Guest Post: Luxon’s silence on Te Tiriti o’ Waitangi is undemocratic and deafening in 2026

Guest Post by William Ludbrook on Brash & Mitchell

Why is te Tiriti o’ Waitangi such a divisive issue?

In April 2025 Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promulgated: “I have been talking to iwi leaders for the past 12 months”

And?– so?– no reasonable New Zealander would object to that. The problem is not that Luxon “had been talking to iwi leaders” The problem is that iwi leaders increasingly infer they are in a privileged position in shaping Government Policy. The National Iwi Chairs Forum requested a meeting after objecting to the government’s review of Treaty clauses throughout legislation. Their complaint was that they had not been sufficiently consulted before Cabinet considered reforms?

Graeme Spencer: Treaty Principles Bill Submission

I have adopted the approach that understanding our history is the solution to the Treaty Principles, there are in fact no principles, merely statements of intent, but if our politicians want to call them principles then who am I to quibble. The imprtant thing is that the "principles" as defined by ACT portray the intent of the Treaty.

We are in this position primarily because of the misintepretation by Hugh Kawharu of "tino rangatiratanga" and later, in 1987 ,in the Court of Appeal, Justice Robin Cooke intimated that “The Treaty established a relationship akin to a partnership between Crown and Maori”. Although the operative word was "akin" it was soon taken out of context and this set in motion the development of the so called principles for their inclusion in legislation. This aspect has not been covered in my submission as I believe this has not had the impact of Kawharu's misinterpretation.

Mike Butler: No 'H' in 'Wanganui' on treaty

The name "Wanganui" was spelt without the "H" on the copy of the Treaty of Waitangi that chiefs in the area signed in 1840, Ross Baker of the One New Zealand Foundation points out. Here is a copy of the signatures of the chiefs that signed the Tiriti o Waitangi under the name, “Chiefs of Wanganui”.

Their signatures were witnessed by the Reverend Henry Williams.