Summarised by Centrist
“That the Waitangi Tribunal was highly critical of the Act party’s proposed, although currently undrafted, Treaty Principles Bill, was as predictable as the sun rising in the east,” writes journalist Peter Williams. He notes that the Tribunal’s timing appears calculated to challenge not just David Seymour and his party, but the entire governing Coalition.
The 200-page report reiterates the Tribunal’s stance, based on its 2014 findings, that the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 did not cede sovereignty to the Crown.
Seymour’s bill rests on three simple principles, which Williams describes as “quite brilliant in their simplicity.” They are:
the government’s right to govern all New Zealanders, the chieftainship of all New Zealanders over their land and property, and equality under the law.
According to Williams: “Who could possibly disagree with any of them? Well, the Waitangi Tribunal has no difficulty whatsoever!”
Williams cites lawyer Natalie Coates’ assertion that the chiefs never intended to surrender sovereignty.
“Frankly, that is arrant nonsense,” he writes because: “There was never any intention by the Crown in 1840 to ‘share power’ with anyone.”
Seymour’s attempt to reshape New Zealand’s race relations has been met with resistance, particularly from the National Party.
