'Unconscionable': Iwi leaders, former PM, legal experts blast Treaty bill

The Treaty Principles Bill is a waste of time and is spreading "toxic, shameful and misinformed views on Māori", a select committee has been told.

Oral submissions on the Bill are being heard on Thursday before a select committee at Parliament.

Eru Kapa Kingi, one of the leaders of the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti, began his oral submission by calling it "he moumou taima" (a waste of time.)

"Partly because we already did our big submission in November when over 100,000 people stood right outside where you're sitting right now, in the name of te Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti."

He encouraged the committee to ensure they include those numbers as opposition to the Bill.

The Treaty Principles Bill was taking advantage of a lack of education on the Treaty, Kapa-Kingi said.

"Our harsh reality as tangata whenua, is that having truth on our side is not the same as having power.

"Power is a numbers game, and numbers can supersede truth - which is exactly what this Bill does."

Kapa-Kingi said the Bill "is based on a lie and speaks to a void of misunderstanding and a void of knowledge".

"Taking advantage of the fact that no one really knows the truth and history of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Aotearoa. A result which is by design."

'Great nations don't break their promises'

Former prime minister Jenny Shipley said the Treaty Principles Bill was not worthy of the promise of the Treaty calling it unconscionable.

"Great nations don't break their promises. I think that the promise of the Treaty was profound and it doesn't need some second hand car salesman to try and divert us into some notion that frankly is not worthy of the promise of the Treaty and I don't say that reference is personal to the promoter."

Shipley said her challenge to New Zealand was to ask if people were participants in the Treaty or observers.

"Look around the world - there are not nations that are gifted a Treaty such as we have."

A solution in search of a problem

Law Professor Andrew Geddis said the Bill was a bad idea and would lead to greater uncertainty.

"It looks to me like this Bill is a solution in search of a problem. I really don't quite know what it is about the existing way in which the principles of the Treaty have been included in legislation and interpreted that requires Parliament to act in this way."

Geddis said one argument for the Bill was that the Principles of the Treaty were too complex and context specific, but he said there was no way anyone could expect something operating across multiple legislative frameworks to be simple and easily applied.

"The solution then that is being proposed I think is actually just going to make things worse. Rather than giving clarity, rather than answering the problems and the questions I think it will lead to greater conflict, greater uncertainty, it will actually make it harder for our system to operate."

'Treaty rights are human rights'

The Human Rights Commission's indigenous rights governance partner, Dayle Takitimu, said that Treaty breaches were also human rights breaches.

"We oppose the Bill because it proposes to undermine and breach human rights. The Bill would remove Māori rights that are affirmed in Te Tiriti and recognised internationally, including through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

She said that while the Bill claimed to protect equal rights, it selectively focused on certain rights and overrode others.

"Treaty rights are human rights. The effect of the Bill would be to take away rights of only one partner, Māori."

Tainui 'vehemently' oppose bill

The chair of Te Whakakitenga o Waikato, Tukoroirangi "Tuku" Morgan said the Treaty Principles Bill undermined the rights, interests and protections guaranteed to hapū and iwi of Tainui.

Morgan presented an oral submission opposing the bill on behalf of Te Arataura, the governing body of 33 hapū and 96,000 individual members of Tainui.

"It's ironic that the panel are having to deal with this at a time, when we are soon to celebrate 30 years since the successful negotiation of the first treaty claim to this country, the raupatu settlement negotiated by Sir Robert Mahuta.

"I'm here today to send a clear message to the committee that we should reject this bill completely and totally."

Morgan also paid tribute to the late Kiingi Tuheitia, who called a series of hui in 2024, better described as "Kotahitanga hui," or "Hui of Unity."

"These hui were premised on his deep fear and outrage over what this bill was promoting. And that is to surplant all of the good work that has been done in the last 30 years.

"In calling this hui, Kiingi Tuhetia compelled iwi from the four corners of this country so that we could sit and talk together, and find a common place, in a unified position to reject clearly and undeniably our outrage and opposition to this bill."

Morgan said the Bill failed to reflect the established principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

"It does not reflect the incredible interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi. Instead of establishing principles, the Bill seeks to displant both principles that have been long established by the Waitangi Tribunal in courts and have been widely applied as a foundational element in settlements around Aotearoa."

Ngāti Kahungunu reject bill

Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber, alongside a portrait of his tūpuna and Treaty signatory Harawira Te Mahikai Te Tatere, delivered a passionate submission opposing the Treaty Principles Bill.

"I come to you as a tamaiti, or a tamariki, or a mokopuna of the Treaty of Waitangi. And we won't let the tapu, te mana o te ihi of the treaty be undermined or rejected by this government."

Barber told the parliamentary select committee he represented more than 100,000 members of Ngāti Kahungunu.

"We're here to reject this bill, strongly, because it undermines and seeks to destroy the intent of what our tūpuna signed.

"Our tūpuna were rangatiratanga - they knew exactly what they were signing and that they would maintain absolute authority over their whenua, their moana, their people, their tikanga te reo. And we are here to say that Kahungunu never ceded their sovereignty, their rangatiratanga."

Quoting a Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga Haka, 'Tika Tonu,' Barber urged the government to uphold its treaty obligations and claimed the ripple effect of the bill would negatively impact all New Zealanders, not just iwi.

"Tika, Tonu, be true, be right, U-e. It's uphold it, stand fast, hold it tight. U-e.

"So, our encouragement to the committee and this government is to do that. To be tika, be pono, and to be tika and pono is to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, not support this Bill."