New Zealand First has announced plans to abolish the Waitangi Tribunal within its first 100 days in office if re-elected, proposing to replace it with a temporary commission to settle all outstanding historical claims dating back to before 2008.
According to a report by Stuff, the party announced the policy on Saturday, with leader Winston Peters describing the existing tribunal as a "Waitangi make-work industry" and a semi-judicial threat to parliamentary democracy.
Under the proposal, a new Treaty of Waitangi Completion Commission would take over the tribunal’s role and work towards finalising all historical claims lodged before 2008. Once those claims were completed, the commission would be disbanded.
In a speech outlining the policy, Peters traced the origins of the issue to 1975, when the second Labour Government established the Waitangi Tribunal. He also criticised changes made at the time to the definition of Māori for electoral roll purposes, as well as the taking of coastal land for "public utility purposes," as reported by Stuff.
"From being half Māori or more, to being able to recite a Māori ancestor," Peters said, "That last change has led to a dramatic miscalculation of how many Māori there are in this country," Stuff has quoted.
Peters argued that the change had contributed to what he called "a total misnomer" in race-based needs analysis.
According to Stuff, he also criticised modern interpretations of the Treaty of Waitangi, rejecting a 1986 judicial finding that described the Treaty as establishing a partnership. Peters further described claims that Māori never ceded sovereignty as a "total deceit" intended to justify remedial payments.
"If no one in the British Empire, including the home countries, was in partnership with Queen Victoria on the 5th of February 1840, how come Māori were the day after?" Peters said, as quoted by Stuff.
New Zealand First also outlined plans focused on Māori land development and changes to the administration of the Māori Land Court.
Under the proposal, the Ministry of Māori Development would be tasked with accelerating development across Māori-owned land, marine farming, forestry and other resources, with the aim of improving regional productivity, employment and community resilience, as reported by Stuff.
The ministry would also regain responsibility for Crown-Māori relations, in line with its original 1991 founding legislation. Its responsibilities would include existing Treaty settlements, contemporary claims, modern policy differences and post-settlement leadership.
The announcement comes after the ACT Party unveiled a similar proposal earlier in September to complete outstanding historical Treaty settlements before winding up the Waitangi Tribunal.
ACT leader David Seymour said “no institution should exist just because it always has”, Stuff has quoted.
Under ACT’s policy, remaining historical Treaty claims would be completed while the tribunal’s contemporary jurisdiction would come to an end.
“ACT supports completing full and final historical Treaty settlements as a pragmatic way to resolve past injustices. This includes where the Crown confiscated land or otherwise breached property rights. That work should be finished properly,” Seymour said, as quoted by Stuff.
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