Waitangi Tribunal recommends the Crown abandon its Treaty Principles Bill

In its interim report Ngā Mātāpono – The Principles, the Waitangi Tribunal found the proposed Treaty Principles Bill to be unfair, discriminatory, and inconsistent with the principles of partnership and reciprocity, active protection, good government, equity, and redress.

The Tribunal states that the proposed Bill is contrary to the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga and breaches the Crown’s duty to act honourably and with the utmost good faith.

The proposed Bill is part of the Government’s coalition agreement with the Act Party. It would redefine the principles to what the ACT Party says was written and signed in 1840.

The Tribunal said that the proposed principles were ‘novel’ in their Treaty interpretation and fashioned on a disingenuous historical narrative.

The report also considered the proposed review of legislative enactments referring to ‘the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi’.

The Tribunal found that this policy was predetermined and would result in amendments to, or repeals of, Treaty clauses, and concluded that the Crown breached the Treaty principles of partnership, active protection, equity, redress, good government, and the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga.

In both cases, the Tribunal found that the Crown failed to engage with Māori.

The Tribunal also found that the combined impact of the policies are, or will be, highly prejudicial to Māori.

The Tribunal made the following four recommendations:

1. The Treaty Principles Bill policy should be abandoned.
2. The Crown should constitute a Cabinet Māori–Crown relations committee that has oversight of the Crown’s Treaty / te Tiriti policies.
3. That the Treaty clause review policy be put on hold while it is re-conceptualised through collaboration and co-design engagement with Māori.
4. That the Crown consider a process in partnership with Māori to undo the damage to the Māori–Crown relationship and restore confidence in the honour of the Crown.

This report was the result of an urgency inquiry. For more information about urgency inquiries, read our article here.