We have made our submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill on behalf of the hapori and we encourage others to put their submissions in by 7th January 2025.
In summary, we oppose the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill and recommend that the bill is abandoned.
We submit that this bill orchestrates a profound power shift that serves to advance non-Māori interests while deliberately eroding the fundamental rights and protections of tangata whenua.
Submission: Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
The Justice Committee
4 January 2025
TE HAPORI MATIHIKO
Position: Te Hapori Matihiko opposes the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill in its entirety.
Recommendation: To limit further harm, we recommend that the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill is abandoned and does not progress to a second reading.
Te Hapori Matihiko
Te Hapori Matihiko is a kaupapa Māori organisation representing over 1,200 Māori and supporters of Māori in the digital and technology industries. We are an uara-led Māori organisation with Te Tiriti o Waitangi as our papa pounamu, our guiding foundation. We are primarily interested in the impact of the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill on the hapori we represent and the online spaces they work in.
Firstly, we support the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal that the development of the bill constitutes multiple breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and that if enacted will ultimately lead to dire consequences for Māori and Crown-Māori relations.
Our concerns with the process undertaken to draft the bill are the following:
- The treaty partners, Māori, and Māori organisations that operate under the guidance of Te Tiriti, like our hapori and Māori in our wider digital and technology community, were not consulted in the development of the bill.
- It is unconstitutional in that the bill can seek to rewrite Aotearoa’s constitutional document without the consent of Māori as treaty partners and its original signatories and their descendants.
- The proposed principles were developed in isolation without taking on board any input from Treaty experts, academics or indigenous knowledge.
The bill seeks to change the intent of the principles, thereby changing the intent and effect of the treaty, which fundamentally undermines Māori rights. This is shown here:
Proposed Principle 1 – this seeks to establish the full power of the Crown to govern over all New Zealanders.
Issue: This clearly demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of tino rangatiratanga promised in Te Tiriti as a collective right for Māori to govern their own resources and taonga. Māori did not cede sovereignty. Removing tino rangatiratanga, the removal of Māori sovereignty, removes the unique partnership between Māori and the Crown intended in Te Tiriti.
Proposed Principle 2 – protects rights that hapū & iwi Māori had at the signing of the treaty, with a caveat that if these protections differ to everyone else, it only applies if those rights are agreed in a settled historical claim under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975.
Issue: This in effect freezes Māori rights to those existing at 1840 and fails to understand that these rights exist through whakapapa and living by ao Māori.
Proposed Principle 3 – all New Zealanders are equal under the law with the same rights and duties.
Issue: This is a misinterpretation of equality as it removes pre-existing cultural rights. It also overlooks systematic inequalities and intergenerational trauma from colonisation. We also understand that these rights are already in place through the Human Rights Act 1993 and should not be included in a treaty between the Crown and Māori – this is a fundamental change to the intent of Te Tiriti.
Specifically for the industry and group of Māori in digital and tech that we support, we are concerned about the following:
- Protections of taonga Māori in te ao matihiko (the digital realm): an attempt to remove tino rangatiratanga threatens to undermine critical safeguards for taonga Māori and tangata Māori in te ao matihiko (the digital realm). This regressive step would potentially undermine Aotearoa’s pioneering achievements in data sovereignty and the protections of indigenous taonga online which could compromise the frameworks that have become globally recognised benchmarks for protecting indigenous rights in digital and technology fields.
- Harms to social cohesion and increased harms to Māori online: with the introduction of the bill, despite promises it won’t go further than second reading, Māori have been exposed to an increase in harm online. This includes disinformation, targeted attacks and racist rhetoric. As we and others work hard to encourage more Māori to work in technology & grow Māori working in the industry, this creates further barriers to entry and harm. We have seen and felt the discontent online and it has been discussed at every hui our hapori has held in the past year. This is a real harm already being felt just with the introduction of the bill.
- A backward step in digital equity: the technology industry in Aotearoa is worth $13.2 billion and represents our second largest export earner. However, Māori only represent 4.8% of that industry. Through multiple different avenues like advocacy, education, procurement and employment, there has been good progress in moving this figure – however removal of commitments in Te Tiriti means this progress will be impacted. We are also concerned that with the removal of protections for Māori and taonga Māori, work towards digital equity will be impacted. Māori are disproportionately impacted with lower access to technology, digital tools and connection to the internet. To achieve digital equity, work must continue in this space, with a specific commitment from the Crown.
Finally, we are frustrated. We are frustrated that at a time when Aotearoa was making historic strides in advancing Māori rights and strengthening race relations in Aotearoa, this bill represents a devastating backslide. We are frustrated that valuable time, money and resources squandered on this regressive bill could have been invested in uplifting Māori and Māori communities to foster genuine progress in this nation.We are frustrated that this bill has created a climate of hostility and harm towards Māori, our hapori, inflicting sustained damage on our communities that serves no purpose but to divide and diminish Māori and the communities we live in. We submit that this bill orchestrates a profound power shift that serves to advance non-Māori interests while deliberately eroding the fundamental rights and protections of tangata whenua.
We recommend that the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill be abandoned.
Katie Brown ( on behalf of Te Hapori Matihiko)
Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive Officer
Te Hapori Matihiko
