I’m not a supporter of David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill, but, as that’s all that is currently on offer, I’ll take it. My preference is to remove all reference to the Treaty principles embedded in NZ law and practice, to avoid the probability of redefining the Treaty principles further down the track. My reasons are best illustrated by the following tale.
Treaty principles reflect Māori protocols that went too far when the taxpayer was forced to stump up around $12,000 spent on the unnecessary travel and burial of a dead leatherback turtle in 2021.
The 350kgs leatherback turtle was found on a Canterbury beach and taken to Te Papa in 2019.
But there was confusion over permission to send it to the Wellington museum.
“One person was consulted to see if they were okay but that wasn’t the endorsement of our local rūnanga,” Te Rūnaka o Koukourārata chairman Matiu Payne says.
Um, no, the only confusion in this story originates from iwi protocols that appear to have evolved between 2019 and 2021.
It’s pretty rare for dead turtles to wash up on NZ beaches but you can be sure that with the Treaty now embedded into every government department, meaning they are forced to consult with Māori on anything remotely affecting them, this sort of practice will recur.
I had to google rūnanga because I’d have to be tied down and te reo inserted into my brain by force for me to learn it. It’s not that I object to the language, per se, I don’t. I have nothing against te reo except the obligation to learn it that is forced upon every New Zealander.
Google tells me Runanga is a West Coast town, but rūnanga also means conference or council.
It took from 2019 to 2021 for the local Māori council to decide the dead turtle should not remain in the freezer at Te Papa but instead should be helicoptered from Wellington to Christchurch and then driven to Banks Peninsula (where it had originally washed up) and buried nearby after a pōwhiri and catered funeral.
“Ngāi Tahu representative Matui Payne tells media of “a sense of grief and sadness that we didn’t have the opportunity to grieve for our kaitiaki, for our tipuna.” Te Papa cites “issues relating to consultation and support” and enters into discussion with Koukourārata “regarding the return and repatriation of the honu [turtle]”.
Iwi had a change of heart and ascertained the turtle was to be interred in the presence of iwi, seven DOC staff and eight Te Papa staff who flew down from Wellington and then drove to Banks Peninsula. Why? And who should have paid the excessive cost?
“It isn’t excessive at all, we were dealing with a turtle that weighed more than 350kgs, there are health and safety considerations associated with that as well,” DOC’s Nicola Toki says.
DOC says it's just one of many taxpayer funded initiatives with animals – part of its core business and responsibility under the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Add health and safety rules to Treaty rules and we have an expensive event with rules determined as opportunity dictates.
Te Papa and DOC defended the unnecessary expenditure as a responsibility under the Treaty of Waitangi, but determining Treaty obligations that can change on a whim, as happened here, is a minefield.
Treaty obligations mean whatever the latest iwi spokesperson says they mean.
On that basis we should expect more idiotic spending by government departments kowtowing to Treaty obligations at the expense of commonsense and economy.
What is to stop iwi from creating protocols that never existed back in their ancestor’s day because today they present lucrative business opportunities?
The local rūnanga should have footed the bill for Te Papa and DOC’s reported expenses of around $12,000, because it was their confusion that prevented the dead turtle from receiving an appropriate and inexpensive burial near the beach where it was first discovered in the first place.
