Helmut Modlik: Ngati Toa CEO fears ACT's Regulatory Standards Bill sidelines te Tiriti o Waitangi

There's concerns and fears among some that the Regulatory Standards Bill sidelines te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

The ACT Party bill aims to reduce regulation, claiming it'll create standards for 'good legislation'.

The Waitangi Tribunal is meeting to discuss the legislation's failure to include the Treaty in those standards.   

Ngati Toa CEO Helmut Modlik says ACT pushed it quickly through consultation before introducing it.

"They've been a bit naughty beggars where they've truncated the time-frame - rushing it through so that it can quickly get to the phase where the Tribunal has no jurisdiction." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
The White Tungy Tribunal is holding an urgent inquiry today
on David Seymour's Regulatory Standards Bill. More than eighteen thousand
people have signed onto a claim against the bill, saying
that if it has passed, it will sideline the Treaty
of White Tongy. Now, Helmut Modlick is NATI tour chief
executive and he's with us right now, hey, Helmut, Yeah,
very good.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Henna, you submitted as well. A what was your submission?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, basically we expressed the same sentiment that's coming from
everybody else that this is a constitution, a change to
our constitution, arrangements by stealth that will have impact on
our treaty settlement. And yeah, we would have appreciated being
asked about that before it was put into the process

(00:45):
for moving it into law.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Tell me if I've got this right. Predominantly, the problem
with this is that the Regulatory Standards Bill does not
mention the Treaty of White Tongey, but every piece of
legislation that has written after it has passed would have
to be assessed against it like we do with the
Bill of Rights, and to see whether it complies with
the regulatory Standards Act as it would then be. And

(01:07):
your guys problem with it, people who don't like it,
is because it doesn't mention the treaty. Therefore the treaty
becomes less important, is that right?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, you've got to the heart of it. And I
just elaborate a little bit. So currently there are forty
acts that contain references to the principles of the treaty
and one hundred and ninety two acts or pieces of
legislation that also explicitly reference the Treaty of WAITETANGI. Now
those laws are the main mechanisms by which and I'll

(01:36):
speak specifically about an anti tour and the main mechanisms
by which we ensure that a range of rights that
were actually specified in our Treaty settlement are actually able
to be given effect through those legislations. So those if
the Regulatory Standards Board which will be established under this
bill is set up, it will have the power to

(01:57):
actually remove as many, some or all of those references
to titidity in those various acts, and so we will
actually have a significantly diminished capacity to ensure the meeting
of our treaty settlement on the first place, and the
second place, going forward, is what you said. So that
pretty much captures the range of concerns.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Isn't this though, the kind of urgent hearing that is
causing people to get frustrated with the Waipangi Tribunal and
want to review into it because it's set up to
investigate breaches of the treaty. But there is no breach
of the treaty because the bill hasn't been passed.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yes, so that's a bit of a circular argument there.
So the tribunal is unable to it's not its no
jurisdiction over any law once the government has actually passed it. So,
but what's happened here because the government hasn't actually followed
a process where the treaty partner hasn't been engaged, where

(02:58):
there's been no community information sharing, that there actually is
no reasonable process for the Tribunal or Ewie first to
actually get site on what's proposed and the in form
a view. Instead, what the Crown is doing here is
rushing it through and in fact, and they've been a
bit naughty beggars where they've actually truncated the time frame,

(03:20):
rushing it through so that it can quickly get to
the phase whether the tribunal has no jurisdiction. It's exactly
what they did around Jack a Fay order and it's removal.
They change the time frame so that the Tribunal was
actually unable to make a finding. And so that's really why,
that's really what's going on. It's not a fault of
the tribunal, it's the government. All right.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Hey, listen to Helmet as always, Thank you very much
for your time. Helmet Modlock, chief executive at Nati toy Ewe.
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