Seymour on Treaty Principles Bill . . .

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Act leader David Seymour has welcomed King Tuheitia calling a national hui in January to discuss his Treaty Principles Bill and the Government’s Māori policy agenda.

He has also revised the wording of the three principles to be proposed in his bill — to make them closer to the articles of the Treaty — and has suggested debate on the referendum he wants would be better to come later in the legislative process, if the bill passes a second reading. Act’s coalition partners National and NZ First have agreed to support the bill, which aims to have Parliament define the principles of the Treaty, through the first of three readings.

Seymour told NZ Herald senior political correspondent Audrey Young this week that he thought the call for a national hui was “a very positive thing”. “It’s exactly what I hoped would happen — that this initiative would finally lead to some public dialogue about what these principles mean.”

He wanted a long legislative process, possibly nine months, and said the bill would not be introduced in the first quarter of next year.

The bill will propose the principles say that: 1. The New Zealand Government has the right to govern New Zealand; 2. The New Zealand Government will protect all New Zealanders’ authority over their land and other property; 3. All New Zealanders are equal under the law, with the same rights and duties.

One of the functions of the Waitangi Tribunal, as it was set up under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, is to determine the meaning and effect of Treaty principles, given the differences between the English and te reo Māori versions. As Young reported, the tribunal and the courts have established the principle of requiring the partners to the Treaty to act in good faith, the principle of redress, and the principles of partnership, participation and protection.

Seymour said the partnership principle had “morphed into this requirement for the state to be dichotomised at every level”; “. . . just about every area of public policy, we have seen partnership morph into the need to co-govern public affairs . . .

we believe that to win that argument you’ve got to defeat that wrong notion that the Treaty actually requires these co-governance structures because its principle is a partnership.”

He was promoting the idea of equal citizenship, “. . . that the New Zealand state is a place that will protect your rights to tino rangatiratanga and extend that right to everybody”.

Seymour said he objected to the principles of partnership, participation and protection because: “They suggest that the contract is between groups of people rather than upholding the rights of individuals, which is what you get from the Treaty itself.”