Mike's Minute: What we've learnt from the Treaty Bill submissions

We should give a shout out, or at least take a few moments, to read Lyric Wairiri-Smith's account of the Treaty Principles Bill submissions. 

She works for The Spinoff, and she sat through virtually all of the 80 hours of submissions and cast a series of observations by way of a “50 things I learned” list. 

The 37th thing she learned was the lack of media interest. 

You may recall at the start of the process it was a mad wall to wall, blow-by-blow account of what was one of the country's most contentious/outrageous/heinous acts of the modern age. 

Fast forward a few days and she was the only one left, along with Māori TV. 

There is a lesson in that. 

On one hand you can mount an argument that the media is so trimmed down that resource for lengthy procedures is limited. 

You can also argue, and this is my argument, that the media are too magpie-ish and fascinate themselves with shiny things, lose interest too quickly and, as such, enhance their reputations as fly-by-nighters interested in clicks, not knowledge. Cover it properly or don’t cover it all. 

Some of the 50 things are lightish in nature. This is not a criticism of the piece, in fact we should be grateful someone bothered to give us this overarching insight, hence it behoves us to absorb it. 

But some basically tell you what you thought they would - namely, that a lot of people turned up, as you would expect, to hate on it thus drawing into question the whole submission process. 

Most importantly for me, was my suspicion was confirmed that there remains great debate over the Treaty and its principals and, as such, David Seymour was more than right to do what he has done. 

The high and mighty turned up and basically argued with each other. The Treaty is not settled, or anywhere close to it, and it is not defined. You can find scholars and lawyers and experts who will tell you one thing with full vim and vigour and eloquence, then you can find another equally qualified lot who will say that is wrong, hence we are where we are. 

Where we are, sadly, is the end of the road because the bill, as we all know, will be voted down. 

Which is a shame, given as Ms Smith's list surely shows, a definitive understanding is well and truly overdue.   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We shall all, by the way, give a shout out,
or at least take a few moments to read lyric
Wirery Smith's account of the Treaty Settlement's build submissions. Now
she works for the spin off. She sat through it
seems virtually all of the eighty hours of submissions and
cast a series of observations by a way of a
fifty things I learned less Now. One of the things

(00:20):
she learned in fact thirty seventh was the lack of
media coverage and the lack of media interest. Now you
may recall, at the start of this particular process it
was a mad water wall, blow by blow account of
what was one of the country's an exciting word, contentious, outrageous,
henous acts of the modern age. Fast forward a few
days she was the only one left, along with Mary Television.

(00:43):
So there's a lesson in that. On one hand, I
suppose you can mount an argument that the media is
so trimmed down these days, resourceful, lengthy procedures is limited.
And you can also argue, and this is my argument,
the media are two magpie ish and fascinate themselves with
shiny things, lose interest too quickly, and as such, enhance
the reputation, as fly byis interested in cliques, not knowledge
my work. Cover it properly or don't cover it at

(01:05):
all could be a guiding idea. Some of the fifty
things are bit lightish in nature, and some of this
is not a criticism of the piece. In fact, we
should all be grateful someone bothered to give us this
overarching insight. Hence it behooves us to absorb it. But
some basically tell you what you thought they would. Namely,
a lot of people turned up as you would expect,
to hate on it, thus drawing into questioning the whole

(01:25):
submission process. Is it really worth anything? Does it achieve anything? More?
Importantly for me? Was my suspicion? Was confirmed that there
remains great debate over the treaty and its principles, and
as such David Seymour was more than right to do
what he has done. The High and Mighty turned up
and basically argued with each other. The treaty is not
settled or anywhere close to it. It is not defined.

(01:47):
You can find scholars and lawyers and experts will tell
you the one thing full of vim, full of vigor
and eloquence, and then you can find another equally qualified
person saying exactly the opposite, and how wrong they are.
Hence we are where we are and where we are. Sadly,
is that for now the end of the road, because
the bill, as we all know, will be voted down,
which is a shame given as Miss Smith's list surely

(02:08):
shows a definitive understanding is well and truly overdue. For
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