Bradford Sue: Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill — Second Reading 
Bradford Sue: Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:643;Page:12886] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 I think this bill has to be one of the most ridiculous member’s bills I have ever seen in the 8 years I have been a member of Parliament. It is a real pity that the Justice and Electoral Committee has had to waste its precious time considering seriously the proposition that words relating to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi should be removed from a number of New Zealand statutes. The Green Party is delighted that the committee has reported back to Parliament wholeheartedly recommending that the bill be scrapped once and for all. And it was not just the committee that has condemned the bill in such an unqualified manner; it was also the submitters. I note that out of 171 submissions 160 opposed the bill. That in itself is a great tribute to the progress that has been made in our community towards the population at large understanding the significance and meaning of the Treaty and its relevance to Aotearoa today. 
It seems thank goodness that New Zealand First is quite an isolated outpost of the old colonialist paternalistic way of thinking in its efforts to naively or otherwise overturn over 20 years of hard-won progress around the application of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the life of our country. 
The New Zealand First members are quite unbelievably trying to deny the relevance of the Treaty by replicating for example the 1877 ruling of Chief Justice Prendergast who in the case of  
Wi Parata v The Bishop of Wellington 
 declared the Treaty to be simple nullity as Hone Harawira has also referred to. We have come a long way since 1877 and even further since the first reference to the principles of the Treaty in law with the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. If this bill was passed the impact on the functions of the tribunal itself would be devastating. All the settlements already made would be at risk and it is likely that the whole settlement process would justifiably be started up again. Decades of interpretation of statute would be cast into doubt as would any legal obligation to ensure that tangata whenua are not further disadvantaged. 
 Nor is there any evidence of any major tangata whenua groupings making a call for the principles of the Treaty to be deleted from legislation in the way proposed. In fact the situation is quite the opposite. Although there are still many problems around the implementation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi from a tangata whenua perspective these problems come more from the Crown’s reluctance to fully honour the Treaty than from some blind over-adherence to it as New Zealand First seems to believe. Moreover there is nothing wrong with the Treaty principles which have evolved through things like the work of the Waitangi Tribunal. In fact all of us should welcome the mahi that has happened as part of our long journey towards making the words of Te Tiriti a reality. 
These principles include among other things the fact that the Treaty established a partnership—both partners having a duty to act honestly and in good faith—that the needs of both Maori and the wider community must be met with compromise from both sides at times and that there is acknowledgment of the special place of Maori in this country as tangata whenua. The Treaty is a living document and we can use these principles as a guide as we all join in the journey towards a future together that truly enacts and embodies our key founding document. The inclusion of the Treaty as a core part of our new school curriculum as announced yesterday is the kind of positive step every party in this House should be endorsing rather than giving any support whatsoever to suggestions like those put forward in the bill before us today. 
Furthermore if this bill or anything like it were in danger of succeeding in this or any future Parliament it would be hugely damaging to the relationships long struggled for between the Crown and Maori. This relationship still has a lot of problems as evidenced for example in the current devastating impact of the police terrorist raids on the people of Ruatoki but the situation would be set back even further if this bill or anything like it ever become law in this country again.  
The impact of the passing of this bill would be to decrease even further tangata whenua trust in the Crown to throw hard-fought settlements into doubt to minimise the significance of the Treaty overall and to take away all the hard work that has been done to develop principles to help guide us all in resolving all those grievances from the past and ongoing. Some tangata whenua submitters also feel justifiably aggrieved that they have had to waste time on this nonsense at all. Because the Labour Party voted for the bill at its first reading a whole bunch of organisations—including Maori ropu with an intense interest in the matters before us—have had to as Te Runanga o Te Rarawa say in their submission“expend precious time energy and resources to respond to a matter that ultimately will not see the light of day”. 
In other words this bill itself and the fact that a sufficient number of votes were cast to get it past its first reading is yet another attack and encroachment on the goodwill of tangata whenua to keep working with the Crown on a basis of responsible good faith. As a Parliament and as a society instead of debating a bill like this we should be doing things like providing far more opportunities for public debate and discussion about the meaning and the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our society and working towards constitutional arrangements that ensure its enduring status and full implementation of the agreement we made with each other back in 1840.