{"id":553331,"date":"2026-07-31T16:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553331\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:42:14","slug":"treaty-clause-review-could-be-matter-of-life-or-death-for-maori-waitangi-tribunal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/553331\/","title":{"rendered":"Treaty clause review could be matter of life or death for M\u0101ori \u2013 Waitangi Tribunal"},"content":{"rendered":"

For example, one reference could use the word \u201chonour\u201d while another might say to \u201cgive effect to\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a scathing report, the tribunal said the policy could cause \u201creal harm\u201d to M\u0101ori welfare and the M\u0101ori-Crown relationship.<\/p>\n

The tribunal, which has been heavily criticised<\/a> by the coalition amid claims it is becoming increasingly \u201cactivist\u201d, said the legislation included in the review had sought to combat some of the \u201cpressing problems\u201d facing M\u0101ori. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, M\u0101ori will be and already are disproportionately harmed by the effects of climate change. M\u0101ori have consistently shorter life spans than their non-M\u0101ori counterparts,\u201d the tribunal said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAny reduction of the focus on the needs of M\u0101ori within the legislative and policy settings relevant to these issues will not simply be detrimental to M\u0101ori interests in a theoretical sense. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes could result in real harm, and potentially the loss of M\u0101ori lives.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"NZNZ First leader Winston Peters and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.
\nPhoto \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n

This was why many people committed their time to submitting to the tribunal\u2019s urgent hearing.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the words of Dr Papaarangi Reid, \u2018it\u2019s not really about words. For us, it\u2019s about life and death and for us, it\u2019s about saving M\u0101ori lives\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

The tribunal urged the Government to ditch the policy \u2013 or pause work until \u201cmeaningful co-design with M\u0101ori has occurred\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government should also engage substantially with post-settlement governance agencies on the potential impact of the review on iwi settlements. <\/p>\n

The review breached the treaty, the tribunal said, by \u201cprioritising coalition agreement commitments over the need to make informed policy decisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For example, one reference could use the word \u201chonour\u201d while another might say to \u201cgive effect to\u201d. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3255,5195,161076,206562,124,634,11424,2082,266,181508,7240,20513,424,6187,2225,3302,2720,111,43,139,69,1118,691,42562,762,1361,38961,6847,27704],"class_list":["post-553331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-address","tag-be","tag-clause","tag-clauses","tag-could","tag-death","tag-finds","tag-for","tag-government","tag-inequities","tag-lead","tag-legislation","tag-life","tag-lives","tag-loss","tag-matter","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-or","tag-pieces","tag-review","tag-that","tag-treaty","tag-tribunal","tag-waitangi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553331","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=553331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}