Human Rights Commission
Media Release
4 February, 2009

Treaty viewed as founding document by three out of five NZers

Around three in every five New Zealanders agree that the Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand’s founding document and that the Treaty is for all New Zealanders, the highest results since polling on attitudes to the Treaty began.

The Human Rights Commission has asked research firm UMR to poll New Zealanders about their attitudes to the Treaty. In polling conducted in late November and December 2008, 59% of respondents agreed that “The Treaty is New Zealand’s founding document “(73% of Māori) and 57% agreed that “The Treaty is for all New Zealanders” (63% of Māori). The first result is the highest since the question was first posed in 2005. The second the highest since the Commission’s Treaty attitudes polling began in 2002.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said:“ It’s good to see that the Treaty is accepted by a majority of New Zealanders as being for all of us and as the starting point for our nation.”

The poll is published in the Treaty chapter of the annual Race Relations Report. The chapter has been released this week in advance of Waitangi Day 2009 as a resource to aid discussion about the Crown-Tangata whenua relationship.

The polling also revealed that the level of declared knowledge about the Treaty of Waitangi has fallen to the lowest level since 2002, with only one if three (34%) of respondents saying they knew a lot about the Treaty.

The decline in declared knowledge could be a result of the Treaty and Treaty issues no longer being seen as ‘hot button” media issues.

The UMR Human Rights Commission poll has a margin of error of +- 3.6%.

ENDS

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