Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister on government repealing references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi within laws

The Government has quietly agreed to repeal a number of references to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi within laws, and amending others.

Despite ongoing conversations since February, no one from within the Government had spoken publicly about the move or made any announcement.

The Ministry of Justice said this would ensure “better outcomes and more consistent decision-making”.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith spoke to Mike Hosking about the decision. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Government looking to lower the legal weight of the treaty
in law we find out over the weekend, or at
least some law anyway, can it agreed this is back
in February to limit obligations to the treaty principles to
no more than take into account Official advice apparently said
the change had no apparent benefits and carry significant risks
to marry crown relations, perhaps not surprisingly. Paul Goldsmith is
of course the Justice Minister and is with us morning,

(00:20):
good morning, how well, I'm well, thank you. Why are
you doing this on the QT? Where are all the
press releases?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, it's not on the QT. It's just as part
of the coalition agreement. It's been well known and flagged
for a long period of time that we're going to
look at the many variety of treaty references that we've
inherited over the last thirty years, a classoscope of honor
the treaty, take into account, give effect to have regard to,

(00:46):
and a wide range of descriptions. And so the point
of the exercise was to try and get some consistency
there with references to the principles of the Treaty of
Waiteitangi and so we've made some Kevin decisions. We're going
to announce them at the appropriate time, and so that's
what we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
No apparent benefits. Do you agree with that or not?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
No, I don't agree with that, Otherwise we wouldn't be
doing it. I mean, obviously there's a variety of views
on this topic, but we just wanted to get some
clarity instead of having all this wide variety of things.
So basically, what we've looked at is is twenty eight
pieces of legislation that refer to the principles of the Treaty.
About ten of them we're going to be dealing with
through separate arrangements, like the Resource Management Act, which is

(01:32):
going through separately as Conservation Act separately, we're focused on
eighteen of them. Will remove the reference entirely for five
or six of them because it just makes no sense,
has no relevance, and the others we're going to be
clearer about. Now, this is a process that will take
a little bit time. We're going to introduce legislation in

(01:53):
a couple of months. We're consulting with EWE leaders at
the moment, and then it will go through sleet committee process.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
You dragged, kicking and screaming into this. This is more
New Zealand First than you, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
No, No, it's scarlets and commitment and we agree with it.
It was something that New Zealand First were team to
see and so I'm the one charged with carrying it
out and that's what we're doing, all right.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
I appreciate your time. Paul Goldsmith, Minister of Justice.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
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