The Leighton Smith Podcast: Dr Muriel Newman on this year's hugely consequential general election

Leighton Smith and Dr Muriel Newman discuss the ongoing constitutional shift toward iwi influence, co-governance and race-based policies. In this election year, New Zealand is arguably facing its biggest challenge to date.

Click to listen - Audio

Clive Bibby: There is a price for sovereignty - and we don’t have much left to spend

Previous governments of all colours have from time to time waxed lyrical about the importance of maintaining independent foreign policies in the modern world.

No longer are we so tied to the UK for our very survival that there was no need to be thinking about alternative trading partners - she took everything we could produce and paid us handsomely for the privilege.

Graham Carter: Councils are Ceding Sovereignty to Iwi – This is Treason

There is a major power shift happening under our noses, as power moves from elected representatives to unelected and unaccountable iwi and hapū appointees.

We have been warned for some time now that Mana Whakahono ā Rohe agreements (MWRs) are undermining local democracy and would be sped up by captured councils and local iwi before the government passes its Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms.

Bob Edlin: A Maori leader’s comment on government funding for marae...

It’s the recognition that matters – a Maori leader’s comment on government funding for marae

Aperahama Edwards, a bigwig among the Ngatiwai, has a reputation for being strong on flexing Maori muscle and championing Maori sovereignty.

He popped up at the Far North District Council meeting last week, to speak as Chair of the Ngātiwai Trust Board and Co-Chair of Te Kahu o Taonui.

He said he was delivering a clear message:

Barrie Davis: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

If I stay there will be trouble /
If I go it will be double

Prime Minister, “Let’s face it, the country has been sliding downhill for the last 50 years regardless of which party runs Wellington” (Wayne Brown, here). The time has come when a substantial review is required. If you were to do that revision, the people of New Zealand would be more than grateful. You would take the next election easily. Here are the three necessary things to do:

Geoff Parker: Margaret Mutu and the Case Against Equal Citizenship

Why ancestry-based governance undermines democracy

In a recent appearance on Q+A, Margaret Mutu advanced arguments implying that Māori never ceded sovereignty, that New Zealand is fundamentally a Māori country, and that democratic structures should be reshaped to reflect Māori authority.

It is a powerful narrative. It is also one that collapses under constitutional scrutiny.

Geoff Parker: On the Cession of Sovereignty, the Record Is Clear

Why the Treaty Text and History Leave No Doubt

And the historical record is clearer than Paul Moon allows

Professor Paul Moon argues that the Treaty debate has become ideological, and that history offers a steadier guide than politics. That is true. But history can only perform that role when the record is examined in full. On the question of sovereignty, Moon’s analysis is disciplined in tone yet selective in substance. The clarity he claims emerges only through omission of the most explicit documentary evidence we possess.

History is not constructed from what can be plausibly inferred, but from what was written, said, understood, and acted upon at the time. When those elements are considered together, the conclusion is not ambiguous. Māori sovereignty was ceded to the Crown in 1840 — unevenly enforced, imperfectly realised, but ceded nonetheless.

Brendan O'Neill: Marine Le Pen is right about Venezuela

Why did it take a former far-right leader to spell out the danger of Trump’s intervention?


Here’s a sentence I never thought I would write – people should listen to Marine Le Pen. She might not be your cup of tea. She isn’t mine. Yet she has hands-down made the clearest, most principled comment on Washington’s venture in Venezuela. Slicing through both the hypocritical hysteria of the Maduro-sympathising left and the infantile gloating of MAGA influencers who’ve learnt to love war again, Le Pen reminds us what is at stake in this strange geopolitical blaze: the future of sovereignty itself.

Rob Paterson: Re-evaluating the Treaty of Waitangi - Unpacking the Myths and Realities

One Sovereignty, One Nation: The True Story and History of New Zealand

In recent discussions surrounding Māori rights and the Treaty of Waitangi, it’s crucial to separate reality from myth.

The narrative surrounding Māori claims, particularly in terms of sovereignty, partnership, and historical grievances, is often shaped by misunderstanding and misrepresentation. The truth, however, lies in examining the Treaty as it was signed in 1840, understanding the legal context of Māori claims, and rejecting the notion of separatism in favour of a unified New Zealand.

David Farrar: A clear line

The Herald reports:

Ngāti Hine leader Pita Tipene is ruling out a settlement under this Government after remarks made by Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith.

Goldsmith said on Tuesday the Government would not agree to Treaty settlements that disputed whether the Crown is now sovereign.

Roger Partridge: The sovereign reality and our path to nationhood

Waitangi day debates about New Zealand’s sovereignty often fixate on a single moment: the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. This focus is understandable, given the Treaty’s significance to both Māori and the Crown.

But is this the full story of how New Zealand’s sovereignty was established? And if not, is there a way for the country to move beyond the endless arguments about sovereignty and the Treaty?

DTNZ: Chile makes Antarctica sovereignty claim

The Chilean president and defense chief visited a US base during a historic South Pole trip.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has made history as the first Latin American leader to visit the South Pole, reaffirming Chile’s sovereignty claim over part of Antarctica.

Gary Judd KC: Schedule to Submission on Treaty Principles Bill

Schedule

1. The “principles” were introduced as a concept by the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. They were not defined. Commencing during the 1980s, governments started promoting legislation referring to the principles of the treaty and requiring varying degrees of adherence to the principles — e.g., not inconsistent with, take into account, have regard to, give effect to, et cetera.

Guest Post: Abraham Lincoln and the Treaty of Waitangi

A guest post by Peter Lynn published on Kiwiblog.

In 2005 I went on a pilgrimage with a group of Americans to Gettysburg, site of the pivotal battle of the American Civil War. At the climax of our visit, I was the only person willing to attempt Lincoln’s address. It was rendered in a kiwi accent with quite a bit of fudging but to sustained applause- very polite people Americans.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal—–”

Peter Williams: A Book of Waitangi

A short radio news item caught my attention the other day.

“A copy of a new book about the Treaty of Waitangi by lawyer Roimata Smail has been gifted to every secondary school in the country. An anonymous donor has paid for Understanding Te Tiriti: a handbook of basic facts about Te Tiriti o Waitangi to be sent to the schools.”

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Maybe NZ's Minister of Justice is Right......

Maybe NZ's Minister of Justice is Right. When Parliament Can't Make Laws, the people have no choice but to take the Law into their Own Hands.

Not so long ago, the Labour Party's Deputy PM Sir Michael Cullen stated in no uncertain terms in Parliament that sovereignty was ceded in the Treaty of Waitangi. According to his Labour Party, "The power of the NZ Parliament to change the law is central to the exercise of sovereignty and therefore the contemporary exercise of Article One of the Treaty". That was in 2004. He did so in the context of the Foreshore & Seabed Act. Now current Labour Leader Chris Hipkins has formally contradicted him and stated the opposite in Parliament, saying “Māori didn’t cede sovereignty in signing the Treaty”.

Barrie Davis: Sovereignty Denied

Philip Joseph in his Constitutional and Administrative Law in New Zealand, 3rd ed. 14.1 claims that “Parliamentary sovereignty is a construct that cannot be objectively validated” (p. 487). I believe that is mistaken. I will show that sovereignty naturally rests in We the people which we vest in the Crown in Parliament: We judiciously empower Parliament to make our laws and to raise taxes. The authorities, however, knowingly ignore that fact to the detriment of all.

Ross Meurant: What is Sovereignty? What is Monarch?

Recent television coverage of the crowning of the Queen of Tainui, devoid as it was of rantings by pseudo radical Māori leaders who plagued earlier television coverage of the farewell to the deceased King, was refreshing.

Yet, within a short passage of time beyond the boundaries of the Royal Palace, utterances by self-assessed “influencers”, repeatedly referred to the new Queen as, Sovereign and Monarch.

Geoff Parker: The Maori circus comes to Whangarei District Council

As a Whangarei District Council (WDC) ratepayer and a staunch supporter of democracy, one law for all and racial equality I tuned into the Youtube coverage of the WDC public meeting on the 29th August 2024 which was primarily about the retention of separatist Maori Wards. (a)

The Mayor to his credit did a reasonable job of containing a potential volatile situation with a roomful of Maori ward supporters and a few New Zealanders. The Mayor stated that he had previously heard all the arguments before and this time around was hoping to hear something different - perhaps he was hoping to hear the truth?

True to form the meeting was peppered with misinformation and half truths from Maori wardist speakers, they cleverly played the race, victim, emotion and white guilt cards.

Bruce Moon: Goodness, gracious me!?!

And now we have Jack Vowles, Professor of Political Science at Victoria University of Wellington, no less, asking us why “sovereignty” is “so hard to define”!  Really?  It as, after all, a well-established word in the English language and my Shorter Oxford Dictionary gives shades of meaning for it such as: “supreme dominion, authority or rule”, a usage established in late Middle English.  It is well known of course that, a little earlier, King John tried to push this a little too hard and was obliged to sign Magna Carta.  Since then, as British practice has developed, the sovereign has ruled though Parliament[i] which has, so to speak “called the shots”.  Indeed, when King Charles the First sought to overturn this practice, he lost his head for his efforts.  With a brief interregnum, the sovereign has, through parliament, exercised supreme dominion since over recognized British territory.