‘An act of bad faith and deep dishonour’

The prime minister must kill the Treaty principles bill before it reaches parliament and not wait for a first reading, says Te Hunga Rōia Māori.

The Māori Law Society is calling on Christopher Luxon to put his constitutional obligations ahead of the coalition agreement. This is an excerpt from their letter to the PM.

 

Your confirmation that the National Party will not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond the select committee stage provides no comfort that the divisive and misinformed nature of the conversation will stop.

Māori will bear the brunt of that misinformation now and for generations to come.

The repeated reliance on the coalition agreement with the Act party illustrates that the Crown is willing to put that coalition agreement before fundamental constitutional principles, the rule of law, and your obligation to be an honourable Treaty partner.

Ultimately, you and your ministerial colleagues have the ability to change the current course and we call on you to abandon the bill.

In particular, Te Hunga Rōia Māori says the following:

We support the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal that condemn the bill as being a breach of Treaty principles and the Tribunal’s ultimate recommendation that the bill policy be abandoned. Abandonment continues to be the only appropriate course of action for the bill. The continued progression of the bill, coupled with the ongoing media attention, has created a hostile environment for Māori lawyers who are having to defend the constitutional status of Te Tiriti.

The refashioned Treaty principles confirmed by cabinet continue to distort the text of both the Treaty and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They are falsehoods and legal fictions. These new principles do violence to the spirit of the Treaty and its legal meaning. They attempt to reframe and minimise the guarantees made to Māori. For example, the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga in Article II of the Treaty is warped into rights that are only recognised when “specified in legislation, treaty settlements, or other agreements with the crown”.

While there is a cabinet direction that the bill should state it will “not alter or amend the text of the Treaty itself or settlements”, the principles in the bill will have the legal effect of doing just that.

One of the primary ways in which the Treaty is currently given practical effect is through legislation. Applying the new and distorted principles to the interpretation of the Treaty across all law would have the legal effect of redefining Te Tiriti itself.

Part of the policy justification for the bill is to have a “national conversation” about the place of the principles in our constitutional arrangements. The current course of action is rife with misinformation, framed around redefined Treaty principles designed to fit a particular political ideology and situated within a constrained Parliamentary process. This is not the healthy constitutional debate that Aotearoa deserves. It is instead the fanning of divisive flames with a view to incinerate our founding constitutional document.

The bill continues to be based on the flawed policy rationale that it will bring about more certainty and clarity to the meaning of the principles in legislation. We agree with the Waitangi Tribunal that the problem of uncertainty does not exist. However, uncertainty would be a consequence of enacting the bill. “Rearticulated principles” do not rectify this issue.

The progression of the bill will further fracture the Crown-Māori relationship and continue to exacerbate divisions in society. The Crown continues to progress on this path fully aware of the damage it has already done and with eyes wide open to the damage it will continue to do.

The Crown’s actions are not only inconsistent and contrary to the advice of their own officials (including the Ministry of Justice), the recommendations of the Waitangi Tribunal and Te Tiriti o Waitangi itself, but also other international agreements such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

It is an act of bad faith and deep dishonour that the Crown is seeking to unilaterally amend how the Treaty is interpreted in all laws without the free, prior and informed consent of Māori.

Te Hunga Rōia Māori calls on you as the prime minister and all ministers who believe in the constitutional framework of our country and the rule of law, and genuinely want to be an honourable Treaty partner, to take a stand and abandon this bill.

 

The full letter can be read here.

Tai Ahu and Natalie Coates are co-tumuaki of Te Hunga Rōia Māori.