The Treaty Principles Bill is unproductive for New Zealand, says Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Kaiwhakahaere Justin Tipa.

“David Seymour and ACT are misconstruing history. You can’t have a reasonable debate with a person or party who distorts the truth,” Justin Tipa says.

“ACT’s true purpose is a direct attack on tino rangatiratanga, guaranteed to iwi and hapū in Article II of the Treaty.

“The irony is that while ACT claims to support small government, it cannot handle the idea of iwi exercising authority over their own affairs, something that by its very nature reduces reliance on central government.”

“We support an open, good-faith debate about what the Treaty means. I suspect New Zealand will be debating the Treaty for the next 500 years. But that’s not what we’re getting now.

“ACT’s claim that it wants to increase certainty in the law is a smoke screen. If that was really the case, David Seymour’s announcement last week wouldn’t have been the blunder that it was, with even his own officials warning the Bill introduces more uncertainty into our constitutional arrangements.

“The Treaty Principles Bill is a great example of why the ACT Party is not equipped to lead us in important conversations about our identity as New Zealanders, or where we are heading as a country. Seymour’s efforts are naïve, politically clumsy, and ultimately unproductive for New Zealand.

“Officials and Parliament are going to spend the next nine months on a pointless, divisive, and expensive discussion of a Bill that the Prime Minister has said will be thrown out in May next year.

“The Treaty is an agreement between the Crown and Iwi and Hapū. There is an honour and dignity to that agreement that needs to be respected. It is not something that should be subject to the present-day whims of a minor political party.

“The principles of the Treaty have been well-considered and defined by the courts over many years. They aren’t radical, and they apply to both the Crown and to iwi. How is a duty to act reasonably and in good faith a problem?

“Treaty principles have provided us with a straightforward way to work through our country’s past, rationally and with dignity. And it was through these developments that we have seen the emergence of modern-day Treaty Settlements,” says Justin Tipa.

“I cannot see how the principles of the Treaty can be unilaterally redefined by Parliament without irreparably damaging the premises on which Treaty Settlements were agreed. I believe Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters understand that, but they have allowed this to progress too far.”

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