My Submission to the Justice Committee against the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill

Comrades of Aotearoa New Zealand:

The late, great Dr Moana Jackson said,

“Contrary to what the Crown has always said, the Treaty did not admit either a cession of Māori sovereignty or a vesting of power solely in a political system brought here from somewhere else.

Rather, it suggested something that could be unique to this land — a constitutional framework which allowed for what the Waitangi Tribunal has called different “spheres of influence”, in which the will of Māori and the will of those who have come after 1840 could be expressed in a new and relational way.”

Māori and those who came after 1840 have worked to find pragmatic ways of fulfilling the promise of Treaty, why are we allowing this ideologically driven political stunt to undermine that pragmatism with this Referendum Bill?

The Late Great Professor Ranganui Walker said,

“I have no time for the privileged people who take advantage of their privileged position to attack the weakest in society” –

What is really driving this anti-Māori and anti-Treaty agenda by this Government?

The late, not so great member of Parliament, James Richmond, wrote in 1851,

“I look forward to the day when the preposterous Treaty of Waitangi will be overruled and the ridiculous claims of the natives to thousands of acres of untrodden bush and fern will no longer be able to dampen the ardour and cramp the energies of the industrious white man”.

How is that 19th Century White Settler privilege vibe any different to what ACT are preposing today and aren’t Maori sick of this crap?

Former Attorney General Chris Finlayson says the Treaty was between the Crown and the Maori Chiefs who signed it, where as ACT are misrepresenting the Treaty as between races and because ACT do this, they come to the wrong conclusions!

Why is the Former Attorney General and Former Minister for Treaty Negotiations wrong and ACT are right?

Treaty’s are supposed to be honoured not settled!

There are 2 versions of the Treaty, most Māori signed the Māori version, we are signed up to UN Declarations that state when there are two versions of a Treaty, the version in the indigenous language takes precedence meaning Māori did not cede sovereignty and the Principles were an attempt to recognise this!

Why crush the pragmatism for ACT’s ideological fervour?

It is intellectually repellent to allow the majority to vote on the rights of the minority – how is this Bill – that has no chance of passing – anything other than a divisive race baiting stunt?

By inserting Hapu and Iwi legal rights, ACT have cleverly inoculated themselves to any claims of racism over the next 6 months, but redefining collective values in Māoridom as a purely self interested pursuit as ACT attempts here wildly misunderstands the Māori culture.

Sir Geoffry Palmer in the 2013 Māori Law Journal wrote:

If there is one thing that is unique about New Zealand it is that the indigenous inhabitants of the country are Māori. They have their own language, culture and way of thinking. They were subjected to rank injustice in colonial times. It has taken a long time to remedy those injustices, and the process is not yet complete. Unfortunately disguised prejudice is never far from the surface in New Zealand whenever there is a debate on Māori issues. There is an unpleasant underside to the New Zealand psyche when questions of race are debated. These things I learned only by exposure to the issues in Parliament. Many years later I still get letters blaming me for elevating the status of the Treaty of Waitangi. I remain unapologetic, I would raise it further. I thought then and I still think now that the most serious challenge New Zealand faces is to avoid having a permanent underclass defined by race. 

Dame Anne Salmon says,

“Debate the Treaty by all means. But let it be just and impartial, as befits a constitutional discussion, and not conducted on the basis of a bill that is highly partisan, and designed to provoke ill-will and anger.

David Seymour has claimed  that many of the Chiefs who signed the Treaty would have voted ACT today, how delusional is that statement and clear evidence of a bad faith debate.

Almost every official is universal in arguing that ACTs Treaty Referendum Bill will cause enormous risk to social cohesion – what is the end point in all of this and how much damage are the political Right prepared to cause the country for a race baiting stunt?

Our collective mana is all denigrated by this farce of a process and the vileness of legislation.

I recommend the entire fiasco go to a higher more independent body than a Political Party who gained a mere 8% in the last election.

This independent body should look at our entire constitutional relationship and look at Republicanism, the writing of a formal constitution, the entrenching of Human Rights and the debate around that.

Our constitutional arrangements shouldn’t be a political mugging staged in the middle of the first term of a hard right Government who are becoming deeply unpopular for the month!

We as a people deserve better than this bad faith race baiting political stunt.

 

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