Treaty Principles Bill

The Associate Minister of Justice has submitted to Parliament the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, which has been referred to the Justice Select Committee to consider. Paul Dalziel has for two years been researching the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi as defined by the Waitangi Tribunal. This research was funded by Partners for a New Economy and hosted by the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury.

Based on that research, Paul Dalziel has made a written submission to the Justice Select Committee on the Bill. He submits that the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill contains fundamental errors and omissions that mean it should not be proceed into law. He emphasises that the Bill excludes without any justification the fundamental treaty principle of exchange.

The submission includes the following comment: The Bill’s proposed exclusion of the principle of exchange from the interpretation of relevant enactments excludes the very reason for the treaty.

The submission recommends that the Select Committee report back to Parliament that this Bill should not proceed. It further recommends that Parliament create a series of events in 2025 around the country to honour the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, including celebrations of the principles of te Tiriti produced by the Waitangi Tribunal under that Act.

The full submission is available here.

Paul Dalziel also helped to prepare the submission made by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa. That submission and a video of the oral submission made by Gareth Hughes are available here [external link].