End tribunal’s permanent lobbying

If Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson thinks the Waitangi Tribunal is going into areas outside its scope he could introduce a bill to disestablish it, treaty commentator Mike Butler said today.

News of an urgent hearing into whether the Crown has failed to reduce high Maori imprisonment and re-offending rates prompted the Minister's comment on Friday that he didn't know whether they're a permanent commission of inquiry or some kind of imperial senate.

The Waitangi Tribunal could be disestablished by repealing Sections 4-8 of the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, Mr Butler said.

Mr Butler, who contributed to One treaty, one nation just published, and who wrote Tribes Treaty Money Power, said lack of a Waitangi Tribunal would have little impact on any final historic settlements.

The Office of Treaty Settlements is negotiating historic settlements without much input from the tribunal while relying a simple formula based on land area and claimed tribal membership, he said.

The Waitangi Tribunal pretends to be an impartial tribunal but is in fact one of four main lobby groups pushing tribal interests at the expense of everyone else, he said.

The other three such lobby groups are the New Zealand Maori Council, the Maori Party, and the Iwi Leaders Group -- in its various incarnations.

Instead of complaining and warning the Tribunal to sort its priorities, Mr Finlayson could simply draft a bill and put it before parliament. He would have the numbers for it to pass, Mr Butler said.

Mr Butler sent a copy of this media release as a letter to Mr Finlayson, all National Party MPs, Winston Peters and NZ First MPs, as well as ACT’s David Seymour.

ENDS

© Scoop Media