Eru Kapa-Kingi and Jenny Shipley made their submissions against the Treaty principles bill on Thursday.

PoliticsFebruary 20, 2025

Treaty principles bill hearings, day seven: Another ex-PM submits, and tears are shed

Politics reporter

Eru Kapa-Kingi and Jenny Shipley made their submissions against the Treaty principles bill on Thursday.

Everything you missed from day seven of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard two hours of submissions.

Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.

Lee Short, chair of Democracy Action, was the first speaker of the day and supported the bill, saying it was “not to the benefit of other New Zealanders to lose our democracy and equality to a specific group”. He referenced Sir Apirana Ngata, who may well be the most quoted Māori throughout these hearings, in his belief that Māori did not cede sovereignty.

The Human Rights Commission’s Dayle Takitimu (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou), speaking against the bill, labelled it an “unhelpful and erroneous approach to human rights” and the “most comprehensive breach of the Treaty in recent time”, which promoted a “vastly different” interpretation of the Treaty to that which has been understood by the courts and Māori.

“We assert that te Tiriti is a core agreement that affirms the place to belong and a place to stand for everyone in Aotearoa,” Takitimu said. “It is the promise of two peoples to take the best possible care of each other. This bill is not in that spirit.”

Tuku Morgan, Donna Flavell and Jamie Ferguson of Te Whakakitenga o Waikato, the governing body of Waikato-Tainui, said they “vehemently oppose” the bill. Morgan, a former New Zealand First MP and then independent MP, drew on the iwi’s Raupatu Settlement 1995 – about to mark its 30th anniversary, and the only settlement to be signed by Queen Elizabeth II – and the “intergenerational hurt and mamae” the iwi has suffered since the Crown’s invasion of the Waikato between 1863-1864, which saw 1.2 million acres of land confiscated by 1865 and many Māori displaced.

“We not only had our lands taken, but we had the most important taonga of all [taken], our tīpuna awa,” Morgan said.

Introducing himself as “that fella” who led a nationwide hikoi against the bill, Toitū Te Tiriti’s Eru Kapa-Kingi (Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi) was the next to submit. “I could give the most articulate and moving kōrero, and it would not change a thing,” he said. “That is the reality of advocating for rights of an albeit beautiful, oppressed and minoritised people, even on their own whenua.”

He said the bill has made it “dangerous” to be Māori, who had been “whitemailed” into a discussion that has only given legitimacy to racism. “Do not get it twisted that our participation in this process gives it any legitimacy,” Kapa-Kingi said. “If you’re locked in a burning house, of course you’re going to try to put out the fire.” He made his mother, Te Pāti Māori MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, sitting on the committee, shed some tears: “Well done my son,” she said.

Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-O-Ngāpuhi’s Moana Tuwhare (second left with young daughter, far left), Mane Tahere (CEO, second right) and Alva Pomare (far right).

Ngāti Kahungunu iwi leader Bayden Barber said there was “no way” the iwi could support the bill as it “totally undermines our taonga”. He challenged parliament to embody the spirit of the Ngāti Kahungunu haka ‘Tika Tonu’ – to hold fast to what is true and right, come together, and work as one. “If we can do that, nothing is impossible for us to achieve as Māori and as New Zealanders,” he said.

Otago University professor of law Andrew Geddis also spoke against the bill, which he called “a solution in search of a problem” and “essentially a fiction” which bears no relation to the Treaty. Rather than giving clarity, he said the bill would lead to “greater conflict” within Aotearoa’s society. “It’s been enacted in bad faith – it’s got one partner defining the effective terms of te Tiriti without meaningful dialogue with the other,” Geddis said. If the bill went ahead, “You’d basically be setting up a much, much bigger constitutional clash.”

Kapa-Kingi and the Greens’ Hūhana Lyndon wiped tears from their eyes after Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-O-Ngāpuhi’s Moana Tuwhare, Mane Tahere (CEO) and Alva Pomare opened their submission with a karakia, led by Tuwhare’s young daughter. Tuwhare warned the bill had “distinct implications” on Ngāpuhi’s status as an unsettled iwi, and argued that as the first iwi to make contact with the British monarchy, Ngāpuhi had an established relationship with the Crown long before the Treaty was signed.

“Our dedication to advocate for the rights of our mokopuna, of our tamariki, whānau and kāhui hapū will always outlast any government and any attempts to dismantle Ngāpuhi,” Pomare said. “No government, no law and no colonial agenda will ever erase the tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake of Ngāpuhi.”

Lawyer and political pundit Liam Hehir spoke against the bill, with a “good faith … centre-right argument” to complement the mostly left-leaning opposition to the bill. He said issues with the Treaty were an ongoing diplomatic and political matter that required discussions between the Crown and Māori, rather than judicial rulings or a public referendum. “The idea that the Treaty is a pervasive legal principle that permeates the whole legal system is something that we shouldn’t just accept as a given,” Hehir said.

Lawyer and former Act Party MP Stephen Franks opened his submission in support of the bill by recalling his time on the select committee, saying “the magic of democracy is that MPs are always looking forward”. It was his position that the “Supreme Court is utterly unwise”, judges are not equipped, nor are courts “set up to take nuance into account” in order to properly define the Treaty. “We are allowing the court to jerk around everyone else,” he said.

Former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley opened her submission against the bill using the same word she had used in the Crown’s apology to Ngāi Tahu in 1998: the bill was “unconscionable”, and may have future governments finding themselves in the position she was in, “apologising for generations past”.

Former prime minister Jenny Shipley outside parliament’s Room 3. (Photo: Lyric Waiwiri-Smith)

She said she “admired the audacity” of a minor party like Act to be able to bring a bill such as this to parliament, but took “deep offence” for what she saw to be 50 years of relationship building between the Crown and Māori coming undone. She said that codification of the principles of the Treaty had been avoided for 185 years until now, and trying to do it now would take power away from “the next generation of Māori leaders who are going to balance guardianship with stewardship”.

The morning hearing ended with a submission against the bill from the National Iwi Chairs Forum’s Aperahama Edwards (Ngāti Wai) and Te Huia Bill Hamilton (Ngāti Kahungungu, Ngā Rauru, Ngāti Raukawa)’. “Our whānau have experienced racism, colonisation, discrimination and breaches by our parliament,” Hamilton said. “This Treaty principles bill is no exception … It is as bad as the legislation of the 1860s and 1880s that sought to smash the rangatira.”

Keep going!

Silhouette of a young girl facing right against a blue grid background. Pink lines form a rising graph-like pattern behind the figure.

Image: Getty Images; additional design The Spinoff

PoliticsFebruary 20, 2025

Claim of ‘no movement’ in child poverty stats misleading, advocates say

Liam Rātana

Ātea editor

Image: Getty Images; additional design The Spinoff

The latest child poverty data shows all three of the government’s targets have been missed, as advocates call for urgent action, saying it will take more than economic growth to fix the problem.

The latest Stats NZ Child Poverty Report confirms what frontline workers, food banks and child poverty advocates have been warning for months – more children in Aotearoa are living in material hardship than two years ago. The figures for June 2023-June 2024, released today, show the government has failed to meet all three of its primary child poverty reduction targets, with material hardship rates now sitting at an estimated 13.4%, up almost a third from 10.5% in 2022 and a reversal of previous gains.

The official line is that “there has been no statistically significant change” in child poverty rates from last year, but the broader trend since 2021 tells a different story. The estimated number of children experiencing material hardship has risen from 144,100 in 2023 to 156,600 in 2024, an increase of 12,500 in one year. Taking the margin of error into account, Stats NZ says this is not a statistically significant change. However, the rate has risen a statistically significant 2.4 percentage points from the year ended June 2021, and the gap is even bigger compared with 2022, with an estimated 36,000 more children living in material hardship. A household that lacks six or more essential items from the DEP-17 index, the likes of fresh fruit or vegetables, heating and medical care, is considered to be living in material hardship.

As in previous years, the figures show Māori and Pasifika children, as well as disabled children, are disproportionately affected by poverty, with one in every 4.5 Māori children, one in every 3.5 Pasifika children and one in every five disabled children experiencing material hardship. Similarly, NZ Health Survey data released last year showed that more than half of Pasifika children and one in three Māori children lived in households where food often or sometimes ran out, which was highlighted in the Salvation Army’s annual state of the nation report last week.

There was also no "statistically significant change" to the two other primary child poverty reduction targets, with 12.7% of children (150,000) living in households with less than 50% of the median household income before housing costs were deducted, compared to 12.2% in 2023, and 17.7% of children (208,000) living in households with less than 50% of the median household income after housing costs were deducted, the same figure as in 2023.

The previous government set a 2023/24 target to reduce material hardship to 9%, in line with the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018. But under the new coalition government, that target was quietly raised to 11%, effectively shifting expectations and allowing an estimated 17,350 more children to fall into hardship without triggering a “missed target”.

In response to the release of today’s stats, child poverty reduction minister Louise Upston defended the government’s record, saying in a press release that child poverty remained “an ongoing challenge” and blaming the prolonged cost of living crisis for families’ worsening conditions. The government last year rejected advice from Treasury officials that $3 billion per year would be required in order to achieve its child poverty reduction targets, with Upston saying it was focusing on the drivers of child poverty. She said a focus on growing the economy, improving health and education outcomes and getting more households into work would bring down child poverty, and has pointed to tax cuts, inflation control and childcare rebates as key government initiatives.

‘He mea tautoko nā ngā mema atawhai. Supported by our generous members.’

Liam Rātana
— Ātea editor

Speaking after the release of the report at Stats NZ's Auckland office, Sarita Davis, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), said the government’s framing of the new data was “misleading”. “The numbers are increasing, and we need to do something urgently," she said. "We’re missing clear policies that are specific to child poverty. What we have instead is a broad economic strategy that assumes growth will lift families out of hardship, but that’s not how poverty reduction works.

“The reality is that thousands more children are struggling. The data only runs to June 2024, and we know things have gotten even tougher since then," she said.

Critics argue that the government’s response has been insufficient and lacking urgency. CPAG and other advocacy groups have called for immediate action, including restoring and expanding food-in-schools programmes like Ka Ora, Ka Ako, lifting benefit levels to ensure families can cover essential costs, reversing benefit sanctions that disproportionately impact sole-parent and low-income households, and committing a specific budget allocation toward meeting child poverty reduction targets.

“Economic growth does not automatically reduce child poverty,” said Davis. “The government needs a plan. Right now, it doesn’t have one.”

The Salvation Army, meanwhile, called on the government to "move immediately to increase income support settings and hardship assistance to levels that lift children out of hardship". In a press release in response to the release of the new data, Bonnie Robinson, director of the Salvation Army's social policy and parliamentary unit, said, "Children in low-income households should not be the ones paying the highest price to meet government goals of bringing the books back into order."

Chief children's commissioner Claire Achmad called on the government to invest in children in the budget on May 22. “The budget needs to bring practical support into the homes of children in poverty, by lifting basic incomes, urgently addressing food insecurity and housing affordability – particularly for families who are renting – and other measures that reduce material hardship," she said in a press release. “The government’s own growth strategy is dependent on maximising skilled labour, education and workforce participation, which will be hard to achieve without addressing childhood poverty. Other targets, across things like education and youth justice, are also at risk."

Stats NZ has confirmed that persistent child poverty measures – tracking whether children remain in hardship over multiple years – will be introduced in 2027, following the scrapping of a key longitudinal study last year. However, child advocates warn that without urgent intervention, conditions will continue to deteriorate.

“We’re at a tipping point,” said Davis. “The numbers don’t lie. We need real action, not just political talking points.”

This is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air.