Ruth Richardson. Photo: Supplied
Former Finance Minister Ruth Richardson has spoken in support of the Treaty Principles Bill, saying it is legislation of "consequence, whose time has come".
Oral submissions have continued on the legislation today, with the justice select committee hearing hours of feedback throughout the day.
Speaking in opposition to the Bill, Dame Anne Salmond said it should belong in the "dustbin of history," while activist and lawyer Annette Sykes said those trying to protect the Treaty did so from a "place of kindness, a place of co-existence".
But Richardson - known for 'the mother of all budgets' in 1991 - told the committee she supported the Bill because it was a "proper use of statutory power to spell out in law the set of principles that are designed to govern the conduct of Treaty policy".
"That, in essence, is why I support this Bill, both as to its timing and its text."
She spoke of her motivations to become an MP more than 40 years ago, which was to "primarily to address and advance New Zealand's economic health".
"The course correction that I spearheaded culminated in the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, a set of principles designed to correct the conduct of fiscal policy that had become wayward and wrong."
"You heard of the slogan 'it's the economy, stupid'. That was the mantra that governments and their challengers seek to observe if they want electoral success."
Richardson told the committee there was now a "rival on the block - 'it's the culture, stupid'."
"There is a new imperative in New Zealand on the cultural front, the necessity to address and correct Treaty overreach that has increasingly and evidently become wayward and wrong."
She said this "is a bill of consequence whose time has come".
Richardson said the Treaty was "cast in stone," and that was not disputed. But the concept of the principles of the Treaty was a "relatively modern matter," and pointed out the most "significant attempt to define the principles of the Treaty was made not by parliament but by the courts".
She referenced the 1987 Lands case and the "landmark" ruling by Justice Cooke, and the five propositions that were ruled to be "crucial in defining the principles of the Treaty".
In particular, she pointed out Cooke had said the Treaty signified a partnership.
"Nowhere in the Treaty was the word partnership used," she said, "let alone defined.
"Partnership was an invention of the courts, which in recent times has become a platform for policy that is driven by separatism and for policy that trashes democratic norms."
She finished by tackling "a common refrain", that opponents of the Bill were essentially saying "how dare Parliament legislate a set of Treaty Principles?".
"But wait a minute, apparently it's okay for the courts to do this, but not the parliament.
"My charge is that Parliament has been missing in action as the whole Treaty industry overreach has evolved and gathered steam.
"This bill restores to Parliament to its rightful place, and should give the electorate some comfort that the treaty overreach by the court, the Waitangi Tribunal and officialdom will not continue unchecked."
'Te Tiriti is about relationships. It's not about race'
Dame Anne Salmond, a professor of Māori studies and anthropology, also submitted today. She referenced a "forensic study of the text of Te Tiriti and its historical context" commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal.
Dame Anne stated Te Tiriti o Waitangi described neither a "split state with two separate political systems" nor a "singular state with only one set of powers under the Queen's kāwanatanga".
"Rather, Te Tiriti, in the original, describes a power sharing arrangement between the Queen and the rangatira with their hapū, in which the mana of all parties is respected."
She then explored the preamble of Te Tiriti, "because it describes how this arrangement was supposed to work on the ground".
"In the first line of the preamble, Queen Victoria promises the rangatira and their hapū, in the plural, that she will protect their rangatiratanga and their lands."
In He Whakaputanga, the Declaration of Independence, Henry Williams (who also translated the Treaty into te reo Māori) used the term rangatiratanga to translate independence from the outset, said Salmond.
"Then, the independence of each of the rangatira and their hapū is guaranteed by the Queen," she stated, and in exchange for that, "each of the rangatira and the hapu agree to the kawanatanga of the Queen".
She also stated people in Te Tiriti are identified by their countries of origin - not their race. She said race is a "colonial construct with no scientific validity and a horrible history associated with slavery, genocide and other atrocities".
"Te Tiriti is about relationships. It's not about race."
She said the "two race interpretation of Te Tiriti is again a colonial artefact and mistaken".
"In the debates around this Bill, it's being used to try and dishonour the promises that were exchanged in Te Tiriti between each of the rangatira and the Queen of England."
She said the ACT Party is trying to rewrite Te Tiriti O Waitangi to "make it say what they wish it had said".
"If we were in France and someone who couldn't speak French took it upon themselves to try and inspect and instruct the people of that country about the basic principles of an important constitutional document that they couldn't even read - they would be regarded as a lunatic or a fool."
Dame Anne said a "fringe party" with "little electoral support and less knowledge" was attempting to rewrite promises exchanged by rangatira and the Queen in 1984, and the "arrogance of this is breathtaking".
The Bill "should be put in the dustbin of history where it belongs".
Annette Sykes, a well-known lawyer submitted as a "Treaty activist who spent 40 years fighting for these rights".
She began her submission by acknowledging those performing at Te Matatini, and upholding "mana Māori motuhake" and "tino rangatiratanga".
Sykes was one of the lawyers who led the challenges to the Waitangi Tribunal about the Bill. She is also from Ngāti Pikiao, who "once the ink was dried on the coalition agreements", she said, "immediately organised to reject any efforts by this present kāwanatanga to undermine, rewrite, dismantle the aspects of Te Tiriti, which are sacred to us as a matter of history".
She called Te Tiriti a "peace document with two dimensions".
"The way to create an opportunity for laws and peaceful coexistence between and amongst hapū and iwi themselves, but more fundamentally, to then engage with the arriving settlers and the kāwanatanga that was established for them by the British sovereign."
She endorsed people who had made submissions before her, including Dame Anne, Marilyn Waring, Dame Jenny Shipley and Sir Geoffrey Palmer, "those that encapsulated the essence of unity that the Treaty provided."
She said those submitters also reminded the committee the "pillars of the rule of law are built on the constitutional apparatus", which only gains legitimacy if "we accept He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti as part of the fabric of the creation of the modern Aotearoa, New Zealand state."
Sykes explained that those who have worked to protect the Treaty "do so not from a place of hatred, but a place of kindness".
"A place of coexistence, a place of recognising the spiritual soul of the future of our nation was embedded in that document and provides now the metaphors of unity that this Bill actually undermines."
Sykes implored the committee to "stop tinkering with constitutional foundation stones".
"It's unheard of for me - the Magna Carta is deeply embedded in my legal soul, just like the Treaty.
"I would never, ever see anybody try and rewrite the Magna Carta and the arrogance of anybody to suggest they have the power, the ability to do so in this modern time without discussion and the pre-consent of the other party is absolutely deplorable.
She then asked the committee to carefully consider what it was doing to the "soul of the nation by even contemplating the introduction of such racist measures to us at this time".
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