Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. I want to put the arguments behind Nikki Kaye's amendment on Supplementary Order Paper 120 because it goes to the heart not just of this legislation but actually to the New Zealand identity. You see—Mr Chair I'm sure you'll be familiar—there's a debate over what the Treaty of Waitangi means. Does it mean as it literally says that our property rights are safe and that we all have the same rights and duties and the Queen is sovereign? Or does it mean as the courts have interpreted it for the last 30 years that it is a partnership between two peoples coming together? So I'd like the Minister of Education to just tell us what the Government's position is these days. Is it what might be described as the Don Brash description of the Treaty one which I and ACT have some sympathy for—or is it the one that came out of the lands case in 1987? Is the Treaty a document giving individual rights or is it a partnership between two peoples? I'd very much like to know what the answer to that is. Once the Minster's answered that basic question—what does Te Tiriti mean to this Government?—then here's another question: what is the standard for respecting a Treaty claim? This is not some vexatious claim put up to claim radio airwaves or make trouble or test the system; this is a claim with some of the most respected leaders in Māoridom publicly putting their name to it: Dame Iritana Sir Toby Curtis—serious leaders of Māoridom who you would think if the partnership principle of the Treaty has any weight would be taken quite seriously. That's the question: is this a high enough threshold for the Government to take notice?Let me put some other context around this. In the Speech from the Throne of this Government they said that there would be no more irrigation contracts except the ones that were in place which would be honoured. I asked the Prime Minister in this House why the Government was honouring contracts with people creating irrigation channels—bits of concrete on farms. The Prime Minister said We're honouring them because they're contracts." I said to her why does that not apply to partnership schools kura hourua and she had no answer. So what is the standard here? The Government says it believes in the Treaty as a partnership. It should be respectful of major figures in Māoridom bringing a Treaty claim over a piece of legislation and yet it applies a lower standard of respect to this legislative process to those claimants to those students and sponsors and staff in partnership schools kura hourua than it does to irrigation schemes.And here's another standard. This Minister of Education in the chair has spent $1.5 million consulting people about what he thinks education should be like. He very magnanimously sends education officials to my office—I'm not sure if that's a blessing but he sends them anyway—and they ask me what I think as a party leader should be the future of NCEA or Tomorrow's Schools. This is a Minister who is quite prepared to consult people in a Government that's quite prepared to honour contracts but somehow the standard is that when senior figures in Māoridom come along and say "We don't like this. We think this is a breach of the partnership principle of the Treaty." there's no attention whatsoever. Well the Minister can stand up today and remedy that and if he doesn't I suggest some members of the Māori caucus might like to stand up and put him in his place because they've got the power. You know I'll say to the Minister "The only real important skill in politics is the ability to count and 46 minus 13 is not a big enough number mate." So I'd ask the Minister: is he committed to sanctity of contract? Is he committed to the Treaty as a partnership? Will he commit to due process as he has with the rest of his education portfolio on this legislation? And ultimately will he support Nikki Kaye's Supplementary Order Paper 120 so that this legislation goes through after we have heard from the Waitangi Tribunal on the future of partnership schools kura hourua?"