Treaty Principles Bill defeated

It is a great shame Rodney Hide’s bill defining the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi was only supported by National and ACT and didn’t even make it to select committee.

Sure the definitions in the bill were debatable but we should have had the debate. A select committee could have heard submission on what the principles should be defined as. It would force us to confront this important issue.

We have stuck treaty clauses in legislation for years and years without even knowing what the hell they mean. Almost everyone now agrees this was a bad thing to do. We had the chance to start providing a solution to the problem but Labour, Greens, United Future and NZ First denied NZers the chance of even having the issue considered.