Over the past few weeks, I’ve written a number of articles about Erica Stanford’s plans to remove references to the Ti Tiriti from education legislation. Most of my articles referenced Bevan Holloway’s indefatigable efforts to find out what is really going on behind the spin that Stanford is so good at spreading around. Nothing definite had turned up but reading between the lines it was clear something was likely to happen.
Bevan has now turned up more conclusive evidence that Stanford is indeed planning to change the relevant legislation to remove the Ti Tiriti requirements, not surprising given her links to Elizabeth Rata.
As always I encourage you to read Bevan’s article for yourself.
“On 23 July, 2025, Stanford spoke to Sean Plunket on The Platform. He wanted answers about the place of Te Tiriti in the Act.
Plunket: Is it going to stay in there? (from 7 mins)
Stanford: … I don’t want to be doing this five or six times. I want to do it once and I want to do it right … There will be changes.
Plunket: Will they be the changes that the people who are making smoke come out of my text machine right now will agree with?
Stanford: I think that they will. But, they need to wait. It is important that we get it right … I don’t want to be talking about the Treaty, I want to be talking about reading, writing, maths, achievement.
Plunket: So the way to do that is get the Treaty, get all this Treaty stuff, out of education, right?
Stanford: In one go.”
So there you have it. No ifs, no buts, the anti-Maori agenda in full view, exactly what Elizabeth Rata has been agitating for.
As Bevan writes:
“I have wondered about the extent to which the ideological positions Stanford has been repeatedly exposed to from Rata and The New Zealand Initiative would influence her thinking.”
In his article, Bevan explores this further, writing that Stanford has given plenty of clues that she was thinking this way:
“We saw Stanford echoing Rata’s views about cultural responsiveness being a “misdiagnosis” of our education challenges when she was on a stage in Florida in late June, 2025.”
Now we know what she plans. This has major implications for our country, as this is a road that will lead to unrest.
Bevan concludes:
“The issue we have with Stanford is she has repeatedly allowed those thinkers, who are at the extreme end of right-wing thinking, to influence and direct the work of government in ways that go against the spirit of or violate public service guidelines and democratic process. This video is clear evidence that Stanford shares one of their key aims, and she is going to make use of “legislative vehicles that are coming up” to realise it, “soon”. We should all be alarmed that one small group is able to exercise such power.”
Is what New Zealand voted for?
Is this what we want?
This needs to be stopped.
Water has been colonized and next cab off the rank is education that is being white washed at full speed .Back to 1865 for NZ .
I think you mean back to 1839, you know, that so called golden age from before the treaty was signed. Hobsons pledge will be salivating at the chance to rewrite history books for school kids.
Definitely back to before 1925, if the worst is true, because in the 1920s, Ao/NZ school pupils studied a book called ‘Our Nation’s Story,’ which had quite a bit about the Treaty in it, admittedly as the instrument by which we came to enjoy all the benefits of being in the British Empire (the “Nation” in the book is a bit fuzzy and seems to be a sort of extended Britain spanning the globe half the time and New Zealand the rest of the time), with the general message being that having a Treaty was more enlightened than what happened in certain other places (looking at you, Australia). Is even that level of self-congratulatory colonialism-lite from 100 years ago too woke for this gov’t’s 21st century advisors?
Remember Elizabeth Rata isn’t Maori why she continues to keep her married last name and continues her anti-Maori BS is baffling?
Is that right, didn’t know that. Thanks for the information.
Why she uses her married name? It’s useful. And it’s fooled Stanford.
Stanford isn’t consistent and doesn’t know her own mind. She chooses to back other people’s prejudices instead of the law and good sense.
She wants achievement in Reading, Writing and Maths, yet she doesn’t want any other kind of achievement. She could have had achievement in a second language but she’s rejecting that little bit of knowledge.
Not a good look for an Education Minister, to reject knowledge. What happened to ‘knowledge rich’?
She prefers ‘propaganda-rich’.
While she’s at it, why doesn’t she dump sport too. Sport’s a waste of time Erica, kids should be doing Reading, Writing and Maths and why haven’t you taught them to hold a pencil properly. That’s a huge oversight!
I hope parents, grandparents and any other whanau, take the subversive view and ignore her ignorant, ideological directives and continue to involve their children, grandchildren etc. in whatever opportunities to learn a little of Māori culture, occur.
Erica Stanford is one of the most deliberately ignorant ministers we have ever had the displeasure to know.
I hope she’s reviewing her own CV, she’s going to need it.
References to the Treaty of Waitangi could be completely removed from the Education Act and it should not make a blind bit of difference to how children are taught. They could still be taught the true history of our nation, the magnificence of Maoritanga as a culture, and the beauty of te reo as a language.
But we all know that would not happen because the Treaty is there as an indicator of more substantive issues, and we all know that when it goes it will signal the official return to an unapologetically colonialist culture in the education system.
It is unfortunate that we need to have the Treaty as a proxy for an honest, decent, patriotic and meaningful approach to educating our tamariki and mokopuna. But that is the way of it. Just remember, if the Treaty goes out of the Act, we will only be losing the proxy. The struggle for liberation will continue in the class room as it will in society at large, and every teacher will have a part to play in that struggle.
You are writing such substantive useful stuff GF – thanks, every now and then we have to draw back and see a summary of what we are concerned about so we can refuel and check direction.
I wonder how the new wave of colonists feel about the treaty as it was not their country who signed it .Will they embrace it or further undermine it as the current colonists are attempting to do .The future looks totaly different from 10 years ago .The current colonists will soon be out numbered by the new wave sa more leave NZ because they have royaly screwed us over so now they will cut and run .
Its taken a while but Erica has left the closet and shown us all that she is a full blown Maori hater .Another disgusting woman minister in this sick government .
Good on standford. The treaty should be binned. Its been used as a tool by the socialists for to long.
What socialists? Are you delusionally still living in the 1950’s? Take your lithium, and go back to watching John Wayne movies, you fool.
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