WelCom February/March 2025
Jim McAloon
The Archdiocese of Wellington’s Commission for Ecology, Justice, and Peace was among the hundreds of thousands of groups and individuals who made a submission on the ACT Party’s Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. The closing date for submissions was 14 January 2025.
The Commission’s view is that the Bill is fatally flawed. Most importantly, the ‘principles’ which it includes have very little to do with either the text of te Tiriti in Māori or the Treaty in English. Where the Bill declares that the government has full power to govern ‘in the best interests of everyone’, by te Tiriti, rangatira allowed the Crown kawanatanga [governorship]. Where the Bill says that the Crown will respect the rights Māori had in 1840, te Tiriti guaranteed tino rangatiratanga [full chieftainship, or full rights of chiefly authority]. This second ‘principle’ also says that Māori may have different rights from ‘everyone’ only if these rights are bestowed by a Treaty settlement. The third ‘principle’ speaks of equality before the law which is fine as far as it goes, but ignores the guarantee of royal protection in the Treaty. Most objectionably, the Bill provides that these, and no other, ‘principles’ will be taken into account.
It is well known that the two language versions of the Treaty | te Tiriti are very different. Nearly 40 years ago the Waitangi Tribunal observed that kawanatanga – governorship – in te Tiriti is something less than the ‘sovereignty’, which the English version conveyed. It might be understood as a duty to keep order so that Māori interests not be disrupted. Likewise, ‘tino rangatiratanga’ is something more than the ‘full, exclusive and undisturbed possession’ of the English. Even the English version is a firm guarantee against dispossession, though, and indeed this is part of the problem: the Bill seeks to impose the language of equal rights when, as in the massive land confiscations, the invasion of Parihaka, the fraudlent deeds in many parts of the country, Māori enjoyed anything but equal rights.
The Crown has in recent times acknowledged some of these wrongs, but this history cannot be glossed over. It requires redress. Pope John Paul II said in Australia in 1986 it cannot be mantained that ‘the fair and equitable recognition of Aboriginal rights to land is discrimination. To call for the acknowledgment of the land rights of people who have never surrendered those rights is not discrimination. Certainly, what has been done cannot be undone. But what can now be done to remedy the deeds of yesterday must not be put off till tomorrow’.
Over the last 40 years there has been slow progress in working out and applying Treaty principles in many contexts. This has taken much dialogue and much patience. It has borne some fruit in Treaty settlements, which have to some degree restored mana and resources to iwi. But as Justin Tipa of Ngāi Tahu said on Waitangi Day, we can also recall the ‘sincerity, justice, and good faith’ with which Captain Hobson was ordered to negotiate the Treaty in 1839. It is difficult to see how we can progress when one side to an agreement seeks unilaterally to change the terms of that agreement, but that is what this Bill would do.
In 1995, another government tried to impose a cap on the sum available for Treaty settlements. Protests erupted. The Catholic bishops at that time criticised unilaterally imposed arrangements and asked that governments ‘keep trying to address the grievances of the past with integrity and consultation’. As the bishops said, ‘Treaty of Waitangi issues are not about party politics. They are about honouring with goodwill the covenant entered by the Crown and Māori, on which this nation is founded’. What was needed then, and is still needed now, is ‘a new process of consultation on the meaning and application of tino rangatiratanga and kawanatanga as encompassed in Te Tiriti’.
Jim McAloon is chairperson of the Archdiocese of Wellington EJP Commission and professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington.
More information and views about Te Tiriti o Waitangi are on the Archdiocese website at: www.wn.catholic.org.nz/adw_community/hikoi-mo-te-tiriti/
