National and New Zealand First have declared, once and for all, that they intend to waste the time of New Zealanders by continuing the charade of supporting the Treaty Principles Bill to the Select Committee stage and then swiftly exiting stage left!

What a joke. A waste of time and money while tensions ratchet up for no reason.

The process of making our laws should be taken seriously, especially the important phase of hearing the feedback of New Zealanders through select committees. To tell us that they intend to ignore whatever our contributions might be is disrespectful.

Disrespectful is how David Seymour characterised it too. He posted the below statement to X (the app formerly known as Twitter).  

Seymour is correct. We need to have the courage to have conversations that are uncomfortable. We will inevitably offend each other and disagree totally at times, but it is better than allowing a festering wound to remain. 

Hobson's Pledge is backing the Treaty Principles Bill. 

We believe that National and New Zealand First are wrong to have ruled out advancing the Bill before it has even been introduced. How do they even know exactly what it will contain and how it could be improved in select committee? They don't. 

We have been thinking about how to approach this issue as the Bill does seem to be on life support. However, reports of its death are greatly exaggerated. If enough New Zealanders submit we could very well shift the Prime Minister's opinion...again.

We have also been discussing the possibility of a Citizens Initiated Referendumon the matter. It would be a massive challenge to get the required 10% of eligible voters, but not outside the realm of possibility. 

Let us know your thoughts by replying or heading over to Facebook.

In slightly better news, it was a relief to learn that our judiciary delivered an emphatic decision to Ngāti Whatua's attempt to demand in the High Court that Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith consult them BEFORE drafting legislation. They also wanted the courts to intervene in the legislative process.

Quite extraordinary demands.

Justice David Boldt's comments left no room for doubt that the separation of powers in New Zealand was not to be trifled with:

“The Minister is entitled to consult as much, or as little, as he wishes. Criticism of the scope and length of the consultation the Minister has offered may come as part of the political and Parliamentary process, but it is not a matter for the Court."

Sanity prevails for once!

I will be in touch very soon as Hobson's Pledge is concerned about a number of issues that really cannot be ignored. There is no one else standing up consistently for an end to race-based policies and law, and an equal future for all New Zealanders. We can't afford to stop for a moment.