Decades of Treaty scholarship have failed to arrive at a consensus about its meaning and purpose. Dispensing with various mistaken interpretations would improve the chances of productive discussion.
If Māori did not explicitly cede sovereignty in 1840, neither did they fully retain it. If sovereignty is already being shared, where does Te Tiriti o Waitangi sit within our unwritten constitution?
ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill assumes Māori have been granted special privileges. But it can equally be argued the Treaty prevents the undemocratic concentration of power in the hands of a few.
The ACT Party claims revisiting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi is about political equality. But removing a Māori cultural dimension to New Zealand’s democracy would have an opposite effect.