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A leading Māori health advocate says efforts to abolish or limit the Waitangi Tribunal are an attempt to “bury” a body that exposes Treaty breaches.
It comes as New Zealand First campaigns on abolishing the tribunal, while ACT wants to end its jurisdiction over contemporary Crown policy and conduct, limiting the tribunal to historical claims and wind it up once that work is completed.
Lady Tureiti Moxon told RNZ the tribunal provided an important avenue for Māori to challenge Crown decisions that breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“It’s the only permanent commission that can look into the breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our country,” she said.
“Every decision that the Crown makes against the Treaty of Waitangi has huge impact on our people.”
Moxon said the tribunal had an important role in identifying breaches that governments may otherwise fail to acknowledge.
“They won’t even acknowledge the breaches that continuously happen,” she said.
“What they want to do is to bury the fact that you have a tribunal in this country that raises these issues.”
Moxon said the tribunal’s findings should also be considered alongside international scrutiny of New Zealand’s treatment of Māori.
“You’ve got the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the UN say exactly the same things as the tribunal.
“And yet this government refuses to recognise that they have an important part to play in honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi and making it a real document in this country that has meaning.
“But they give it no meaning. They disregard it whenever they feel like it.”
Her comments follow the tribunal’s latest report into the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora (Māori Health Authority), which found the Crown breached multiple principles and had shown a “reckless disregard for the Crown-Māori relationship”.
Moxon was a lead claimant, and said the findings were an example of the issues the tribunal continued to bring to light.
“We’re still in a predicament, and it doesn’t matter how many reports that say this; this government has chosen not to adhere to any of it.”
She said government policies could have a detrimental impact on Māori, creating “further poverty”, “further disenfranchisement”, and “further imprisonment”.
“The worst of it is when they’re finished doing their terms, they walk away and take absolutely no responsibility for the detrimental impact that they have on Māori.
“It wouldn’t be so bad if the decisions they make were decisions that were for the well-being and the betterment of the whole country.
“But it’s always at the behest of Māori and who we are.”
Moxon said the tribunal remained an important part of ensuring Te Tiriti had meaning in Aotearoa.
New Zealand First announced its policy on Saturday, saying it would introduce legislation within the first 100 days after the election to abolish the tribunal and replace it with a ‘Treaty of Waitangi Completion Commission’.
“The Treaty of Waitangi Tribunal has become a make-work organisation - now hearing any and all claims that in a former time would’ve been dismissed on application as being inappropriate,” the party said in its announcement.
“Many claims before the tribunal are directly contesting the right of a mandated parliament to pass laws. That is a direct semi-judicial threat against the very essence of our democracy.”
The ACT Party outlined its plans for the tribunal in September, saying it would end the tribunal’s jurisdiction over contemporary Crown policy and conduct, while completing eligible historical claims before winding up the institution.
“The original need for the Waitangi Tribunal has evaporated as our country has matured into a place with strong property rights, the rule of law, and restraints on the use of military power,” ACT leader David Seymour said.
“The historical claims were clearly wrong to anybody; the government of the day illegally used military power to take away people’s property. It won’t surprise you I’m opposed to that, but it’s not dealing with issues like that anymore.”
ACT’s policy document said every historical claim lodged before 1 September 2008 should be heard and resolved, but any lodged after would not be, including contemporary or kaupapa claims.
National leader Christopher Luxon also said on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast there was “a very legitimate question” about the tribunal’s role once Treaty settlements had been concluded.
“Our election policy is the role of the Waitangi Tribunal will have to change because, post-Treaty settlements, the purpose it was originally created for will no longer exist.”
He could not say whether or not the tribunal would be completely dismantled.
Nā Layla Bailey-McDowell nō RNZ
