“This review is not about efficiency or clarity, it is about control.”
“For nearly 50 years, the Waitangi Tribunal has played a vital role in advancing justice for Māori.”
“The Government’s proposed review of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 is a clear attempt to undermine the Tribunal’s independence and diminish Māori rangatiratanga.” So proclaimed the PSA.
“This attack on the tribunal is nothing more than an attempt to limit the accountability the Government has to Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” Green Party’s Hūhana Lyndon.
The Waitangi Tribunal cannot be disestablished and that it remains a very important role in New Zealand society.” Former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Chris Finlayson.
On the other side of the argument, Political lobby group Hobsons Pledge are circulating a petition that’s calling for the tribunal to be closed down. Saying, “It is the right time to close it down. It was always meant to be a temporary standing commission.”
And hasn’t Winston Peters gone strangely quiet considering the Waitangi Tribunal review was a key part of his coalition agreement with National?
So where should fingers be pointed when looking for who conceived the beast that would morph into nothing but a “Gravy Train”?
We look no further than the Third Labour Government of New Zealand (1972–1975) led by Norman Kirk, later Bill Rowling post Kirks death in 1974. That government established the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 with “The Treaty of Waitangi Act”.
The Waitangi Tribunal was created to hear Māori claims concerning breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown. A key figure in getting the bill through parliament was Mat Rata, then Minister of Māori Affairs.
That 3rd Labour Government had the mettle most later governments lacked, to significantly change the character and function of New Zealand’s social fabric and their changes, unwittingly, evidenced the beginning of the erosion of our social equality!
Looking back today at that 3rd Labour Government, we look back at a defining era in New Zealand’s history. In just three short years, that government fundamentally reshaped the soul of our nation. The era of the Kirk/Rowling governments marked the beginning of a shift from a “New Zealander” focus or assimilation policy, turning us towards a bicultural society, and thus laying the groundwork for future Treaty of Waitangi settlement claims. Claims that these days more resemble government handouts when settled.
The 3rd Labour Government, in essence, redefined the Crown-Māori relationship. By up scaling Māori-led housing, formalising Maori language rights, and embracing and implementing a bicultural agenda, the state shifted from the assimilation agenda towards that “holy grail” of Partnership!
Labour’s 3 year tenure pioneered social and fiscal reforms introducing, now known as, “cradle-to-grave” protections that still anchor New Zealand’s political landscape. Legacy actions such as lowering the voting age to 18, targeted concessions for rates, travel, telephone and television licences for the elderly and expanding the Accident Compensation Act to cover students and visitors.
Workplace productivity was of concern then as it is, even more, today. To boost industrial output in true Labour fashion, the government uniquely incentivised the workforce introducing tax rebates for workers, offering 10 cents per hour for overtime and 40 cents for every shift worked.
But has there ever been a more significant catalyst for today’s Maori Sovereignty movement than when Labour fundamentally redefined what it meant to be Māori?
With The Maori Affairs Act 1974, the government abandoned the objective standard – previously requiring 50% or more for Māori descent – replacing it with an inexact definition, allowing anyone with the minutest trace of Māori ancestry to be deemed Maori. “If you feel Maori, you are Maori!”
This far reaching “political construct” has generated and enabled a system where special legal and political rights are assigned based on an ever-widening ancestral pool rather than universal citizenship.
Those actions collectively represented a pivotal departure from previous state policy. They clearly prioritised Crown-Māori partnerships and indigenous became the “in vogue” descriptor!
We must also consider the consequential expansion of the social welfare framework during this same period. Think Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB). The long-term impact on the social fabric of New Zealand – for both Māori and non-Māori – remains a point of intense scrutiny. Shifting the burden of responsibility from the family to the state created a cycle of dependency that continues to challenge our social and economic outcomes today.
While only being approximately 18% of New Zealand’s total population as of June 2025, Māori represented the largest ethnic group of Sole Parent Support (DPB) recipients, with 38,556 Māori recipients compared to 31,599 European recipients. (1)
For 2025, the total expenditure on Sole Parent Support was approximately $2.255 billion.
But today’s Maori elite, those now referred to as Tangata Whenua, those who derive the biggest financial benefit from successive government largess towards Maori, owe Mat Rata a huge debt of thanks!
The Waitangi Tribunal was tasked with holding the Crown accountable for Treaty breaches, but its influence and reach has expanded significantly over the decades. By applying broad and extremely flexible principles like “active protection” to modern-day policy, it has produced a string of findings that many find baffling.
For those who value a democracy built on absolute equality, the Tribunal’s more radical, some might say militant, decisions represent a frustrating departure from common-sense governance. New Zealanders have, over many years, shaken their collective heads at some of the bizarre and ridiculous findings of the Waitangi tribunal!
In 2012 the Bolger government proposed the privatisation of electricity generators. The Waitangi Tribunal, in their infinite wisdom stipulated the government must pause the sale of state-owned power companies until Māori rights to water and geothermal resources were fully addressed!
In 2014 the Tribunal, following an inquiry, ruled that Ngāpuhi chiefs did not cede their sovereignty to the Crown when signing Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
In 2021, so unbounded was their wisdom, the Tribunal found the governments vaccine rollout and “traffic light” system breached the Treaty principle of “active protection” by failing to account for Māori health vulnerabilities.
In 2023 the tribunal commenced hearing the Military Veterans Inquiry. Investigating Treaty breaches relating to the treatment, discrimination, and lack of cultural support for Māori Defence Force members from WWII to the present. This hearing is ongoing and now includes the Chief of the Army, Major General Rose King, her husband Lieutenant Colonel Glenn King, the facilitator and designer of the Army’s Bicultural Heritage Framework.
In 2024, truly self – inflating their sense of authority, the Tribunal issued an unprecedented summons to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. Claiming the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was a political decision and that section legally binds the state to consider Treaty of Waitangi principles and Māori genealogy when managing children in care! They needed to hear from the “primary mind” behind it!
Waitangi Tribunal costs continue to balloon with annual tribunal costs exceeding $35 million in the 2023/2024 financial year. This was largely driven by “legal aid lawyers. Legal aid funds covered lawyer fees, travel, meals, accommodation, and expenses related to attending hui.
That legal aid reached $79 million over the period 2006 – 2012!
Yes, the Waitangi Tribunal was set up with good intention, yes there was a specific need and a defined purpose but those parameters have, over recent years, been made redundant and irrelevant by both the litigants and the tribunal themselves.
They have cultivated for themselves an inflated sense of purpose, seeing themselves as a shadow government, they have developed a very long reach, a reach that continually has its hand firmly embedded in the taxpayers pocket. All in the name of righting perceived wrongs that are rooted in myths, legends, ancient customs and protocols! Imagining claims of racial inequality, ideologically skewed history and focusing too heavily on grievance and special privileges for Māori.
The Waitangi Tribunal has become a Government sponsored, Maori centred “gravy train” administered by radical thinking appointees, approving claims, none of which are open to being challenged! In turn the “activist judiciary” seem to ensure the Tribunal’s recommendations enjoy near total approval!
This is a social and financial fraud of massive proportions perpetrated on New Zealand by self proclaimed, so called indigenous leaders and abetted by politicians who seem to have the art of “pork barrel politics” finely honed as they slowly corrode democracy, all in the name of holding power!
The Waitangi Tribunal has forgotten its purpose and has run its race. It is time to stop the policy of appeasement, dismantle the grievance industry and return authority of this country to where it belongs, with Parliament.
“The Tribunal exists to make lawyers and a few elite Maori very rich. It has deprived our people from their birthright and divided and destroyed many of our communities. The sooner it is shut down the better.” - (David Hone Heke Rankin, Ngapuhi 12/12/15)
(1) Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE
“This attack on the tribunal is nothing more than an attempt to limit the accountability the Government has to Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” Green Party’s Hūhana Lyndon.
The Waitangi Tribunal cannot be disestablished and that it remains a very important role in New Zealand society.” Former Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, Chris Finlayson.
On the other side of the argument, Political lobby group Hobsons Pledge are circulating a petition that’s calling for the tribunal to be closed down. Saying, “It is the right time to close it down. It was always meant to be a temporary standing commission.”
And hasn’t Winston Peters gone strangely quiet considering the Waitangi Tribunal review was a key part of his coalition agreement with National?
So where should fingers be pointed when looking for who conceived the beast that would morph into nothing but a “Gravy Train”?
We look no further than the Third Labour Government of New Zealand (1972–1975) led by Norman Kirk, later Bill Rowling post Kirks death in 1974. That government established the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 with “The Treaty of Waitangi Act”.
The Waitangi Tribunal was created to hear Māori claims concerning breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown. A key figure in getting the bill through parliament was Mat Rata, then Minister of Māori Affairs.
That 3rd Labour Government had the mettle most later governments lacked, to significantly change the character and function of New Zealand’s social fabric and their changes, unwittingly, evidenced the beginning of the erosion of our social equality!
Looking back today at that 3rd Labour Government, we look back at a defining era in New Zealand’s history. In just three short years, that government fundamentally reshaped the soul of our nation. The era of the Kirk/Rowling governments marked the beginning of a shift from a “New Zealander” focus or assimilation policy, turning us towards a bicultural society, and thus laying the groundwork for future Treaty of Waitangi settlement claims. Claims that these days more resemble government handouts when settled.
The 3rd Labour Government, in essence, redefined the Crown-Māori relationship. By up scaling Māori-led housing, formalising Maori language rights, and embracing and implementing a bicultural agenda, the state shifted from the assimilation agenda towards that “holy grail” of Partnership!
Labour’s 3 year tenure pioneered social and fiscal reforms introducing, now known as, “cradle-to-grave” protections that still anchor New Zealand’s political landscape. Legacy actions such as lowering the voting age to 18, targeted concessions for rates, travel, telephone and television licences for the elderly and expanding the Accident Compensation Act to cover students and visitors.
Workplace productivity was of concern then as it is, even more, today. To boost industrial output in true Labour fashion, the government uniquely incentivised the workforce introducing tax rebates for workers, offering 10 cents per hour for overtime and 40 cents for every shift worked.
But has there ever been a more significant catalyst for today’s Maori Sovereignty movement than when Labour fundamentally redefined what it meant to be Māori?
With The Maori Affairs Act 1974, the government abandoned the objective standard – previously requiring 50% or more for Māori descent – replacing it with an inexact definition, allowing anyone with the minutest trace of Māori ancestry to be deemed Maori. “If you feel Maori, you are Maori!”
This far reaching “political construct” has generated and enabled a system where special legal and political rights are assigned based on an ever-widening ancestral pool rather than universal citizenship.
Those actions collectively represented a pivotal departure from previous state policy. They clearly prioritised Crown-Māori partnerships and indigenous became the “in vogue” descriptor!
We must also consider the consequential expansion of the social welfare framework during this same period. Think Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB). The long-term impact on the social fabric of New Zealand – for both Māori and non-Māori – remains a point of intense scrutiny. Shifting the burden of responsibility from the family to the state created a cycle of dependency that continues to challenge our social and economic outcomes today.
While only being approximately 18% of New Zealand’s total population as of June 2025, Māori represented the largest ethnic group of Sole Parent Support (DPB) recipients, with 38,556 Māori recipients compared to 31,599 European recipients. (1)
For 2025, the total expenditure on Sole Parent Support was approximately $2.255 billion.
But today’s Maori elite, those now referred to as Tangata Whenua, those who derive the biggest financial benefit from successive government largess towards Maori, owe Mat Rata a huge debt of thanks!
The Waitangi Tribunal was tasked with holding the Crown accountable for Treaty breaches, but its influence and reach has expanded significantly over the decades. By applying broad and extremely flexible principles like “active protection” to modern-day policy, it has produced a string of findings that many find baffling.
For those who value a democracy built on absolute equality, the Tribunal’s more radical, some might say militant, decisions represent a frustrating departure from common-sense governance. New Zealanders have, over many years, shaken their collective heads at some of the bizarre and ridiculous findings of the Waitangi tribunal!
In 2012 the Bolger government proposed the privatisation of electricity generators. The Waitangi Tribunal, in their infinite wisdom stipulated the government must pause the sale of state-owned power companies until Māori rights to water and geothermal resources were fully addressed!
In 2014 the Tribunal, following an inquiry, ruled that Ngāpuhi chiefs did not cede their sovereignty to the Crown when signing Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
In 2021, so unbounded was their wisdom, the Tribunal found the governments vaccine rollout and “traffic light” system breached the Treaty principle of “active protection” by failing to account for Māori health vulnerabilities.
In 2023 the tribunal commenced hearing the Military Veterans Inquiry. Investigating Treaty breaches relating to the treatment, discrimination, and lack of cultural support for Māori Defence Force members from WWII to the present. This hearing is ongoing and now includes the Chief of the Army, Major General Rose King, her husband Lieutenant Colonel Glenn King, the facilitator and designer of the Army’s Bicultural Heritage Framework.
In 2024, truly self – inflating their sense of authority, the Tribunal issued an unprecedented summons to Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. Claiming the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act was a political decision and that section legally binds the state to consider Treaty of Waitangi principles and Māori genealogy when managing children in care! They needed to hear from the “primary mind” behind it!
Waitangi Tribunal costs continue to balloon with annual tribunal costs exceeding $35 million in the 2023/2024 financial year. This was largely driven by “legal aid lawyers. Legal aid funds covered lawyer fees, travel, meals, accommodation, and expenses related to attending hui.
That legal aid reached $79 million over the period 2006 – 2012!
Yes, the Waitangi Tribunal was set up with good intention, yes there was a specific need and a defined purpose but those parameters have, over recent years, been made redundant and irrelevant by both the litigants and the tribunal themselves.
They have cultivated for themselves an inflated sense of purpose, seeing themselves as a shadow government, they have developed a very long reach, a reach that continually has its hand firmly embedded in the taxpayers pocket. All in the name of righting perceived wrongs that are rooted in myths, legends, ancient customs and protocols! Imagining claims of racial inequality, ideologically skewed history and focusing too heavily on grievance and special privileges for Māori.
The Waitangi Tribunal has become a Government sponsored, Maori centred “gravy train” administered by radical thinking appointees, approving claims, none of which are open to being challenged! In turn the “activist judiciary” seem to ensure the Tribunal’s recommendations enjoy near total approval!
This is a social and financial fraud of massive proportions perpetrated on New Zealand by self proclaimed, so called indigenous leaders and abetted by politicians who seem to have the art of “pork barrel politics” finely honed as they slowly corrode democracy, all in the name of holding power!
The Waitangi Tribunal has forgotten its purpose and has run its race. It is time to stop the policy of appeasement, dismantle the grievance industry and return authority of this country to where it belongs, with Parliament.
“The Tribunal exists to make lawyers and a few elite Maori very rich. It has deprived our people from their birthright and divided and destroyed many of our communities. The sooner it is shut down the better.” - (David Hone Heke Rankin, Ngapuhi 12/12/15)
(1) Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE
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