The Waitangi Tribunal is NZs conscience and NZFirst want to desecrate that because they’re so toxic
Unreleased review of Waitangi Tribunal sitting with ministers
More than a year after a major review of the functions of the Waitangi Tribunal was announced, the completed review has yet to be released publicly, with Government ministers still considering how to respond.
TVNZ
Let’s be clear.
The Waitangi Tribunal is NZs conscience.
By around 1900, Māori had lost roughly 90% of their original tribal landholdings through a combination of Crown purchasing, confiscation, private acquisition and the operation of the Native Land Court and colonial land laws.
In the 1850s, Māori were major commercial agricultural producers, owning ships, flour mills and large farming operations. So the land alienation wasn’t merely a cultural loss, it stripped away much of the productive asset base of what had been a thriving Māori economy.
Maori never ceded sovereignty and co-governance is a means to express that truth.
Facing up to the facts of those past wrongs demands a voice of mana, that voice is the Waitangi Tribunal.
White Volk who have benefited from that injustice NEVER want to acknowledge it.
They want the Treaty settled, they don’t want it honoured.
They recoil at partnership and embody a culture of white fragility which is weaponised and manipulated in this country by the political right.
NZ First and ACT pretend to be standing for one law for all, but that’s a fig leaf for redneck racism.
We should celebrate our unique identity, we should see the Treaty as our foundational document and we should recognise the power of it.
I love the Treaty because it stipulates the obligations of the Crown, not just to Māori, but to us all!
The Treaty obligates the Crown to ensure all our self soverighty and all our rights.
NZ First and ACT play to reactionary Kiwis who ignore the realities of our own history. They are a carnival of racism while pretending to champion democratic values.
Trying to gag the Waitangi Tribunal is attempting to censor our past.
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell, 1984
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The Waitangi Tribunal is not my conscience.
Besides, don’t another group of taxpayer-funded Progressives – social scientists and humanities academics – insist they are ‘the critics and conscience’ of NZ?
Agreed Ada -The Waitangi Tribunal is not NZ conscience…far from it!
The review of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the functions of the Waitangi Tribunal, announced in May 2025, was conducted by a four-person Independent Technical Advisory Group chaired by legal expert Bruce Gray KC, David Cochrane (lawyer & former Waitangi Tribunal member), Kararaina Calcott-Cribb (senior public servant) and Dion Tuuta (Māori leader & former tribunal historian). These people appear to be honest and reliable so why has a year passed and “they are still considering HOW to respond”? A review is a review so they should simply state the outcome of it! Why the delay, why the secrecy? Tama Potaka states that the govt is taking time to get the response RIGHT [?] ahead of the election? More lies? More corruption? Clearly the review didn’t show the CoC at all well? As Martyn has said, “The Waitangi Tribunal is NZs conscience.” and “Maori never ceded sovereignty and co-governance is a means to express that truth.” Whatever your beliefs, the only version to read is the ORIGINAL Maori version signed by the Chiefs, NOT the English translation which contains so many errors. I agree that this Treaty is the backbone of NZ and should be respected, especially after watching how Maori have been so badly treated and “ripped off” since that time! This important document should remain in its original state and should NEVER be altered in any way! To do so is “desecration! Most out there would not be aware that in the 1850s, Māori were major commercial agricultural producers, owning ships, flour mills and large farming operations. So the land alienation wasn’t merely a cultural loss, it stripped away much of the productive asset base of what had been a thriving Māori economy [thx Martyn]. FGS hasn’t enough damage been done to our Maori? Isn’t it way past time for the relationship to be made fairer not watered down? What is wrong with the mindset of the ‘settler stock’who appear to have no morals, values or principles. Again it isn’t and shouldn’t be, all about MONEY; it’s about what is honest, fair and decent!