The signed Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and India will come into force in New Zealand when approved by New Zealand’s Parliament. The National, Labour and ACT political parties have each committed themselves to voting in favour of legislation adopting the FTA. It’s therefore virtually certain that Parliament will entrench the FTA in New Zealand’s indigenous law before the next general election scheduled for 7 November 2026.
And “indigenous” is apt, because the FTA contains the following express provision:
The Parties…affirm…the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in New York on 13 September 2007 and their respective positions made in that Declaration.
Parliament has not to date incorporated the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into New Zealand law. And rightly so. UNDRIP is designed to protect such blasts from the past as lost tribes in the Amazon jungles. It was never intended or designed to confer special rights on such humans as societally-integrated New Zealanders with Māori ancestry.
Despite that, UNDRIP is cited by New Zealand race activists - including in the Waitangi Tribunal – in support of a separate, self-determining Māori nation, in partnership with a non-Māori nation. This, from UNDRIP itself:
Considering also that treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements, and the relationship they represent, are the basis for a strengthened partnership between indigenous peoples and States
New Zealand’s Human Rights Commission monitors and reports on the New Zealand Government’s performance against UNDRIP.
More particularly, the 2021 Labour Government’s ministerial He Pūapua report advocated for full implementation of UNDRIP by 2040, the bicentenary of the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Government secretly began work on a plan.
In July 2024, National MP Tama Potaka’s Ministry for Māori Development (Te Puni Kōkiri) appears to have announced that the Government was no longer progressing a plan to embed UNDRIP in New Zealand law.
That ostensible announcement was consistent with the National/NZ First Coalition agreement, which specifically provides:
The Coalition Government will reverse measures taken in recent years which have eroded the principle of equal citizenship, specifically we will…Stop all work on He Puapua [and] Confirm that the Coalition Government does not recognise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as having any binding legal effect on New Zealand.
The Government Minister behind the NZ/India FTA is The Honourable Todd McClay, as Minister of Trade and Investment, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hon Todd is therefore politically responsible for the inclusion in the FTA of the New Zealand Government’s express affirmation of UNDRIP, an affirmation that will have binding legal effect in New Zealand once Parliament approves the FTA.
It’s logical that the National Party is now working towards embodying UNDRIP in New Zealand law. Because it was former Prime Minister John Key’s National Government that decided in 2010 to support UNDRIP.
Key arranged for Dr Pita Sharples, then Minister of Māori Affairs, to formally deliver New Zealand’s declaration of support for UNDRIP at the United Nations in New York.
But the awkward reality is that, by working to embed UNDRIP in New Zealand’s legal fabric, through the backdoor of the NZ/India FTA, the National Party is breaching its coalition agreement with NZ First.
To be clear, Parliament has no option to exclude the FTA’s affirmation of UNDRIP, when it approves the FTA (Parliament must either adopt the FTA in its signed form, or not. The choice is binary). On such approval, UNDRIP will be automatically supercharged and enshrined, becoming as much an integral part of New Zealand law as the FTA itself.
This is all profoundly undemocratic and sly. New Zealanders’ ouster of Labour at the last general election represented a profound rejection of the philosophies that underpin UNDRIP and which motivated such things as Labour’s “Three Waters” attempt at race-based governance of New Zealand’s fresh water.
The National/ACT coalition agreement contains no rejection of He Pūapua and UNDRIP. Which is perhaps why ACT feels free to vote in favour of making the FTA, including UNDRIP, legally binding on New Zealanders.
UNDRIP is much more than a drip in the bucket. Bringing UNDRIP into New Zealand law will have profound constitutional consequences. How can this have been allowed to happen? Who voted for this?
There’s a Hole in Our Bucket, Dear Reader, Dear Reader…a hole that may not be able to be fixed. UNDRIP by stealth significantly ups the risk of New Zealand going down the drain to race-based tribalism.
John McLean is a citizen typist and enthusiastic amateur who blogs at John's Substack where this article was sourced
15 comments:
Another " by stealth and under the radar dirty trick". No consultation with the people about their preference for democracy or ethnocracy. The judiciary will urge rapid action to legislate this .
Who would vote for National - with its zero respect for NZers?
If this is all factual, I for one am VERY concerned. National party have betrayed this country. It is just disgraceful.
It just shows how ignorant some of our politicians were to sign us up to something like UNDRIP. The whole purpose of this declaration would not have been intended for countries like New Zealand where we don't really have an indigenous people but rather, groups of settlers(early and earlier) all living relatively in harmony and with equal rights and opportunities. Whether some groups can thrive and prosper and others can't that's another totally different question and due to many factors. This UNDRIP is now being used to gain advantages for one group over another. The architects are still hovering in the background and influencing the politicians no doubt. Finlayson is still railing against NZF. This fact alone would make me vote for NZF.
Where is our useless MSM/Fourth Estate? My how they have degenerated.
I don’t know about you, but I want to know who included this UNDRIP provision? I’ll wager it wasn’t India, so was it McClay himself, or was he ignorant of its inclusion by some unelected, backroom, policy bureaucrat in MFAT? Either way, those that were directly involved need to be 'outed' and required justify its inclusion, and then gain the mandate of the NZ people, for this is more than “undemocratic and sly” it is outright CORRUPTION!
What John Key did was inexcusable, but this is worse by it potentially making it binding.
Notwithstanding the very real issue of whether Maori have any rightful claim to indigeneity and then what extent of your genealogy qualifies one as such, there are issues and conflicts in Articles 3, 4, 5, 34, and especially 46 of that non-binding Declaration. And, if our woke, Human Rights Commission is monitoring it, why have we not heard from it over Article 44, which states “All rights and freedoms recognized herein are equally guaranteed to male and female indigenous individuals.” So, if you’re a non-binary indigenous individual, there’s no guarantee of your inclusion? How do the identity-fixated ‘Green Party’ feel about that?
In sum, this ‘Declaration’ has no business being embodied in NZ law without the mandate of its citizens. And, what does it tell us about our ‘National' politicians – never trust them!
We need a proper Constitution voted for by the people.
Not something imposed on us by the person in charge of NZ at any one time.
But , the USA has a Constitution and Trump is ignoring that and getting away with it.
To Anon at 7.24: The process is important to understand.
1. Parliament will now endorse the FTA - but cannot change the signed text.
2. UNDRIP ( a non legally binding declaration) is now embedded in the FTA (an official legal document).
3. Further action could now advance UNDRIP and its close cousin, He Puapua.
4. This step breaches the terms of the NZF-National Coalition agreement. How will NZF react? National may rue the day it chose this strategy.
John, if you are correct, and you appear to be, you have just confirmed the degree of treacherous duplicity embedded in our political system. We are clearly frogs in the pot, being brought slowly to boiling point.
I find it tough to believe the Act party missed this.
I'm know more concerned/confused than ever.
Why has it become so easy for political parties to NOT uphold the simple principles of a free, equal democracy?
UNDRIP has as much credibility as does the complete reinterpretation of the Treaty.
More proof of a world wide conspiracy to destroy the west becomes more likely, with each passing day.
Mudbayripper - don't be confused, it's just National doing its best to aid and abet the introduction of He Puapua. Remember, Luxon didn't like anything about the Treaty Principles Bill. Treating everyone as 'equals' - not on his watch! If this deal passes as planned, the seeds of revolt have well and truly been planted.
Our once proud and equal nation is now the slow boiled frog.
The heating of the pot is carried out by both major parties in govt.
What sort of apartheid society will our grandchildren inherit ??
Most Interesting that UNDRIP was excluded in the NZF Coalition agreement with National.
Therefore a simple Declaration of Inconsistency Application to the High Court could delay the Indian FTA or assign the agreement to renegotiation after the election .
This appears to be a storm in a tea cup. Although a signatory to UNDRIP its status in N Z is non. Binding and the coalition confirmed in 2024 that they are not planning to change that situation. The India FTA has a clause that states that the UNDRIP affirmation is a subject to each country reservation, hence it does not change anything. And if politicians decide to change this situation then the clause in the FTA will be our least concern.
To Anon : pro-Treaty lawyers might argue that UNDRIP( non legally binding) is now embedded in the FTA ( a legal document for NZ) - so is part of NZ law. Labour tried this in 2022 by planning an UNRIP Action Plan for NZ to be legislated by Parliament.
Anon @ 9:58 - I am pretty sure that this is not how the law works, but would be good to hear from a lawyer?
National and Labour are wings of the same bird and it is time people woke up. We know who is behind all this. What does the Crown Law office have to say. Good article by John. I have learnt something.
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.