Act Party leader David Seymour said the Treaty of Waitangi did not create a partnership between Maori and the Crown, while one of New Zealand’s leading sociologists Elizabeth Rata says it is of historical importance only.
Writing an opinion piece in state-subsidised legacy media outlet NZ Herald today, Seymour said Act was committed to advocating for the freedoms and rights of all New Zealanders, highlighting the party’s initiatives in education, gun ownership rights, free speech, assisted dying, and opposition to restrictive Covid measures. Act champions individual autonomy and self-determination, criticising state monopolies and excessive regulation for hindering New Zealanders’ prosperity, he wrote.
Seymour said there had been a misinterpretation of the Treaty as a racial or exclusive partnership, arguing instead for a universal application of its principles, granting the same rights and duties to everyone.
Seymour criticised recent interpretations that have led to co-governance and race-based policies, advocating for a society that honours the Treaty as a unifying document that affords self-determination to all New Zealanders.
He said Act’s Treaty Principles Bill aims to redefine the Treaty’s principles by 2040 to reflect this inclusive vision, opposing division by race and promoting a unified society.
Historical significance
Meanwhile in an interview shared widely on social media with NZ Herald’s Deputy Political Editor Thomas Coughlan, Professor Elizabeth Rata of the Univsersity of Auckland said the Treaty had no role in a modern democracy and was of historical importance only.
Modern democracies have evolved in a way which placed primacy on individual rights and freedoms, while modern intepretations of so-called ‘Treaty Principles’ pushed an incompatible ‘tribalist’ agenda – both could not co-exist, and it had to be one or other, said Rata.
On the issue of ‘Treaty Principles’ she said these were fictions which had appeared over the last 40 years, advocated by a small elite ‘re-tribalist’ class of academics, professionals and political actors who had become very rich and powerful – a class whose views were rejected by the vast majority of Maori voters, evidenced by the Maori Party’s 2.6% share of the vote in the last General Election.
Professor Rata is a sociologist of education in the School of Critical Studies, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland where she is Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit (KERU). Her main research areas are in knowledge in the curriculum, knowledge politics, ethnic revivalism, Māori education, research methods, and the history of New Zealand education.
The Treaty of Waitangi is not a legally binding document
Professor Elizabeth Rata states:
1. The Treaty was completely superseded by the 1852 Constitution Act where we all became New Zealand citizens, a Democracy.
2. In Article 1 of the Treaty, Maori Chiefs 100% ceded… pic.twitter.com/5QDVStr9Dn— NZ Media Watch (@nz_media_watch) February 4, 2024
While they muck around with this our healthcare system is still in the toilet and the issue of harm caused to people by vaccines goes unaddressed…..yet another distraction from the real issues……….
I wouldn’t say this is a distraction. It’s an important problem that needs to be sorted out asap.
Exactly. There are no ‘principles’ defined at all in the Waitangi Treaty of 1840.
The fake unlawful bogus ‘principles’ were concocted in the1980s by various crooked bent corrupt incompetent self-serving mostly now deceased activist-bureaucrats.
It’s highly amusing how the moronic lefties bemoan ‘colonialism’ but at the same time feel wedded to a ‘colonial’ document signed in the first half of the19th century.
The True Meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi
https://counterspinmedia.com/blog/resources-videos/episode-19-part-1-the-true-meaning-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi/
Martin Doutre is an expert on the Treaty of Waitangi
And a trusted source
If the Treaty is a partnership, perhaps Maori might like to start paying back their share of the costs of running the country for the last 164 years…
The White race has committed suicide ‘linking’ up with mega-violent, low IQ, stone-age cannibals. A long decline to mongrelism now.
Well said.