{"id":386861,"date":"2026-04-19T05:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T05:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T05:59:07","slug":"treaty-of-waitangi-clause-review-government-quietly-agrees-to-amend-repeal-provisions-in-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386861\/","title":{"rendered":"Treaty of Waitangi clause review: Government quietly agrees to amend, repeal provisions in laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

It included the partial outcome of the Government\u2019s review of Treaty clauses<\/a> across 23 pieces of legislation. The findings of that review have not previously been released.<\/p>\n

The review was promised in the National-NZ First coalition agreement. It committed the Government to review all legislation \u2013 other than those relating to Treaty settlements \u2013 that included references to the principles of the Treaty, and to either replace them with more specific words relating to the Treaty\u2019s relevance or application, or repeal the references. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe review was part of the National-NZ First coalition agreement. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

The purpose of this was to ensure references to Treaty principles in legislation were \u201cclear and specific\u201d, according to the Ministry of Justice. Doing so would ensure \u201cbetter outcomes and more consistent decision-making\u201d.<\/p>\n

There was concern from NZ First about \u201cgeneric open-ended Treaty clauses\u201d leading to the wider interpretation of legislation than what Parliament intended. That was viewed to be resulting in years of litigation in the courts. <\/p>\n

The review was different to the Treaty Principles Bill, which sought to define the principles of the Treaty. That was voted down by Parliament.<\/p>\n

The memorandum the Herald has seen was written by lawyers for the Government and filed as part of the Waitangi Tribunal\u2019s inquiry into whether the Crown\u2019s response to climate change was consistent with the principles of the Treaty.<\/p>\n

It said ministers agreed in February to amend references to the Treaty found within the Climate Change Response Act 2002 (CCRA).<\/p>\n

\u201cCabinet agreed that Treaty references within the CCRA should be amended so that where a Treaty standard is needed, which indicates the strength or nature of the Treaty obligation, no higher standard than \u2018take into account\u2019 should be used,\u201d the memorandum said.<\/p>\n

The Treaty reference in the CCRA is what is called a \u201cdescriptive\u201d clause, the memorandum said. This means it provides mechanisms or actions for how the principles of the Treaty should be given effect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s different to a general or \u201coperative\u201d clause which is more open-ended, often simply saying the legislation must uphold, give effect to, or comply with the Treaty. The Government is no longer putting these general clauses in<\/a> legislation.<\/p>\n

\"NZNZ First MP Shane Jones has previously criticised “generic, open-ended” Treaty clauses. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

The document also said that to standardise Treaty provisions across legislation, reference would now be made to both the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Reference to \u201cTreaty principles\u201d will also be retained.<\/p>\n

Given this memorandum dealt with just the CCRA, the Herald contacted Goldsmith, who has overseen the work, asking if decisions had been made about Treaty clauses in other pieces of legislation.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Sunday afternoon, the Justice Minister said an advisory group had completed its review and provided the Government with a \u201cvariety of recommendations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a first step, the Government has agreed to amend two references to be more specific, and repeal a number of references elsewhere,\u201d he told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has also agreed a reference to both the Treaty of Waitangi and te Tiriti o Waitangi is preferable and should be used in all relevant provisions going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now consulting with Iwi leaders before introducing legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement did not list what legislation will have references amended or repealed.<\/p>\n

Goldsmith said the changes followed Parliament, over the past 20 years, passing laws \u201cwith all manner of references, sometimes being very vague about what it means\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cReviewing these will ensure Treaty references are specific and consistent with one another, in the interests of increasing certainty and supporting compliance. A core foundation of our success as a nation is predictability in the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JusticeJustice Minister Paul Goldsmith has overseen the work. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

David Seymour, the Act Party leader and Cabinet minister, told the Herald the review was a \u201cuseful exercise\u201d that his party supported, but it \u201cdoes not remove the idea that there are Treaty principles\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said they remained \u201calive\u201d in many areas of law, including the Treaty of Waitangi Act, which was excluded from this review.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we support this initiative, the underlying problem of what does the Treaty really mean in law has not been addressed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Treaty principle\u2019 is still a legal term in New Zealand\u2019s law books and what that means is no clearer than before after this exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were 23 pieces of legislation within the scope of the review, ranging from laws in the transport space, to justice, health, the environment and education. This included the CCRA.<\/p>\n

The Government last year set up an advisory group of four people<\/a>, deemed to have expertise in M\u0101ori issues, economic development, governance and the Treaty of Waitangi, to support ministers.<\/p>\n

The process that the Government said it would follow included engagement with \u201cidentified M\u0101ori groups and relevant stakeholders\u201d on initial preferred options. Goldsmith would then report back to Cabinet to seek final policy decisions and how any changes may be implemented.<\/p>\n

Feedback was also expected from the Treaty Provisions Oversight Group (TPOG), set up under the previous Labour Government to consider any new provisions on Treaty issues.<\/p>\n

As the Herald has previously reported<\/a>, the TPOG attempted to narrow the types of clauses and to get agencies to question whether a Treaty clause was necessary before drafting legislation.<\/p>\n

From early on in the coalition\u2019s review process, officials advised the Government it was \u201clikely to negatively impact on existing relationships between agencies and M\u0101ori and potentially be seen as a breach of the Treaty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis could result in further litigation, and claims to the Waitangi Tribunal,\u201d a Cabinet committee paper filed in Goldsmith\u2019s name last year said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral agencies have also raised concerns about the ability to conduct good faith engagement with iwi and hap\u016b and other stakeholders within the proposed timeframes. <\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring the scope of the review is kept narrow and specific will help manage the risks to the M\u0101ori Crown relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Waitangi Tribunal in October reported that the Crown\u2019s process at the time \u201cwould breach the Treaty of Waitangi\u201d, with \u201cpotential risks of negative impacts\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to a summary from the tribunal: \u201cThe tribunal found, however, that it is not too late to refocus the review and its process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tribunal said that, if the review focuses on the clarity of Treaty clauses, allowing enough time for robust policy analysis and full engagement with inclusion of M\u0101ori in decision-making, the review could be positive and benefit both M\u0101ori and the Crown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It included the partial outcome of the Government\u2019s review of Treaty clauses across 23 pieces of legislation. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3469,12466,200441,200442,161076,266,42,78,12472,130,43,4061,1118,2682,104284,5349,77617,57301,97088,762,118638,61,40,38,41,39,38961,27704,6123,10119],"class_list":{"0":"post-386861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-agreed","9":"tag-agrees","10":"tag-amend","11":"tag-amending","12":"tag-clause","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-laws","17":"tag-more","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-number","20":"tag-of","21":"tag-others","22":"tag-principles","23":"tag-provisions","24":"tag-quietly","25":"tag-references","26":"tag-repeal","27":"tag-review","28":"tag-specific","29":"tag-to","30":"tag-top-news","31":"tag-top-stories","32":"tag-topnews","33":"tag-topstories","34":"tag-treaty","35":"tag-waitangi","36":"tag-while","37":"tag-within"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}