The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty matters.
When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there were at least 50 known Treaty clauses in legislation with about 14 variations in their description of the Crown's obligations as a Treaty partner.
Chaos.
But what will be left of any new Treaty clauses to monitor is an open question because of a radical direction the coalition Government is taking already, ahead of the review.
It is no longer putting general Treaty clauses in legislation.
That became evident last week when the Fast-Track Approvals Bill was unveiled, which sets out a process for ministers to approve significant infrastructure projects. It did not have a general clause.
But leaving out a general Treaty clause is not a one-off, says New Zealand First's Regional Development Minister shane jones, who helped Infrastructure Minister chris bishop to produce the bill. There will be no more general Treaty clauses in any new legislation, Jones said.
“If you look at the sentiment in the coalition agreement, it should come as no surprise to anyone that there is not and will not be any more generic open-ended Treaty clauses.”
Excellent. These clauses mean that no one knows what the law actually means, as they are so vague.
If we think there should be legislative respect for the treaty of waitangi, or its principles, then they should be clearly defined by the legislature.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
4 comments:
It is a nonsense to refer to treaty of waiting clauses. ToW has nothing to do with it. This sort of language is a carefully manipulated smokescreen for civil revolution. It has been happening for years as all institutions of NZ life are corrupted. It is insidious, it has nothing to do with democracy and legitimacy. It has no inherent validation except its own and the de facto endorsement of the beguiled masses.
One has to wonder at the basic competence of the 'constitutional experts' who wrote those Principles of the Treaty clauses into various Acts, without defining what they were.
It's high time this boil was lanced.
It's not just in the legislation - it is embedded throughout the entire Maori-archy.
I worked as a contractor at MED (now MBIE) about 20 years ago on a massive IT outsourcing cash cow. We had a requirements document template that had a mandatory section where we had to describe how the IT system changes would support the principles of The Treaty of Waitangi. Yes, seriously, we did.
My approach to filling this out was to say that basically Maori are no different from anyone else, so they will get exactly the same IT system benefits as every other human being. I didn't get pinged once, although I fear that's because the MED Thought Police were incompetent, rather than them agreeing them me.
Halcyon days, long gone.
As Shane has said, getting the TOW removed from all legislation will be a massive task because of the way it's been woven into just about everything . How about a simple piece of legislation to say that no-one can be punished in any way for failing to uphold the principles of the TOW because they have never legally been defined.
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