Erin Green

Understanding why so many people are rightly incensed by the Treaty Principles Bill introduced to The House last week by the Act Party requires a reflection on Te Tiriti and the foundations of our nation.

This starts with why the agreement was signed in the first place, by representatives of iwi Māori, who numbered between 70 and 90,000 at the time, and the British Crown, whose settlers numbered around 2,000.

In very simplistic terms, and in my Pākehā layperson’s understanding, Māori sought to retain rangatiratanga over their treasures and people, as well as formalise a relationship with Britain, for access to international markets and defence by the world’s naval superpower. They would retain mana of their lands, but share authority, and have the ability to sell land at a fair price. They wanted the British government to take responsibility for the sometimes-unruly settlers arriving in increasing numbers on their shores. The Crown sought a formal relationship to secure commercial interests, like the purchase of land, to establish a colony and regulate the increasing numbers of British subjects settling here, while protecting Māori.

Crucially, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the agreement that was signed by 540 Māori chiefs first at Waitangi and then at various locations around the North Island in the following months, was written in te reo Māori. Under international law, Te Tiriti o Waitangi takes precedence where there are differences in meaning to the problematically translated English document ‘The Treaty of Waitangi’. However, this ruling has not been applied here in Aotearoa and differences in the meaning of the two documents have created tension ever since the signing. Especially regarding the terms kāwanatanga, sovereignty and tino rangatiratanga.

It is also important to remember that many iwi, like our neighbours here in Whakatāne, Ngāi Tūhoe, never signed Te Tiriti, and therefore never engaged in any agreement around concepts of sovereignty, yet the Crown has applied it to all Māori.

Irrespective of the differences in understanding by both parties of what was agreed, in the nearly two hundred years since the agreement was signed, there is no disputing that it has been thoroughly breached by the Crown resulting in the raupatu, or illegal confiscation, of millions of hectares of Māori land as well as the implementation of policies that penalised Māori, such as individualised land titles and sales. For example, The Crown unjustly confiscated around 440,000 hectares of land here in the Bay of Plenty, of which 245,000 was Ngāti Awa whenua.

Together, these practices destroyed already existing thriving Māori economies like the network of European-style ships that were purchased and used by Māori to trade internationally in the mid 1800s. Land confiscation and unjust practices, combined with mass loss of life caused by new diseases introduced by settlers, created significant economic poverty, which laid the grounds for today’s ongoing economic inequality.

By contrast, the ancestors of Pākehā families like mine have benefited greatly from these breaches, creating the intergenerational wealth related to land ownership that is now almost a necessary prerequisite to buying a home, and in turn creating the opportunity to build more wealth and security over time.

In acknowledgement of these grievous breaches, the government of the day in 1975 passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act which created the Waitangi Tribunal to interpret the agreements, investigate potential breaches, and suggest means of redress.

As a result, and over the many decades since, the Tribunal and courts have sought to define “Nga Mātāpono”, or the “Treaty Principles”, to guide the implementation of the Treaty in legislation and apply the spirit of the agreement in modern contexts. The principles represent the results of a body of work by experts in their field with nuanced understandings of all aspects of the Treaty/Te Tiriti and Aotearoa New Zealand history.

Under this umbrella, successive governments have made final “settlements” with many iwi to acknowledge the losses and provide some level of financial redress.

In my view, this is an area that is particularly poorly understood by many non-Māori New Zealanders, who often seem to believe that Māori have been unfairly overcompensated for their losses.

The reality is very different. Treaty settlements to date have a total value of around $2.6 billion in 2023.

That sounds like a lot, but some comparisons help to provide perspective. For example, the NZ government’s 2010 taxpayer bailout of South Canterbury Finance, a mismanaged private investment company used by people seeking higher returns on their money than a bank, totalled $1.77 billion. And the Government will spend about $19 billion on superannuation payments this year alone.

For iwi who have settled, analysis estimates that many have received about 1% of the value in real terms of the financial losses suffered. And of course, there is no level of financial redress that will ever compensate for the imposition of policies that caused a people to go from 95% fluent in their language in 1900 to just 25% by 1960, and the associated consequences of this language loss for cultural and spiritual well-being.

And now, one political party, with only 8% of the national electoral vote, led by David Seymour, and enabled by Christopher Luxon’s National Party, who were so keen to secure a coalition deal, that apparently nothing was off limits, have developed the ‘Treaty Principles Bill’.

This Bill seeks to apply the principles of the Treaty to “all New Zealanders” and fundamentally change the nature of Te Tiriti. This is being sold as ‘common sense’ and part of a ‘good faith’ discussion about the Treaty, pitching to a value really important to New Zealanders; fairness.

Yet the process that has been used to develop the proposed principles has been anything but fair, primarily because it has completely excluded one partner to the Treaty/Te Tiriti, Māori. It also ignores the ongoing injustice caused by Crown breaches of the Treaty/Te Tiriti that are yet to be addressed. Breaches that result, for example, in the average seven-year lower life expectancy of Māori men compared with non-Māori men.

Now tāngata Maori, who have been fighting for justice and mana motuhake for generations, are having to use precious energy and resources not to continue the slow, but steady, progress towards their rangatiratanga, but instead just to try not to lose ground.

And even if the National Party is true to its word and stops the Bill in its tracks at the second reading after the select committee process, much damage has already been done to Crown-Māori relations. Treating Te Tiriti in such a transactional manner undermines its mana and all of the progress and historical apologies made by the Crown for past injustices.

This so-called ‘debate’ also opens the door wide to bad-faith actors that have influenced the outcomes of electoral processes overseas like “The Voice” Australia, which saw the proportion of Australians supporting a voice for indigenous Australians to their government drop 25 percentage points in the year leading up to the vote after public relation campaigns.

It also enables the racists among us who, as former National Party MP Chris Finalyson recently noted, ‘come out of the woodwork’ at times like these and cause significant harm to those speaking up for what is just, especially wāhine Māori.

And the Treaty Principles Bill is not the only significant constitutional legislative change on our government’s agenda. Despite getting much less coverage, the coalition government is currently working to implement a deal made with coalition partners NZ First to review all Treaty clauses in legislation, excluding those in Treaty settlements. This review, if not done with integrity and with Māori partnership from the start, risks the very same problems as David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill.

Te iwi Māori have lots to celebrate with progress towards their mana motuhake or self-determination in recent decades. For example, taking those relatively paltry financial redress payments and turning the Māori economy into one of Aotearoa's economic success stories. And the resurgence of te Reo Māori and successes in Māori education, through the sheer determination and persistence of many Māori leaders and whānau.

But there’s a lot more to be done. And it will require a staunch and active response by non-Māori New Zealanders to stand up, alongside Māori, for what is fair and just, which is not the same as equal rights for all.

Te Tiriti provides a powerful and hopeful vision for respect and reciprocity that we can all honour and be proud to be a part of. But it requires honouring the agreement made in good faith in 1840 and addressing the ongoing inequities and challenges faced by te iwi Māori to their rangatiratanga.

This starts with shutting down both Act’s Treaty Principles Bill and NZ First’s review of Treaty clauses in existing non-settlement legislation, as well as the many other assaults on Māori this coalition is leading.