ACT's headline policy is that it will scrap the Waitangi Tribunal, which many people, including me, may see as a good idea because the tribunal has gone completely off piste. It has started to resemble a branch of the Māori Party, finding in real time that one Government policy after another breaches the Treaty of Waitangi.
In some cases, it has made these findings about policies that have not even become law yet, which means there cannot be an actual breach because nothing has happened.
When the point of the Waitangi Tribunal was to investigate contemporary breaches, not the possibility of contemporary breaches, the distinction is important. That distinction turns the tribunal into a political player.
Because it has become exactly that, a political player, which was not the original intention, it's not unreasonable to applaud a plan to scrap it.
However, that is not what ACT's plan actually does. ACT is proposing to scrap the tribunal only once all historical Treaty claims have been settled. And when do you think that's going to be? When do you think that's going to happen?
It will only happen when Ngāpuhi finally settles and Ngāpuhi is not going to settle anytime soon because its various groups are still fighting among themselves about it. I reckon they'll be arguing over it for decades.
So, in my view, this is so far in the future that David Seymour will likely be retired and spending time with his grandkids before it actually happens.
Beware of these kinds of policies this election. You'll come across plenty of them. They're designed to make it look as though a party is going to do the thing you really want it to do, without having to go through the political drama of actually doing it.
In my opinion, this policy is a case in point.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
You got it. Seymour's just trying to con folks who are upset about race related issues into voting ACT even though he's achieved nothing in the past three years on that front. Hilariously he brought up the Maori Pasifika quota at Medical Schools last week, having brought up = you guessed it = the same Maori Pasifika quota at Medical Schools three years ago before election 2023. What's he done on it? Nada. Nothing. Can't even produce a waffly review that he promised in his own coalition agreement. His Treaty Principles never went anywhere. He had three years. Now he pretends he will do them another way. Pigs will fly. His Waitangi Tribunal line is another race related cheap shot soundbite to jerk peoples chains to pick up some gullible votes. As the founder of ACT told me, David's become a very good talker. And very good at doing nothing. Another career politician who never had a career in the private sector, just like so many on the left of our politics. What's the difference?
quote-'So, in my view, this is so far in the future that David Seymour will likely be retired and spending time with his grandkids before it actually happens.'
By that time, Seymour's grandkids will be so indoctrinated by the education/media system, 'they'll' be claiming 'their' 1/256th blood line!!!
It will take a massive political backbone to remove the tribunal.
The tribunal have for so long now been making up claims to justify it's existence. They are the ultimate make work for pay organisation.
They in fact make the reasons, that make the gravy for their own gravy train.
The tribunal works for itself and needs to be gone by lunchtime for the sake of this country.
While I agree that ACT are not serious. They know that National will never agree to it. I think that the tribunal is nothing but a politics.
IMO, if Maori want justice they should use the land court under the Maori land act 1993. It is a real senior court not a corporate talk fest like the tribunal.
We can easily dispense with the tribunal and real Maori men and women might actually get their land back rather than the iwi corporations that call themselves Māori.
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