Media Release

26 July 2006

Define Or Delete

New Zealand First is looking forward to getting the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Deletion Bill voted to select committee in Parliament today.

“We have been trying for years to get some definition of what the Treaty principles, enshrined in so much of our legislation over the last twenty years, actually are,” said bill sponsor Doug Woolerton.

“This is in the interests of clarification for the legal and judicial professions, who are tasked with interpreting and applying the law, as much as anything else.

“The principles were never part of the original Treaty, and New Zealand First questions how their inclusion, made on a political whim two decades ago, can still be justified today, given the fact that they have never been defined.

“New Zealand First is known as a party that is not afraid to say what others are thinking, but in this PC climate don’t feel comfortable saying. The passage of this bill to select committee will allow all those who are concerned about this issue, from any perspective, to have their opinions heard.

“I want to make it perfectly clear that this is not an attack on the Treaty itself, but on the insertion of the term “the principles of the Treaty” into legislation.

“Today we have a chance to make a genuine contribution to positive race relations in New Zealand with this bill, and I urge my Parliamentary colleagues to support it at its first reading,” said Mr Woolerton.

ENDS

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