Ensure that your voice is heard on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill through making a unique submission.  

Creating a submission is your opportunity to share your perspective with decision makers, and you can do this within minutes. Below we’ve created a quick explainer, with instructions on how to create a submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill with recommendations on what you may want to include. 

Why does this matter? 

The government has now introduced Act’s divisive and harmful Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. This bill damages the relationship between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti. It undermines decades of redress efforts, which have sought to address breaches by the Crown over the past 180 years. It distorts the original intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which was a relationship founded on respect and kotahitanga (unity) between two sovereign nations. Now is the time for New Zealanders to actively voice their opposition to this deliberate attack on our nations founding agreement. 

Te Tiriti o Waitangi, signed on February 6, 1840, is Aotearoa, New Zealand's foundational document. Its Preamble captures the Treaty’s purpose: to protect the rights and resources (taonga) of Māori, maintain peace and order, and establish governance under the Crown. This historic agreement between Māori rangatira (chiefs) and representatives of the British Crown created a framework for shared settlement, enabling structured migration and government establishment in Aotearoa, New Zealand.  

We cannot  attempt to rewrite our nation’s history by allowing the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill to proceed. As a country we must look back and reflect so we can move forward in a way that will honour the true intent of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi was aimed to do.

This bill aims to limit the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Doing this will remove rights of iwi, hapū, and Māori that have been long-established in New Zealand law.  

The key concern with the Bill is that it provides that unique rights of iwi and hapū will only be protected if these are set out in a historical Treaty settlement. This would redefine those rights as they appear in multiple other Acts of Parliament, undermining protections that are already in place. It is a blatant breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It overrides the long-standing relationship established between Māori and the Crown. This proposed change raises serious concerns about fairness, unity, and historical respect. 

Rangatira who signed Te Tiriti expected that the Crown would uphold the tino rangatiratanga of their iwi, hapū and whānau forever. We have worked too hard together as a nation to address past wrongs and begin to move forward to a place of respect and partnership, to go backwards now.  

Make your recommendation

Tell the Select Committee why you OPPOSE the Treaty Principles Bill. You could say for example:  

• The Bill does not reflect any credible interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, te Tiriti o Waitangi, or the principles based in either text.  

• The Crown is breaching the Treaty principles of partnership and reciprocity, active protection, good government, equity, redress, and the article 2 guarantee of rangatiratanga. 

• The Crown is pursuing the bill without any engagement or discussion with Māori. 

• It is an attempt to use Parliament's power to change Aotearoa New Zealand's constitutional foundation, based on a legal and historical fiction, and to undermine the role of the courts. 

• It will reduce the constitutional status of the Treaty/te Tiriti, remove its effect in law as currently recognised in Treaty clauses, limit Māori rights and Crown obligations, hinder Māori access to justice, impact Treaty settlements, and undermine social cohesion. 

• It will reduce the legal power of Te Tiriti, limit tangata whenua rights and government responsibilities, restrict Māori access to justice, impact Treaty settlements, and harm social unity in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Then explain why

In this section we strongly recommend drawing on your own experiences. There is no right or wrong way to structure your answer. The key thing is to make the submission uniquely yours. 

Examples: 

I do not support the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill as it is not a fair representation of the intent of te Tiriti o Waitangi. A core intention of Te Tiriti o Waitangi was to protect Māori rights including ownership of lands, resources, and taonga (treasures), as well as the exercise of self-determination (tino rangatiratanga). The rights of tangata whenua are  a part of their identity, culture, and way of life. Removing or limiting these rights disrespects this intrinsic connection to the land and undermines the ability of Māori  to care for and protect their taonga in accordance with their customs and practices. This bill undermines the protective role of the Treaty and fails to honour the assurances made to Māori Rangatira (leaders) at the time of signing. 

I do not support the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, as a tangata tiriti it has acted as mine and my ancestor’s passport to live in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Māori have already suffered major losses from colonisation, including land confiscation, disruption of their social structures, and erosion of their culture. These actions were based on the Crown’s assumption that it could override Māori rights and sovereignty. This bill undermines the agreement that founded our nation. I am concerned that it overrides principles that have been developed through statute and the Waitangi Tribunal over the last 40 years, particularly partnership, reinforcing a power imbalance in which Māori are subordinated to the will of the Crown. This is unfair because it denies the specific and enduring rights of iwi and hapū and denies Māori their rightful place as equals in the governance of Aotearoa and disregards their status as the first peoples of the land. Removing Māori rights today continues this pattern of historical injustice and dispossession. 

Further information you can draw from in your submission 

The Treaty Principles Regulatory Impact Statement outlines: 

• A recommendation to stay with the status quo - The courts and the Waitangi Tribunal would continue to articulate the meaning of the Treaty principles in line with existing practice.  

• The description in the policy proposal is inconsistent with the Treaty/te Tiriti. It does not accurately reflect Article 2, which affirms the continuing exercise of tino rangatiratanga. Restricting the rights of hapū and iwi to those specified in legislation, or agreement with the Crown, implies that tino rangatiratanga is derived from kāwanatanga. It reduces indigenous rights to a set of ordinary rights that could be exercised by any group of citizens. 

• An interpretation of Article 2 that does not recognise the collective rights held by iwi and hapū, or the distinct status of Māori as the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, calls into question the very purpose of the Treaty and its status in our constitutional arrangements. 

Key notes from The Waitangi Tribunal part II interim report:

• If this bill were to be enacted, it would be the worst, most comprehensive breach of the Treaty/te Tiriti in modern times. If the bill remained on the statute book for a considerable time or was never repealed, it could mean the end of the Treaty/te Tiriti. 

• This exclusion of Māori from any say in a process to abrogate their fundamental rights is extremely prejudicial. The impacts will not fade for a long time even if the bill does not proceed beyond the select committee. Any trust or goodwill earned by Treaty settlements is under threat. The Māori–Crown relationship is being damaged, as officials have repeatedly advised. 

• In respect of the proposed content of the bill, as approved by Cabinet, the Crown and claimant evidence agreed that the revised principles, although supposedly based on the articles, do not reflect the texts or the meaning of the Treaty/te Tiriti.