Tom O'Connor: That Bill

If opponents to the Treaty of Waitangi Principles bill would take the time to read it they would see that it is no more than the principles of law which have applied in New Zealand since 1841 and in England since the Magna Carta of 1215. They are not new.

I don’t know if the bill – as currently written – is the right solution to the uncertainty created by the application of undefined principles of the treaty, but the status quo is clearly untenable in the long term.