Giles
Dexter Political reporter
The
ACT Party wants to wind up the Waitangi Tribunal, saying its
contemporary inquiries have become increasingly ideological
and expansive.
The party is campaigning on four
reforms that it says will end the tribunal’s contemporary
jurisdiction, and move the country on.
ACT leader
David Seymour, who has previously branded
the tribunal as “increasingly activist”, said while the
tribunal had made an important contribution, particularly in
helping address historical grievances, the tribunal that
existed today was different to the institution established
in 1975.
“The original need for the Waitangi Tribunal
has evaporated as our country has matured into a place with
strong property rights, the rule of law, and restraints on
the use of military power,” Seymour said.
“The
historical claims were clearly wrong to anybody, the
government of the day illegally used military power to take
away people’s property. It won’t surprise you I’m opposed to
that, but it’s not dealing with issues like that
anymore.
“To have a Waitangi Tribunal that openly says
‘well, actually, we don’t think that the government is
acting legitimately, despite putting in place perfectly
legitimate elective policies’, that goes beyond simply being
an adviser.”
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ACT’s policy document said every
historical claim lodged before 1 September 2008 should be
heard and resolved, but any lodged after would not be
including contemporary or kaupapa claims.
“That was
the time that Treaty settlements had to be lodged so that
they could be settled,” he said.
“There are some iwi –
most notably my own Ngāpuhi in the Far North of the country
– who have not yet come to a mandate amongst themselves to
settle with the Crown, but we hope that as time goes on and
as new generations come to the fore within Ngāpuhi, that it
will be possible.
This would end the tribunal’s power
to inquire into contemporary government policy, conduct,
and decisions, a power which has been used more under this
government than any other in history.
Seymour denied
shutting that down would be an attempt to avoid further
scrutiny.
“Not at all. The government has put in place
its elected mandate in a democratic society … anyone is
free to make recommendations, but we don’t need a statutory
taxpayer-funded organisation to do it.
“The
allegations of breaches are things like ‘there’s not enough
Māori involvement in geothermal energy … I don’t believe
that’s a breach. We have in our country a system of courts
and democratic governance that upholds people’s rights, and
it has evolved.”
He said the tribunal had been
“incredibly inventive in saying that Treaty breaches are
still occurring”, and pushed back on the idea a group with
independent expertise was needed to identify what government
actions may constitute a treaty breach.
“They’re
clearly not expert or independent. They appear to be on a
mission that includes creating equity, well, I’m sorry, but
no government in history has created equal outcomes for all
people despite some pretty spectacularly disastrous attempts
by socialist governments around the world.”
Te Pāti
Māori has a “bottom line” policy to amend the Treaty of
Waitangi Act 1975 to make
Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown,
giving the tribunal more power to investigate and enforce
breaches.
Seymour said that approach would make the
Tribunal an unelected alternative governance
system.
“That is an affront to every single New
Zealander which – it shouldn’t need to be said, but –
includes every Māori New Zealander, who wants to be able to
vote for the government that they want, and more
importantly, vote out governments and policies that they
dislike.”
National’s leader Christopher Luxon said he
had not seen ACT’s policy but the coalition took the
Tribunal’s advice onboard.
“As a government we listen
to it and we have strong Treaty obligations … the best way
we can deliver those obligations is improving outcomes for
Māori.”
Luxon said good progress had been made for
Māori in education, housing, and law and order over the
past two and a half years.
The government has already
launched a major
review of the Tribunal’s functions, but it is yet to be
released publicly.
The review, which was part of
National and New Zealand First’s coalition agreement,
promised to “refocus the scope, purpose, and nature” of the
tribunal’s inquiries back to their “original
intent”.
Newsroom
has reported
the unreleased review does not recommend a curtailing of the
Tribunal’s ability to launch kaupapa inquiries.
Luxon
said the review was now with Māori Crown Relations Minister
Tama Potaka, who would “have more to say on that in due
course”.
He did not want to predetermine the outcome
of the review but said many commentators wanted the tribunal
looked at as Treaty settlements came to an end.
“On
either side of that debate there is a question as we get
through Treaty settlements as to what the future role of the
Waitangi Tribunal is.”
Māori law expert Dr Carwyn
Jones from Te Wananga o Raukawa told Midday Report
that ACT’s policy showed “profound misunderstanding of
the Waitangi Tribunal and Te Tiriti”.
“For a start,
the Waitangi Tribunal already has a plan for completing
historical claims over the next five years, but also the
Waitangi Tribunal’s role … it was originally set up to
look at contemporary policy.”
He said tribunal reports
and recommendations were not binding, so scrapping the
tribunal would impact transparency and accountability on how
policies could impact on Māori rights.
“What we’ve
seen a lot in many of the inquiries over the term of this
government is that the tribunal has actually performed a
really important function in bringing to light the evidence
of which the government hasn’t allowed officials to properly
work through… hasn’t allowed officials the time or
opportunity to properly understand how the rights and
interests of New Zealanders will be affected, or even
testing whether government objectives will be
achieved.”
He said the coalition seemed intent on
trying to weaken Te Tiriti and its role in law and policy,
and ACT with this policy was wanted to use fear and
misinformation to divide
people.
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