workable in the statute in which they appear. I commend this bill to the House.

💬 SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Ngā mihi, Mr Speaker. Ko tēnei te Wiki o te Reo Māori [This is Māori Language Week], and what has the Government decided to do in this wiki of te reo Māori, which celebrates the Māori language? They have, shamefully, decided to bring in three bills, e toru ngā pire koretake [three useless bills], to this House.

💬 Arena Williams: Koretake rawa.

[Very useless.]

Koretake rawa [very useless]—that’s right. These bills do not honour the Treaty; they dishonour the Treaty. Every single member of the National Party should hang their head in shame. What have they done to the legacy of Chris Finlayson and Bill English and every other National Minister who has—

💬 Arena Williams: Jim Bolger.

Jim Bolger—exactly. What have they done with that legacy? They have thrown it out the window, and they have decided to accept these three bills. It damaged the mana of the Treaty and damaged the relationship of ngā tāngata whenua and te iwi Māori and the Government. It is shameful.

This is a very significant piece of legislation, and this is the first bill of three that we will be talking to in the House today. I remind those tuning in that we are under urgency. I have read through the papers that officials have put forward in relation to this bill, and I’ve also read part of one of the two reports that the Waitangi Tribunal has written in relation to these bills, and there is almost universal opposition to the steps that the Government is taking. If we think about what the Government is doing, we can look at the advice they received, and this is some of the advice that’s on the Table today. This is from the Ministry of Justice: “The Ministry considers that the expected benefits of the proposed legislation are low and do not outweigh the costs, particularly the significant risk to the Māori-Crown relationship.” That is the official advice that the Government has turned their back on today with the introduction of these bills.

Now, this bill is the bill that repeals provisions. The Minister said that this doesn’t weaken the Crown’s obligations. How can the Minister stand in this House and say it does not weaken the Crown’s obligations when this particular bill repeals Treaty provisions in legislation? It doesn’t make them more consistent. It doesn’t change them so they have slightly different wording. It repeals them, meaning that they will no longer exist. This bill weakens Te Tiriti in Aotearoa, and how did we get here? How did we get to a situation where we had, from 1975, what many people consider to be the Māori renaissance in New Zealand? We had land marches, we had the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, we had te reo Māori as an official language of New Zealand, we had Māori TV, and we had a country that was moving forward together in terms of a Treaty relationship between Māori and Pākehā. But then we have the National Party consistently trying to take us backwards and trying to take New Zealand away from the future that we will eventually get to—

💬 Sam Uffindell: Separatism, separatism—that’s where you want to go.

—and this is another step.

Don Brash tried this in Ōrewa. He tried this in 2005, and New Zealand rejected it. New Zealanders will reject this Government too, because when this Government and these MPs—and some of them will be here—when they’re standing on the Treaty grounds in 2040 and it is 200 years since the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, there will be a retrospective look-back at where New Zealand’s got to from there, and the members of this Government, if any of them are there, should hang their heads in shame because they have not taken a step forwards for this country in terms of the Treaty relationship, in terms of Māori-Crown relationships, and in terms of race relations. They, with these bills that repeal the Crown’s obligations, are taking New Zealand backwards. This is at a time of a cost of living crisis for New Zealand. Why is the Government focusing on repealing provisions of statutes, in the Treaty bills, when they could be focusing on making New Zealand a better country, a more affordable country, and a more united country, instead of promoting division?

Now, they will say, in the National Party, they had to do this because of their coalition agreement with New Zealand First. I’ve read that provision, and it says “a comprehensive review”. It doesn’t say, “repealing sections of this bill”. It doesn’t say, “weakening sections”. It says, “a comprehensive review”. This Government has chosen to take New Zealand backwards.

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This is absolutely shameful, as I stand here on behalf of the Green Party to say no in Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Let’s give you a reo lesson e te Kāwanatanga pōhēhē. Pōhēhē: you’re wrong in what you’re doing. Pōhauhau: the Government is absurd in what they are doing in the racist attacks against Māori and Te Tiriti. These bills that are coming through the House spit in the face of te iwi Māori. They rip out the heart of the Crown-Māori relations. At a time when we need to be more united than ever, we see these repeals coming through now in the last weeks of Government when we are sitting and preparing for an election. This is the time for te iwi Māori and community, tangata Tiriti and tauiwi to stand up and say, “No, we do not accept this behaviour.”, and, yes, the National Party should hang its head in shame—shame for the good work that we have done, as te iwi Māori, through the years, and yet now we are bending over, and we are making compromises, for coalition agreements, and yet now we should be together as a nation, building a strong, prosperous future where all can thrive. Shame. Shame.

I want to look at some of these bills that are going to be repealed and reflect on the Mataatua declaration led by the tribes of Mataatua. We’ve only just lost Hirini Moko Mead. The plant varieties Act is in here. That’s Wai 262, the Mataatua claim of claims for intellectual property.

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Smoke free environments.

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Smoke free: tobacco is a Māori killer, and you’re going to repeal legislation, again, that removes and

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Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Treaty principles. Let’s talk about Whatarangi Winiata, that hautupua. Here’s another reo lesson for the Government. Hautupua: a giant of te ao Māori who stood up for education, who stood up for honourable kāwanatanga. The Education and Training Act.

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Just this week, the Waitangi Tribunal has ruled that this Government is failing in its obligations to work with te iwi Māori—failing abysmally—and now we have to come and review this legislation that is so harmful and so racist in its behaviour that it spits in the face of Crown-Māori relations. Don’t say, “Oh, we spoke to national iwi chairs.”

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Lesson again: the horse had already bolted. Cabinet had made its decision, and then we turn around when we talk to iwi chairs and say,

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“What are your thoughts?” You’ve already made the determination. You shut the door on an iwi voice. You didn’t even consider hapū or marae. You closed the door to the conversation. You brought it to the table and said, “Here’s your short, truncated time frame to give us feedback.” That’s the disgrace of the way that this Government is treating the Crown-Māori relationship. You can’t appoint people, ask them to do things in a short time frame, and then expect a miracle that somehow is going to be honourable. That’s the issue. It’s a blatant misuse of Kāwanatanga powers, and the Ministers who are ushering this through should be shamed for what’s happening.

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This is not bringing us together. This is material impact on Crown-Māori relationships. This is dishonourable kāwanatanga. The Waitangi Tribunal reports in urgency, through this term of the Crown, stand for generations, and all of us in this House need to take note of what’s being told to us and directed by the Waitangi Tribunal, because we won’t be here tomorrow but our mokopuna will be.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I raise a point of order under Standing Order 120, at page 34 of the Standing Orders. Mr Speaker, I take personal offence at the member for Tauranga describing the Treaty of Waitangi, and recognition of Māori rights under it, as separatism. Mr Speaker, separatism has a particular and serious meaning in the context of race. The dictionary definition includes the belief that a particular racial group should live apart from other people. I am Māori. I am being described as a separatist by that member, and he should withdraw and apologise. Historically, racial separatism—

💬 Sam Uffindell: Speaking to the point of order—

💬 SPEAKER: Just a bit of order. Carry on and get to the point if you would, please.

—describes the separation of people on the basis of race. Racism is a prohibited term in the House.

💬 SPEAKER: Yes, you’ve made your point.

Speaking to the point of order, Mr Speaker, I did not refer to the Treaty in that regard. I referred to the objectives of members on that side of the House as wanting separatism.

💬 Hon Members: That’s the same thing.

💬 SPEAKER: No, I’m sorry, it’s not.

Speaking to the point of order—

💬 SPEAKER: Can I just say: no one else is making any comments at all while there’s a point of order on.

If the member opposite is suggesting that our agenda is separatist, we all take offence at that, from the Green Party, because that is the categorical opposite of our agenda. Our agenda is unity in Te Tiriti.

💬 SPEAKER: Yes, and I think you’ve made that point, as has Arena Williams. When we are talking about interjections across the House, they’re not part of the debate, but they can be on debating points. If it is a direct criticism of an individual member or allegation against an individual member, that’s different. To suggest that a political position is of a particular nature is inside the rules of debate. The points have been made.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m taking this call on behalf of the ACT Party to support this bill. After hearing speeches from that side, from the Opposition members, I want to put as simply as I can what this bill is about. If Parliament is making a law, it is the responsibility of Parliament to ensure that the law is clear and is understandable, and that is what this bill is doing. We cannot leave any provisions in any legislation to be open for interpretation by courts, by bureaucrats, or some other people—those who have the loudest interpretation, like those members, in trying to interpret this legislation.

We have to make sure that legislation is fixed, and we are talking about repealing vague—I repeat the word “vague”—references to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This is not repealing Te Tiriti. This is not erasing history. I want to be really clear about this: this is about fixing those provisions that Parliament has failed to fix so far, and we have left them for many, many interpretations outside of Parliament.

We respect our history. Yes, we can recognise our history, but, at the same time, it is our job as members of Parliament to ensure that our legislation is understandable. These are not contradictory positions, and I’m really proud to say that ACT has been the consistent voice for one law for all and one future together. The ACT Party is happy to support this bill and commend this bill to the House. Thank you.

Debate interrupted.