Submission Re Treaty Principles Bill

 As an academic, I could have written a long and well referenced submission. I chose here to submit from the heart and my convictions. So the submission is shorter, in plain English, and to the point.

Submission re Treaty Principles Bill

Tēnē koutou Select Committee,

My name is Fiona Beals. My family descends from:

* One of two convict ships which came to New Zealand (Pankhurst boys) (the Beals family)

* Fencibles sent to protect Auckland from invading Māori who would not give up their land (the Kelly family)

* The Wakefield settlement of Wellington, and the first Treaty grievance filed with Queen Victoria (the Wilton, Hayward and Blade family)

* Lost records due to closed adoption.

I call on the Committee to make sense and not progress this bill any further. Moreover, I call on the Government of New Zealand to relook at the issues that are allowed to drive elections. It is not appropriate that a minor party be given so much power when a major party is seeking to form Government. Coalitions should be built on consensus, not compromise. The only reason this bill is even before this Select Committee is because of ‘compromise’ and a minor party seeing the righting of history as an offence.

This Bill effectively white-washes history and implies that The Treaty (no matter what translation) was something promised to both indigenous people and settlers. This is not the case. There is not one settler statement in the document. Nor is there a settler signature. It was a sovereign and divine promise of the Sovereign of England to the indigenous people which guaranteed rights, resources and protection to the indigenous people should they allow this country to become part of then English Empire.

What offends the Act Party now is that, since the 1970s, respective Governments from both sides of the house have worked to redress a very real fact. This fact is that the settlers and the settlers’ governments since 1840 have not respected the Treaty – land was stolen, wars were fought, laws were put in place to ensure that settlers had an upper hand.

The Bill would make sense, if everyone had the same start and opportunities (equality). The reality of our history is that Māori people are represented highly in negative statistics and are less likely to experience the same outcomes of Pakeha. We need policies that enable equity rather than assume that a false equality exists.

This Bill does nothing for Māori – the original signatories; it would not have been signed in 1840 if these principles were on the table.

Finally, as stated, I call on the Government to review the issues that are allowed to drive elections. As a country, we should not have issues that drive division as issues that  can be campaigned on (this includes youth crime as well as race-based issues). This does not stop policies being developed but it does stop elections being governed by headlines and emotions and limits the ability of minor parties being the tail that wags the dog.

Ngā mihi

Fiona Beals