Summarised by Centrist
The ACT Party pushed to remove the Treaty of Waitangi clause from the Education and Training Amendment Bill, but was blocked by coalition partners.
The clause, which requires school boards to give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, will now be reviewed as part of a broader government workstream.
ACT leader David Seymour said the clause should have been dropped outright and claimed it reflects a political project to reshape New Zealand’s culture. “There is a lot of disquiet,” he said. “People want schools to focus on reading, writing and arithmetic.”
The bill, introduced by Education Minister Erica Stanford, changes Section 127 to establish academic achievement as the paramount objective of school boards.
Treaty obligations are retained as a supporting objective rather than a primary one. Despite this change, Hobson’s Pledge accused Stanford of sneaking in a radical clause and called for its immediate removal.
Stanford dismissed those claims as “complete and utter garbage” but confirmed that she referred the matter to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s wider Treaty clause review.
Elliot Ikilei of Hobson’s Pledge argued that terms like tikanga Māori are vague and vary significantly by region. He said the focus should be on measurable outcomes like literacy and science rather than subjective content tied to identity politics.
NZ First also supports removing the clause immediately but have agreed to address it within the broader Treaty of Waitangi clause review. “If they shouldn’t be there, they won’t be,” said Winston Peters.
Read more over at The NZ Herald (paywalled) and RNZ
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