ACT will focus the Tribunal on finishing the last dozen or so historical Treaty settlements, strip it of its power to pass judgment on current government policy, and wind it up once that historical work is complete.

The Tribunal’s original creators would never recognise the institution today. It was never meant to become a permanent parallel policy institution, second-guessing elected Governments, inserting itself into day-to-day political decisions, and pushing New Zealand further down the path of division by race.

ACT believes every New Zealander should have the same fundamental rights, protected by the same law. Some parties have shied away from the important debate on our national identity, burying their heads in the sand on the Treaty Principles Bill when only ACT stood in defence of equal rights.Other parties want to drag New Zealand in the opposite direction, towards separatism.

Te Pāti Māori want to make the Waitangi Tribunal’s activist recommendations binding and establish an unelected Treaty Commissioner who can veto our democratically elected Parliament. And Labour can’t govern without them.

And less than two weeks ago Labour’s Willie Jackson was on Q+A saying: “Apparently co-governance scares people so we might give it a new name.” Rather than recognise how toxic these ideas are to the values that make our country great, he’s doubling down and promising to do the marketing better next time. No country can succeed divided by race, no matter how you spin it.

The Waitangi Tribunal has pushed the line further and further. Enough is enough.

The Tribunal has made an important contribution in addressing genuine historical wrongs. The Crown committed injustices and violated property rights. Those wrongs should be settled properly.But the Tribunal that exists today is a very different institution.

Through urgent and ‘kaupapa’ inquiries it now passes judgment on ordinary questions of government policy, proposes alternative policy settings, and seeks to influence decisions that belong to elected Governments and Parliament.

It has involved itself in citizenship, electoral law, public-sector pay, health, child welfare, resource management, government communications, and even the design of legislation itself.

Their desire to expand their influence over the democratic Parliament was made clear when ACT’s Karen Chhour was repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act to ensure child safety was always put first, not ethnicity. They did everything they could to try and stop it, even attempting for the first time to summon her to appear in front of the Tribunal.

ACT says enough. Now cue the media freakout. Watch what happens over the next few days.
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Every so-called Treaty expert they can find will be wheeled out. Every washed-up university academic who thinks democracy needs another layer of unelected oversight will suddenly be treated as the final authority on New Zealand’s constitution.

We will be told the policy is dangerous, radical, divisive, reckless, and that the sky will somehow fall in if an institution created by Parliament can also be changed by Parliament. What you are much less likely to hear is a fair account of what ACT is actually proposing.

We are not cancelling legitimate historical claims. We are not pretending historical injustices did not happen. We are saying those claims should be completed properly, contemporary policy should be decided by elected Governments and Parliament, and once the Tribunal’s historical work is finished, the institution should finish too.

That is hardly revolutionary. But we have learned not to rely on the media to explain ACT’s policies fairly.

That is why we have to speak directly to New Zealanders. We are packing town halls up and down the country because people want to hear these arguments without the filter.

They want to ask questions, challenge us, hear the case for themselves, and decide whether New Zealand should continue down the road of permanent division or return to equal citizenship and one law for all.

One law for all means exactly that

If a Government unlawfully takes your property, interferes with your rights, or acts outside the law, you should have the right to challenge it. Whether your ancestors arrived here 800 years ago, 180 years ago, or last year should make no difference.

Your rights should come from being a New Zealander.

That is why ACT has already announced that we will strengthen property rights in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The answer to weak rights is stronger rights for everyone. It is not a permanent parallel system of political rights based on ancestry.

As we approach 2040, we should finish the remaining historical settlements, recognise genuine wrongs where they occurred, and then move forward as one country under one law for all and one future together.

Thank you for your continued support.

David Seymour ACT Party Leader Deputy Prime Minister