The clause, which requires school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, will now be reviewed as part of a broader government workstream.
ACT leader David Seymour said the clause should have been dropped outright and claimed it reflects a political project to reshape New Zealand’s culture. “There is a lot of disquiet,” he said. “People want schools to focus on reading, writing and arithmetic.”
The bill, introduced by Education Minister Erica Stanford, changes Section 127 to establish academic achievement as the paramount objective of school boards.
Treaty obligations are retained as a supporting objective rather than a primary one. Despite this change, Hobson’s Pledge accused Stanford of sneaking in a radical clause and called for its immediate removal.
Stanford dismissed those claims as “complete and utter garbage” but confirmed that she referred the matter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s wider Treaty clause review.
Elliot Ikilei of Hobson’s Pledge argued that terms like tikanga Māori are vague and vary significantly by region. He said the focus should be on measurable outcomes like literacy and science rather than subjective content tied to identity politics.
NZ First also supports removing the clause immediately but have agreed to address it within the broader Treaty of Waitangi clause review. “If they shouldn’t be there, they won’t be,” said Winston Peters.
The bill, introduced by Education Minister Erica Stanford, changes Section 127 to establish academic achievement as the paramount objective of school boards.
Treaty obligations are retained as a supporting objective rather than a primary one. Despite this change, Hobson’s Pledge accused Stanford of sneaking in a radical clause and called for its immediate removal.
Stanford dismissed those claims as “complete and utter garbage” but confirmed that she referred the matter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s wider Treaty clause review.
Elliot Ikilei of Hobson’s Pledge argued that terms like tikanga Māori are vague and vary significantly by region. He said the focus should be on measurable outcomes like literacy and science rather than subjective content tied to identity politics.
NZ First also supports removing the clause immediately but have agreed to address it within the broader Treaty of Waitangi clause review. “If they shouldn’t be there, they won’t be,” said Winston Peters.
Read more over at The NZ Herald (paywalled) and RNZ
The Centrist is a new online news platform that strives to provide a balance to the public debate - where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
"Garbage"? How can Stanford claim that she's promoting reading and writing when she can't even use the English language herself?
NZF: If they shouldn't be there they won't be". Well, they shouldn't be there NZF. Surely you have studied the bill and understand it? We are not going to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion unless ACT and NZF can actually heal their past differences and work constructively together. As a NZF voter last time I want ACT supported on these issues. Don't take voters for granted, we are not interested in political parties just democratic outcomes.
"Treaty obligations are retained as a supporting objective rather than a primary one" But of note, is that the primary objective cannot be achieved unless the supporting ones are accomplished.
It's backhanded politics when the promise was to entirely focus on academic achievement. So in effect, a lie from Stanford.
My next vote at this stage would have been between NZF or ACT. NZF not working with ACT to remove this at the first chance means my vote will now be ACT. This is just too important.
Last election I voted National. I can't see that ever happening again without a serious change in direction.
I am of a similar mind on this, gave NZF my vote last time because I wanted them in the mix to back up/work with ACT because I could clearly detect that Luxon was the weakest link. However, while we cannot see what goes on in Cabinet, greater priority was required when it comes to ripping out all the irrelevant Treaty clauses in legislation. It is quite beyond me how the job has been delegated (or is that abdicated) to Goldsmith and Potaka. The former is a vacillator 'extraordinaire' who has turned it into an art form and the latter (if I have his measure correct) will be doing all he can to block or obfuscate. These are the primary reasons Luxon put them up for it and the other coalition parties seem to have been effectively sidelined as a result. If NZF do not get into gear and work closer with ACT, I know where my votes will be going - assuming I have not quit the Country by Oct 2026 as that is very much in the wind.
It would seem there are many of us who want NZF & ACT to coalesce a little more, sure they can have their own policies/points of difference but as Janine has said above, we are not interested in political parties just democratic outcomes and frankly swift ones! Life is too damned short to wait on these issues of importance. Rome is effectively burning under 'Nero' Luxon's watch and the Marxists are just waiting for their opportunity to sneak in and win. NZF should have supported ACT's Treaty Principles Bill in spite of the semantics of there being no principles, this would not have hindered the removal of Treaty principle references and besides, the primary place where that must happen is in the TOW Act itself and that is not even mentioned in the Goldsmith/Potaka Treaty clause tasking! Why the hell not?
As an educationalist I have seen the difficulty of teaching two languages to small children . Confusion is the outcome since the vowels ate quite different. Our English literacy standards are already the worst in the English speaking world. They can only decline further with compulsory Te Reo.
As a Christian I object strongly to a child being indoctrinated into another religion I would consider a cult. Ancestor contact and worship is condemned in Christianity. This so wrong of Standford. . How can anyone consider forcing that onto others ?
I see in the news, today , Haiti another country that was taken over by cultist animism has now disintegrated into complete mayhem.
I bame Winston for his personal vendetta against David Seymour. It's no longer 'NZ First' but 'Winston First' It's time he handed the reins over to younger, more tolerant people in his party (but keep him on as Foreign Minister)
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