ACT wants to introduce A Treaty Principal Act
It is a bill in Parliament at the moment and going through its readings . National have said they wont support it past its first reading . Which means it wont go any further as none of the opposition parties will support it. But politicians are un-trustable . Why even let it have a first reading if youre not going to support it . Simply because they are in coalition with ACT in an MMP system and this is on ACTS wish list as minor party and this keeps ACT happy.
If the bill wont get passed as promised by National , and will waste an estimated $4,000,000 , so why promote it ? Because ACTs goal is to change the long term debate and attitude about the treaty .
It has taken a long time for Maori to win rights, culture, respect and some partial remedy from colonistion which has really only happened since 1975. They are unlikely obtain full remedy for land stolen and they still have not obtained the sovereignty He Whakaputanga o Te Rangitiratanga o Nu Tireni (aka the declaration of independence) enshrined for them and the Te Tiriti o Waitangi (aka Treaty upheld, that the settler coloniser NZ Government took away .
This has been not been done by government but by a long long slog through the government courts and white colonisers want to reverse these court gains so the Bill once passed will reduce the courts power to give Maori their rights enshrined in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, thus by passing the Te Tiriti as a lawfull and founding document. Which gives coloniser settlers and their offspring many problems.
This confirms the NZ Government does not currently have that legal right. Least the courts have been increasingly seeing it that way since 1975 . As the courts uphold NZ Legislation if ACT changes the legislation then the courts which are an instrument of Government return to being a coloniser tool like in the 1800s. Maori have always argued they never ceded sovereignty , while this is clear to a normal human , the NZ Government took steps to the contrary. This confirms the NZ Government does not have clear lawful and legal right to have sovereignty over Maori and this bill once passed will effectively give them that .
In the short term its also a political stunt by ACT to get more votes from white settler immigrants [and offspring] because they do not have new policy in todays neo-liberal economic mess but more of the same nonsense.. In fact what got National, ACT NZ First voted into government in 2023 was they werent NZ Labour and/or they would fix things , what ever is broken . This means Labour lost National did not win . Its populism much like Trump espouses.
Winston a mellowpuff Maori, explains his and NZ First Partys stance on ACT Partys Treaty settlement Bill. This basically amounts to hes against ACTs treaty settlements Bill . But not for the right reasons but because he argues theres no principles in the Treaty. Which produces a different set of problems . If theres no treaty principles then its not a founding document and NZ Government is unlawful.
Winston explains NZ Firsts stance on Treaty Settlements Bills
New-Zealand-1news-verian-poll-racial-tension
Maori naturally oppose this process and so do many white and other kiwis. For a view on how Maori see it read this presentation by Susan Healy here taken from a presentation she gave.
The only thing the Treaty Settlements Bill is accomplishing for certain is increased racial tension.;
Nearly half of New Zealanders say government policies increasing racial tensions, poll finds
And uniting the churches against him ;
Jesus’s vision fulfilled: David Seymour restores unity to the church
Meantime law professor Jane kelsey has a different view here . In that the rucus will cause will require a more fundamental shift to accepting Maori as partners in the Ti Tiriti o Waitangi rather than being colonised by NZ Government but this will take more fightback by Maori and supporters of human rights.
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