Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says the Government will not agree to Treaty settlements that dispute whether the Crown is now sovereign.
Goldsmith made the comments to the Māori Affairs select committee this morning amid ongoing negotiations with East Coast iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and hopes a settlement can be reached with the country’s largest iwi, Ngāpuhi.
Under the previous Labour Government, an initial deed of settlement with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui was drawn up.
It includes the first case of a clause agreeing to disagree on who holds sovereignty. . .
Allowing any individual or group other than the government to have sovereignty is an invitation to anarchy.
The deed notes Te Whānau-ā-Apanui consider they are a sovereign nation that never ceded sovereignty to the Crown and retain that sovereignty today, while the Crown considers its sovereignty today as incontrovertible.
The differing views are not reconciled in the deed and nothing in the deed is to be taken as the iwi relinquishing that sovereignty.
Goldsmith said the Government is uncomfortable with this agree-to-disagree clause and it is not prepared to progress the settlement without that being removed.
“It makes it difficult in the sense that you’re signing up to a full and final settlement, but the entity fundamental doesn’t acknowledge the authority of the Crown to do it in one respect, and we weren’t comfortable with that,” he says.
“The Crown’s position is clear; the Crown is sovereign. The Crown is simply the representation of the democratic will of the people of New Zealand.” . .
The democratic will is for full and final settlements in acknowledgement of past mistakes and Treaty breaches.
It is not for different rights and laws for different people, nor is it to allow the government to cede sovereignty.
The government is right to draw this line in the sand and it is one no future government should attempt to erase or cross.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
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