PROTECT TE TIRITI O WAITANGI
Toitū Te Tiriti: Join us in opposing the Treaty Principles Bill
What the bill proposes is incredibly destructive to Te Tiriti, tramples on Māori rights and undermines our human rights landscape.
The Treaty Principles Bill seeks to redefine the Treaty principles, however the proposed principles in the Bill do not reflect what was promised in Te Tiriti. They undermine Māori rights and are contrary to our international human rights obligations. Furthermore, in massive bad faith and a breach of Te Tiriti, the Government has developed this bill unilaterally, without any meaningful engagement with Māori.
Te Tiriti is foundational– it provides a place for us all to belong, for respectful relationships and a foundation for how we can make decisions together. This is a wonderful thing.
It is atrocious that we are seeing this policy attacking Te Tiriti when we should be seeing Government strengthening it. Honouring and upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi is foundational to upholding human rights in Aotearoa. We can stop this Bill progressing, we need to act now and we need your voice to do so!
Your voice matters!
While the National Party has said they won’t support the Bill beyond the first reading, we believe it’s vitally important to show the depth and breadth of opposition to the Bill. We need to keep the pressure on National to ensure this Bill does not progress and to send a clear message along with so many others that we will not tolerate this action. We stand for Te Tiriti justice, and we expect our Government to do the same.
Join us in calling on the Government to stop this harmful Bill by making a submission to the Select Committee.
HOW TO MAKE A SUBMISSION
Submissions are open until Tuesday, 7 January 2025.
It’s easy to submit!
To help you prepare a submission, we have a template you can use. You don’t have to include everything in the template, but you're welcome to if you want! Pick what resonates most and if you can, include your own personal reflections. This action will have more power when we make our own unique submissions. But all submissions opposing this Bill are important, so anything you can do is hugely helpful.
Your submission can be as long or as short as you want, just write some of your own sentences from the heart. Tell this Government what you value. And what you oppose.
Once you have your submission ready click the link, we provide on this page that says , this link takes you to Parliament’s website which has instructions on how to upload your submission.
We encourage you to personalise your submission, for example you could talk about your whakapapa or where you are from, why upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi is important to you, the Aotearoa you want to see.
Please note that your submission will be published to the New Zealand Parliament website.
Thank you for helping build the kind of future we all want to be a part of.
SUBMISSION TEMPLATE
Use our guide to help you craft your submission to the Select Committee!
I am submitting to show my strong opposition to the Treaty Principles Bill 2024. I urge all parties to oppose the Bill and for the Bill to be abandoned.
Honouring and upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi is foundational to upholding human rights in Aotearoa. This Bill breaches Te Tiriti, undermines Māori rights as tangata whenua and is contrary to our international obligations. It should never have been introduced and must not progress any further.
Te Tiriti is foundational – it provides a place for us all to belong, for respectful relationships to flourish and a just foundation for how we can make decisions together. This is a wonderful thing.
However, instead of seeing the Government show leadership to strengthen Te Tiriti for the benefit of us all, we are seeing a range of disturbing attacks on Te Tiriti and indigenous rights, including the referenda on Māori wards and the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority.
The Treaty Principles Bill undermines Te Tiriti and the human rights landscape of Aotearoa.
It fails to uphold the tino rangatiratanga of Māori and is contrary to global human rights obligations, such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In November the Waitangi Tribunal stated: "... if this Bill were to be enacted, it would be the worst, most comprehensive breach of the Treaty / te Tiriti in modern times."
The Tribunal highlighted that despite Māori being a Treaty partner, they have been deliberately excluded from the Crown rewriting of Treaty principles. The Government has a responsibility to work in partnership with Māori as Treaty partners and to honour tino rangatiratanga.
I wish to make the following recommendations -
I urge all parties to oppose the Bill and stop it progressing.
I call for the Government to honour Te Tiriti, He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Niu Tireni (the Declaration of Independence), and the obligations contained in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other human rights documents.
Q&A's
What is wrong with the Treaty Principles Bill and where did it come from?
How does the Bill impact human rights?
Where is the Bill at and what’s the plan?
Where can I go to find out more on the Bill, Te Tiriti and how I can take action?