> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://goodoil.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Law and the Māorification Process - URL: https://goodoil.news/law-and-the-maorification-process/ - Published: 2026-10-29T20:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-29T20:30:00.000Z - Description: John Locke said: ‘When law ends, tyranny begins.’ New Zealand should keep this in mind. Its legal system is now deeply divided. - Author: Reproduced with permission - Tags: NZ Politics, Judiciary, Law, History [**ML Kearney**](https://nominister.wordpress.com/2026/10/28/law-and-the-maorification-process/?ref=goodoil.news) *No Minister* - **Introduction** The Māorification of New Zealand as a pathway to ultimate political control by tribal rule has many aspects. But perhaps **the most significant is the law** – as a unique force for power and change. This is even more important than parliament itself or the public service which is deeply committed to this aim of profound constitutional transformation – *from democracy to ethnocracy. That is – to a two-tier society based on the privilege of a certain ancestry.* Three interlinked domains are central to this strategy – ***the law schools of NZ universities* (which train NZ’s future lawyers and research subjects of importance related to NZ’s legal system and its future direction), *the legal profession* and *the judiciary* ( along with all echelons of the court system).** - **Three key forces for change : legal academia, the legal profession and the judiciary** Ironically, these founding institutions have undergone deep change since the 1980s and now seek to reshape the very nation state that they once helped to build. This is due to the pressure from radical Māori to achieve tribal rule over NZ by 2040, as outlined in the *2016 Matike Mai* and *2019 He Puapua* reports. Today, these institutions have been infiltrated by Critical Race Theory – and the law now plays a key role to legitimize the ultimate change already underway. - **Legal academia** Law is taught in six of NZ’s eight universities – Auckland, AUT, Waikato, Victoria/Wellington, Canterbury and Otago. Legal academics are generally considered ‘progressive’ – that is left wing – in their political views. Māori and women are well represented in the managerial echelons of these law schools – e.g., Professor Khylee Quince, dean of the AUT Law School. Issues related to NZ’s democracy, the legal aspects of the Treaty of Waitangi and the future of “Aotearoa NZ” are very present in today’s law curriculum. Young people might think they are enrolling in law to study for their future careers. They soon find that they are forced to digest a strong dose of revisionist history, starting with the status of the Te Tiriti and its role in NZ’s future – and a written constitution, which is a top priority for radical Māori. **In particular, they must accept “tikanga” – Māori custom and lore which differs by tribe – as the equal of common law.** So two very different systems are often given equal status and authority as the law of the land. Courses are *compulsory* – attesting to the failure of the coalition government to have mandatory courses removed from all faculties. Law, education – and even engineering – were exempted. This then becomes close to *indoctrination* and follows on from the NZ school system. James Allan, a Canadian legal academic who taught at Otago University before being appointed professor of Constitutional Law at Queensland University, Australia, fully understands the significance of the campaign for constitutional change in NZ as advocated by radical Māori and often comments on this process. *This would legitimize the transformation of NZ from a democracy into an ethnocracy governed by tribal rule.* Radical Māori – or really part-Māori – are numerous amongst the ranks of activist legal academics and their agenda is diametrically the opposite of the eminent Māori scholar, lawyer and parliamentarian, Sir Āpirana Ngata, who devoted his time and skills to explaining the benefits of the Treaty of Waitangi for the Māori people. The late **Moana Jackson,** a Victoria University Law graduate, Human Rights militant and advocate for Māori language and culture, forged an international career based on promotion of all things Māori and the destructive grievances allegedly suffered from colonization. Fast forward to 2019 and the forced publication of the *He Puapua Report* calling for rupture with the past and the return to Māori political control of Aotearoa NZ. The main author, **Claire Charters,** a law professor educated at Auckland and Cambridge universities and frequent visitor to the UN Commission on Human Rights to complain about injustice perpetrated against Māori, led a team which included **Jacinta Ruru**, professor at Otago Law School who believes the entire conservation estate should be returned to Māori. The respective spouses of these persons – **Anaru Eruati and Andrew Geddis** (an expert in electoral law) are also law academics, along with **Eru Kapa-Kingi,** a teaching fellow at Auckland Law School, organizer of the 2024 hīkoi to protest ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill and son of TPM Party MP, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. What of the law students who receive teaching strongly biased in favor of Māori? Some are totally convinced by the false narrative sold by these academics; others play along to pass their exams; some drop out to pursue more meaningful degrees on other fields. AU ranks highly amongst ‘woke universities’ and it can be argued that one main aim of the institution’s law school is to sell the He Puapua agenda of tribal rule – meaning political control – by 2040. - **The Legal Profession** Most law graduates seek careers in their field, which offers varied areas of practice. **Law ranges across many areas** – from NZ’s system of common law, itself established when the parties concerned signed the Treaty of Waitangi to its applications, the training of legal professionals and implications for related domains (such policing and defence), as New Zealand developed as a democratic national state from 1840 up to the present day. **Establishing the architecture of nationhood** – namely, the essential institutions of government, judicial authority, the social services of education and health, equal rights for all citizens and a community with a guaranteed rule of law – was pledged by the British Crown when it signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, following the request of Māori chiefs who feared for their safety in a tribal society marked by violence, lawlessness and fragmentation. Consequently, **the principal institutions of nationhood were rapidly established**: the NZ Parliament, a skilled and neutral public service, a judiciary and legal system, and universities to train future legal professionals. The law pervades all these institutions: In **parliament**, many MPs on all sides have legal qualifications and training: National: Bishop, Brown, Simpson, Potaka, Meager, Mooney – also Collins and Penk. Labour: Edmonds, Webb, Belich, Walters, Williams, White… Greens: Swarbrick… TOP: Wong… and so on. **Public Service**: hundreds of the 29,000 civil servants would have legal qualifications – obviously in Justice and Foreign Affairs and Trade but also across many ministries. **Police**: law can open a path to top careers in this domain – former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster being an example **Media**: this area is highly regulated so intellectual property and entertainment law are relevant areas. Media-related quangos occupy a watchdog role to ensure conformity with the law. For example, the meddling *Broadcasting Standards Authority* is chaired by Susie Staley and managed by Chief Executive Stacey Wood – both lawyers. Today the **legal profession** is booming and litigation associated with Treaty claims and challenges is a growing niche market. **The NZ Law Society** (founded in 1869) registers over 17,000 lawyers practising throughout NZ. Seventy-five per cent are European and 7.8 per cent are Māori – including significant numbers of ***women***. Examples are: **Caren Fox**, current chair of the Waitangi Tribunal and former chief judge of the Māori Land Court **Lady Tureiti Moxon**, social and racial justice advocate **Judge Lowell Goddard KC** – former deputy solicitor general and the first person of Māori ancestry to be appointed to the High Court **Roimata Small**, human rights barrister who has authored a handbook on *Understanding Te Tititi* and worked extensively with the Waitangi Tribunal **Nathalie Coates**, barrister and Māori issues advocate, co-president of the Māori Law Society since 2023 and active in the NZ Council for Legal Education**.** Today, Treaty settlements and Māorification-based issues occupy a prime place in NZ’s litigation industry. This is personified by lawyer **Chris Finlayson**, former attorney-general in John Key’s National government and now chief counsel to the Ngāi Tahu tribe, which has built a massive commercial empire across the South Island. - **Constitutional transformation in NZ and the judiciary** Here the legal profession comes into special focus, notably the judiciary. This is an enormously powerful entity and one of the three arms of government in NZ – parliament (led by the PM of the day) and the public service. In the USA, this triumvirate would be the president, Congress and the Supreme Court. It could even be argued that the judiciary triggered NZ’s obsession with the *Treaty of Waitangi* and its Māori-interpreted counterpart *Te Tiriti o Waitangi,* based on the non-cession of sovereignty and the so-called partnership between Māori and Pākehā. This arose from the *1987 Lands case* (the NZ Māori Council vs the attorney general), where Judge Robin Cooke described this relationship **as *“akin to a partnership”*** – not in his official decision but in his informal remarks (obiter dicta) on the case. Ever since, *partnership* has been the “mot du jour” for all Māori claims as these have become increasingly vocal about radical constitutional change in NZ. - **The NZ Supreme Court:** this secured its power when recourse to the British Privy Council was discontinued in 2004 with Sian Elias, then 12th chief justice, becoming the inaugural presiding judge of the Supreme Court. **The current NZSC has six judges: Helen Winkelman, Sir Joe Williams, Ellen French, Stephen Kos, Francis Cooke and Neil Campbell. Mark O’Regan and Susan Glazebrook are acting judges**. The first three are high profile and have set the tone and clout of the current SC – which appears pro-Māori. - **Tikanga** has assumed new importance under the SC. This started with the **1996 Ellis case** where tikanga was used in appeal arguments to the Supreme Court resulting in the quashing of convictions against the defendant in 2022\. It also featured in the **2011 MACA (Marine and Coastal Areas) law**,which was re-visited under the 2023 coalition commitment to re-examine legislation privileging the superior rights of certain NZers based on ancestry. Supporters of tikanga claim that these cases justify its place alongside the common law and it is therefore part of the overall NZ legal system. Tikanga, rooted in Māori custom and lore, varies according to tribe. It is not a formally constructed legal system – yet it is now presented as exactly this and seeks equivalent status with the common law installed for the benefit of all NZers by Article 3 of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. As mentioned earlier, tikanga is now a **compulsory subject** in NZ law schools and its enhanced status impelled recently retired **Judge Christian Whata of the High Court to propose a *bi-jural justice system*** for NZ in the future – presumably post-2040. In April 2026, Chief Justice Winkelman delivered the Winterton Memorial Lecture to legal experts in Sydney. She contended that NZ’s constitutional landscape is constantly being reshaped by legislation, by court decisions and by significant historical and even cultural events. A significant element of this landscape is the incorporation of tikanga. Major developments to put tikanga and the Treaty in a modern context include the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975 and cases such as *Takamore* (2012), [*Trans-Tasman Resources*](http://c/Users/jennimcmanus/Dropbox/Mac/Downloads/2021-NZSC-127.pdf?ref=goodoil.news) (2021), and *Ellis* (2022). **Today the Supreme Court is unanimous that tikanga has been and will continue to be recognised in the development of New Zealand’s common law.** - **Constitutional transformation** Currently NZ has an **unwritten constitution** based on its heritage of British common law. Changing to a formal written constitution based on the Te Tiriti o Waitangi interpretation (i.e., non-cession of sovereignty and Māori-Pākehā partnership) was proposed in both the *2016 Matike Mai and 2019 He Puapua* reports. The aim is total transformation of NZ’s constitutional arrangements by 2040 and includes final assent or veto of all legislation by Māori – in short, ***tribal rule.*** Considerable preparatory research has already been undertaken on this topic. For example: **SC Justice Sir Joe Williams collaborated with Professor Claire Charters to define the framework of a new constitution at a law conference held on Auckland in May 2022.** **This “Constitutional Kōrero” brought together experts from around the world and within Mew Zealand to present arguments and options for constitutional transformation to realise Māori rights in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, He Whakaputanga and the *UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.*** **Participants considered ways in which New Zealand’s Constitution might be transformed to benefit New Zealanders and notably by strongly emphasizing the indigenous viewpoint.** **In September 2026**, Victoria University Law School hosted ***RE: SHAPE***, a symposium initiated by Ngāti Toa chief Helmut Modlik for an audience of **academics, activists, iwi leaders, politicians and community organisations**. This considered Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the “founding and guiding framework” **for a future democratic system where decision-making would be very different.** **Although described as a discussion on “better democracy”, this was possibly a vehicle to advance the constitutional change debate.** The 2016 *Matike Mai* report aimed for actual “constitutional transformation” with alternative constitutional models set out for consideration. One option proposed **separate Māori authority and Crown government spheres**, together with a relational sphere for decisions requiring cooperation between them. In principle, this subject would require extensive discussions involving all citizens in due course. However, given that stealth and non-consultation are the preferred methods of the radical left, NZers might have to demand actual debate on this important subject as their basic democratic right. Crucial issues are: ***Would all citizens hold the same political authority?*** ***Would constitutional rights or powers vary according to ancestry?*** ***Who would exercise Māori and Pākehā authority?*** ***Who would elect these persons, and who would have the power to remove them?*** ***Where would the current parliament fit within the proposed arrangement?*** ***Would a new constitutional system require endorsement by citizen referendum?*** These are reasonable questions. They seek to define the kind of country New Zealand would be. **Conclusion** **The law and the numerous entities involved in law-making in NZ are evolving rapidly… and not always in the right direction.** - **The Westminster model of government is under attack with outright disrespect for the established traditions and rules of conduct from certain MPs.** - **The court system is deemed unsuitable for the 21st century. How to remedy this? For** **the previous Solicitor-General, Una Jagose, the solution was updating *Guidelines for Crown Prosecutors* with a suggestion for “special lenient court treatment for Māori offenders”. This was rejected and led to non-renewal of her contract by the then Attorney-General, Judith Collins.** - **The Supreme Court is known to engage in power battles with parliament over legislation related to equality issues – the 2011 MACA law amendment being a case in point.** - **Support for profound constitutional change is definitely growing – recently, the TPM leader made this a bottom line for any coalition talks after the 2026 election. Since TPM’s proposals, including elevating the status and authority of the Waitangi Tribunal to be above parliament itself, this may not have wide support.** - **Concurrently, the era of AI has arrived and will completely transform training in certain professions – including areas of legal education.** ***John Locke said:*** > ***When law ends, tyranny begins.*** **New Zealand should keep this in mind. Its legal system is now deeply divided.** This article was originally published by [No Minister](https://nominister.wordpress.com/2026/10/28/law-and-the-maorification-process/?ref=goodoil.news).