Submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill

Summary

• The Salvation Army Te Ope Whakaora strongly supports Te Tiriti and opposes this Bill that is inconsistent with Te Tiriti. We ask that the Select Committee recommend that Parliament does not proceed with this legislation.
• The Salvation Army sees the Te Tiriti o Waitangi as making binding promises including recognising the rangatiratanga of iwi Māori in Aotearoa. The history of the Christian churches’ involvement with the signing of Te Tiriti includes understanding that commitment in terms of a biblically based covenant. This Bill is intended to undermine rangatiratanga and does not honour the covenantal nature of the Te Tiriti relationship.
• The Te Tiriti vision is partnership of equals between iwi and Crown, but equality has been undermined by our nation’s history of active dispossession of resources and exclusion of Māori from decision making across all levels of governance. This Bill would embed this disempowerment in legislation and make it even harder to overcome the social disadvantage experienced by Māori.
• The Bill is based on a flawed understanding of the text of Te Tiriti, as identified by the Waitangi Tribunal report on the Bill.
• It is important to have a good quality and informed debate about the future shape of government and constitutional relationships under Te Tiriti but this Bill is not the way to have the debate and any resulting referendum is not the way to make such fundamental constitutional decisions.