On October 15th 2025, the University of Auckland Council voted to make its compulsory Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) paper optional. Act Party MP, Parmjeet Parmar, said, “This is an enormous victory for student choice over ideology”, and “The compulsory nature of this course was always about pushing Treaty ideology onto students, with no regard for their interests.”
Before cracking open the champagne, look at the exemptions to this ruling (as also mentioned when Parmjeet Parmar talked with Michael Laws on The Platform 17th October) where the course remains compulsory for those studying accredited programmes or pathways towards accredited programmes. These include:
· Bachelor of Education (Teaching) - BEd(Tchg)
· Bachelor of Architectural Studies – BAS
· Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) - BE(Hons)
· Bachelor of Urban Planning (Honours) - BUrbPlan(Hons)
· Bachelor of Health Sciences – BHSc
· Bachelor of Nursing – BNurs
· Students who are commencing study in a Bachelor of Science and intending to apply for entry to a clinical programme in 2027 (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery – MBChB, Bachelor of Medical Imaging (Honours) - BMedImag(Hons), Bachelor of Optometry – BOpt, Bachelor of Pharmacy – BPharm.
Over 8,000 students have taken the WTR course during 2025, including international students, paying up to $5,730 each in course fees. All students likely benefit from a Stage 1 course that addresses communication and IT skills, report writing, and social responsibilities of a graduate in a modern multi-cultural society.
But, why should a course with Treaty-related content that amounts to indoctrination be mandatory for students in the above programmes? Sure, one can cite requirements of the professional bodies that accredit these degrees. However, what are those professional requirements, are they in fact necessary for students taking the above degrees, and have they been politicised?
Necessary Programme Content
For many years this author was involved with accreditation of Engineering degrees in New Zealand. These accreditations require a graduate profile [1] that includes content outside the core subjects focused on mathematics, engineering science, technology and design. Apart from the content of a general Stage 1 course such as noted above, specific topics for Engineering students have included, for example, financial and management accounts, project management, human resources management, marketing, aspects of the law including contract law, health and safety, ethics, environmental sustainability, and various other topics, all of which assist a graduate to function more effectively in a professional career. It may also include content in the area of cultural competence, important, for example, for civil engineers whose construction work may impact iwi land or waterways interests. Often, much of this content appears later in the degree rather than in Year 1.
The Engineering New Zealand accreditation [1] of degrees requires that the programme provides familiarisation with engineering knowledge from matauranga Māori that is relevant to the discipline. The graduate profile also expects that, in relation to a current project, the engineer
· Identifies all relevant constraints and requirements, including any need to partner with or co-develop with relevant Māori communities through the project.
· Understands the tikanga for partnering with relevant Māori communities and identifies the steps to be undertaken to address other cultural or community concerns.
These requirements, if vague, may be relevant for environmental engineers and a subset of civil engineers, but for most professional engineers, e.g. electrical, mechanical, chemical, software, most matauranga Māori traditional knowledge sits outside modern science (but may complement it) or is at a very early technology level.
It was noted in an earlier article [2] that when European settlers arrived in the late 18th and into the 19th century, Māori society was without written language, the wheel, metal smelting, pottery, mathematics, physics, chemistry or biology. Their technology level was similar to other societies at or predating 3,000 BC. Therefore, whilst engagement with matauranga Māori may be very appropriate in some areas, the decision as to its professional relevance must be realistic and pragmatic.
There is a world of difference between a brief foray, say one or two lectures, into the culture of one ethnic group or another to create awareness, and an entire course where substantial time may be taken up with Te Ao Māori alone, and students are presented with a particular world view, a particular history of New Zealand, and beliefs about the operation of the natural world that include spiritual ideas and myth. For example, in Te Ao Māori, water, trees and inanimate objects are attributed with spirits. Any ideological, social constructivist framing of courses such as WTR opens the door to the inclusion of all sorts of non-disciplinary material that is not relevant to the course, let alone a crowded curriculum.
Engineering degrees, which in New Zealand comprise a four-year Honours programme, are tightly packed with essential content and some of this is dropped on a regular basis so that new areas of engineering science and technology can be included. This issue alone raises the risk of poor decisions on programme design, because some essential knowledge has been forgotten, for example, about the behaviour of certain metals in aggressive marine applications, or more seriously, design against metal fatigue and the risk of catastrophic failure of an aircraft fuselage. Relying on Artificial Intelligence to handle such situations does not eliminate risk.
Moreover, in a densely packed technical curriculum, Engineering students have few optional subjects, normally one or two papers in the 3rd or 4th year, for example, an Economics or Law paper. Students who commendably seek a broader education might only fit in a desired paper, say, in music or a foreign language by taking on more than a full academic load.
Those designing and prescribing Engineering degree courses must steer resolutely clear of sliding content into general “engineer in society” courses that may not be relevant and that also leans into indoctrination. The University of Auckland WTR courses were an attempt at social engineering, the manifesto for this clearly laid out by Hoskins and Jones [3], who aimed for indigenisation of the university. It is understood that these authors were principal architects of WTR. Treaty indoctrination has also been occurring in programmes such as in Nursing, Health Sciences and Law programmes more widely in New Zealand universities.
The professional worlds of engineers, scientists, doctors, nurses and architects, rely on modern science whose provisional truths are universal and colour blind. Sure, our graduates should have some understanding of the world views of ethnicities they have to deal with in their professional life, but we must not use “protected” course content to tell them how to think in regard to any one group with whom they will later interact. This is racial essentialism, consistent with the idea that identity groups share monolithic viewpoints.
Knowledge Rather than Belief
As previously noted by this author and others, the Treaty of Waitangi is silent on education. Universities will never be free of political activism, but it is vital that science-based programmes steer clear of content that is belief-based rather than knowledge-based, and that may be aimed to shape political views rather than support a professional education.
Our universities must make courses like the University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau course optional across all degree programmes, but simply making a course optional doesn't fix the content. Whether compulsory or optional, these courses are unacceptable if they are still based around relativist, anti-science ideology.
Course content to meet professional accreditation requirements should be negotiated and curated very carefully. Ultimately, being culturally aware and competent is commonly necessary, but we must never condone professional practice decisions that contravene the best available scientific knowledge or the professional’s ethical duty to the wider community.
Critical Social Justice politics still have strong momentum in our universities. New examples emerge regularly – such as a professor, expert in his field, being excluded from consideration for a research development award because he was a white male, or Stage 1 History students being advised that referencing certain works is mandatory – is this leading to imposed views and will citing non-preferred works be penalised? In this environment, to remain credible and relevant universities must be culturally neutral, refocus on open enquiry and merit, and ensure that no taught courses or research can be seen to have been used as a platform for political activism.
John Raine is an Emeritus Professor of Engineering and held Deputy or Pro Vice Chancellor roles in three New Zealand Universities. He has led Engineering degree programme accreditations at the University of Canterburyand Auckland University of Technology, and has sat on the accreditation panel for the University of Auckland Mechanical Engineering degree.
References
1. Engineering New Zealand, “Accreditation Criteria and Documentation Requirements - ACC 02 March 2025 (version 4.2) https://d2rjvl4n5h2b61.cloudfront.net/media/documents/ACC_02_Accreditation_Criteria_V4.2_final_20250326.pdf
2. John Raine: “Ideological Illogic – Facts Not Feels, Please”, Bassett Brash and Hide, 13th August 2024 https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/john-raine-ideological-illogic-facts-not-feels-please? (also in Breaking Views NZ 13th August 2024 https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/08/professor-john-raine-ideological.html )
3. Te Kawehau Hoskins and Alison Jones, “Indigenous Inclusion and Indigenising the University”, New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-022-00264-1, Volume 57, 2022, pages 305–320.
16 comments:
If one believed the media, one would have thought virtually all courses would be exempt, but obviously not. Come on Luxon and National-if you want to be in Government for another term, make all courses voluntary. Stop encouraging our brightest to leave the country because of indoctrination.
End the Maori jumbo jumbo now.
But fellow posters, don't be fooled into thinking the Maori issue is nzs biggest problem.
The 2025 govt budget assigns $566m to Maori development.
Meanwhile the price colluding, world leading profit margin, nz electricity cartel charged you $10b in 2025
NZ gentailers profit margins are double international benchmarks which means you're being ripped off $5b every year!
That leaves plenty of cash to encourage the likes of David Farrar to publish regular decoy Maori bashing articles but strangely no articles about the ongoing electricity cartel ripoff appear on his blog site.
And plenty of cash to convince Nicola Willis and Simon Watts to implement only 2/12 recommendations from the latest unnecessary, action delaying, electricity market report.
So Mr Luxon, Mr Bishop, Mr Brown, and Mrs Stanford, did you enter politics to stand by and watch Nicola Willis support kiwi battler bank account emptying nz big business cartels?
Students should learn about the history and social and political issues of their country but in a balanced way, and devoting an entire course, an expensive one at that, is very questionable.
In particular, it does not seem sensible to make international students pay big money to take such a course and we stood to lose some international students, and therefore income, that way. Naturally, in many degree programmes space for such courses is very limited, including engineering and science degrees.
Of course, so much depends on course content and it does appear that many students reacted negatively to what they were getting. Perhaps there is a place for such courses in New Zealand universities, provided that they are optional and provided that a high quality of delivery and balance of social, historic and political perspectives are maintained. David Lillis
As a retired pharmacist of more than 50 years practice, I can state emphatically that so called "Treaty courses" are completely irrelevant to the healthcare practice of pharmacy. In fact, wasting time and mental energy on such irrelevant courses could only be at the cost of higher professional standards.
In fact, in pharmacy, all patients are treated and respected as individuals, not classified according to their ethnicity.
As a retired electronic systems engineer with similar years under my belt and previous Fellow of the UK IET, all I can say is "ditto". It has beggar all relevance to engineering.
Students should learn about the history and social and political issues of their country
Most will have sat through years of social studies/history/geography lessons about NZ, ToW, etc at primary and secondary school.
No need to repeat the boringly well-known narratives yet again at Uni.
As a semi-retired Parasitologist with 60 years (and still working) experience, I can also state that nothing in maoridom or the maori world view has had any influence on my research findings, and in fact I am surprised at how unobservant maoris were when it came to parasites, especially external ones, apart from fleas and scabies mites which their ancestors seem to have introduced, they don't appear to have oral records of anything else, yet NZ's wildlife has many associated species.
I'm fortunately in an activity (deliberately not identified) that hasn't yet fallen prey to this nonsense, but I agree with the others - it needs to be non-compulsory in all those six identified activities.
Anon@6.45, you appear to have forgotten Potaka's $1Billion for Te Reo initiatives and you downplay the true cost to the economy in lost 'real' productivity. And David, your closing paragraph is wishful thinking and I'll wager the content that actually meets that threshold will be zero.
When I heard that the compulsory courses were being scrapped my immediate reaction was "the bastards don't give in this easily" which regrettably seems to be correct. The only good thing I learnt was that Clearwater is leaving.
Can you just see the intimidation that went on at AKL Uni to make 400 academic staff sign the document requesting the Maori indoctrination course by retained for all students ?
Bet there were standover tactics by greenstone wearing staff threatening jobs and careers if people didn't sign and be identified.
If Luxon had any gonads he would immediately stop all funding of all of NZs universities until the in your face racist nonsense is stopped.
However, imploring Luxon to do the correct thing is wasted effort.
Please, when will some group within National roll him ?
Peter, I searched and failed to find any mention of a $1b te reo budget. Perhaps you could post a reference.
I did find numerous examples of Maori specific funding cut by Luxons government...
"Budget 2025: Minister for Māori Tama Potaka defends $757M reduction in Māori Funding"
Even if your $1b claim is true, it pales in comparison to the $5b electricity companies stole off you this year and the many billions more stolen by price colluding banks, supermarkets, and insurance companies.
So isnt it time to shift focus to the much greater problem of Nicola Willis supporting the nz cartels great kiwi rip off?
In my day BE Hons meant a notably superior ability/acheivement cf the multitude. Now it means a higher degree of indoctrination.
So - another half-baked measure with partial success to roll back the He Puapua agenda. Indeed NZ university qualifications are now a type of indoctrination. But easy to reverse by another Left govt. Two frightening facts for the future: i) the blatant aggression of academics - who are key CRT agents - to resist any effort to return to return to normalcy and ii) the appalling apathy of the NZ public to watch what is happening to their country in plain sight.
Anon@4.33, it was a snippet broadcast on TV1 News, 15 Sept 2025, wherein Tama Potaka said “We continue to support te reo Māori — nearly a billion dollars a year into te reo Māori initiatives.” While I suspect he was taking a bit of licence, that is what he said and we should be able to take a Minister of the Crown at their word. But, yes, I don't deny the oligopolies are also rorting us (e.g. Contact's latest gas price increase announcement), but don't underestimate the grift and other rip-offs in the reputed $70+Billion "Maori economy". And do you really think all those Waitangi claims were entirely fair and just - and, if so, what about the more recent claim that they didn't cede sovereignty? Then there are the Tamihere's of this world who are (well, leastwise in his case, were) doing rather nicely from the taxpayers purse. All I'm saying is don't underestimate what this is all costing this country in misdirected activity - from Karakia to Matariki, compulsory study courses through to consultations and direct legal proceedings, and from the airwaves to the mountains, rivers, lakes, conservation estates out to the foreshores and seabeds etc. - all with little or no end to it currently in sight.
You've entered into a new realm with your latest post.... the Clark and Clark advised Ardern tax money laundering schemes.
Arderns government gifted $10m to the Maori kings family... why?
Arderns government funneled millions into the waiparera trust with inadequate controls... why?
Arderns government spent billions on consultants to work on ghost projects (as Luxon described them)....why?
Arderns government paid millions to NZs gangs... why?
All those payments stopped under Luxons government.
But Willis is making sure the electricity, bank, supermarket, and insurance cartels continue creating nzs extremely high cost of living....why?
Anon@11.02, agreed, but Luxon's Govt may have stopped those, but not others. You raise some good points to which I don't know the answers, but good on you for raising them.
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