NZEI Te Riu Roa is supporting four claimant groups asking the Waitangi Tribunal to recommend a halt to proposed government legislation that would repeal or downgrade Te Tiriti o Waitangi provisions across 19 pieces of legislation.
The Tribunal today began an urgent inquiry into the government’s plan to repeal or amend Te Tiriti provisions across key legislation spanning several sectors including education, environment, health, and criminal justice. Urgency was granted following the government’s announcement that it intends to introduce the proposed Bill to Parliament by August.
As the inquiry began, the Tribunal heard warnings that these sweeping statutory reforms will cause “immediate and cumulative prejudice to Māori”.
“Dismantling these legislative protections will directly harm ākonga Māori by undermining cultural safeguards and equity in the education system,” says Jessie Moss, NZEI Te Riu Roa Senior Professional Adviser.
“We are deeply concerned about the harm that the treaty principles review work programme may cause,” Ms Moss and NZEI Te Riu Roa Senior Strategic Researcher Dr Shannon Walsh said in a joint brief to the Tribunal.
“Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the korowai that protects tamariki Māori in our education system. Taking away or downgrading these as the Treaty Principles Reform programme seeks to do is a careless and blunt attack on Te Tiriti and, ultimately, ākonga Māori.”
They said the removal or dilution of these provisions would leave tamariki Māori without the legislative protections that the Crown itself has acknowledged are necessary to address longstanding and well-documented educational inequities.
“While NZEI Te Riu Roa’s expertise and evidence is directed to the education sector, we are acutely conscious that the legislative framework we are seeking to protect forms part of a wider architecture of Treaty obligations that, if dismantled, will cause harm that reaches far beyond any single sector,” they added.
In its advice to the Ministry of Justice, cited in the brief by Ms Moss and Dr Walsh, the Ministry of Education noted that “the education system has historically underserved Māori learners” and advised against downgrading or removing the six Te Tiriti provisions in the Education and Training Act without genuine consultation with Māori.
In addition to the removal of school boards’ obligations to give effect to Te Tiriti last year, the Coalition Government is considering:
• Removing or downgrading the Education and Training Act’s commitment for the education system to honour Te Tiriti
• Downgrading “to give effect to” to “take into account” – removing the obligation to implement Treaty commitments and reducing them to a discretionary matter where decision-makers can simply turn their mind to the issue and proceed regardless.
• Diluting Teaching Council requirements – Ministerial appointees would only be required to have an “understanding of the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi” rather than being required to “enact” them.
Alongside the claimants, NZEI Te Riu Roa is urging the Crown to act on these recommendations and enter into a genuine partnership with Māori to strengthen statutory recognition of Te Tiriti obligations.