Richard Prebble
The Honourable Richard Prebble CBE is a former member of the New Zealand Parliament. Initially a member of the Labour Party, he joined the newly formed ACT New Zealand party under Roger Douglas in 1996, becoming its leader from 1996 to 2004.
Hon Tama Potaka
Minister of Māori Development
28 February 2025
Dear Minister,
After careful consideration I must resign as a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. The treaty is not just our founding document, it makes New Zealand unique. Two peoples peacefully agreeing to form a nation.
Over the summer I have been reading Tribunal reports and doing my own research. The treaty is very clear.
The Crown offered its protection, guaranteed property rights and extended the rights and privilege of British citizenship.
In return Māori ceded sovereignty, agreed to the Crown having a right of preemption and accepted the duties of citizenship.
The Tribunal has ruled it is not bound by rulings of previous tribunals that sovereignty was ceded. The tribunal also claims not to be bound by the courts.
The Tribunal has declared there are two treaties, one in English and another in te reo, that are not translations of each other.
Accordingly the Tribunal has ruled,
• Sovereignty was not ceded
• The Crown pledged to enhance the chiefs’ authority
• The Crown promised to govern in partnership
• It is for Māori to decide what is to be decided by Māori
• The Crown promised Māori economic equality.
The tribunal says the only thing Māori agreed to was that the Crown would control settlers.
The Tribunal, like Humpty Dumpty, says words in the Treaty mean what I say they mean.
No chief, including Hōne Heke, who may have regretted signing, ever said that sovereignty had not been ceded.
Letters written by chiefs who signed the treaty to governors complaining the treaty was not being honoured ever denied that they had ceded sovereignty.
Partnership is a 20th century invention.
Having a tribunal claim it does not have to obey the courts and can ignore its own findings and reinterpret the country’s foundation document is inherently politically unstable and unsustainable.
Article Three that granted the rights and privileges of being British subjects has been reinterpreted to be a promise that successive governments will ensure economic equality, the socialist dream.
Governments can deliver equality before the law, the right of British citizens.
No government ever, anywhere, has ever delivered economic equality.
The Tribunal has created an endless grievance that can never be met.
I recently received a copy of the Tribunal’s proposed 10-year strategic plan. The Tribunal correctly identifies it will be very busy hearing claims that society is not equal.
The Tribunal is conducting a review of the constitution.
This is not an appropriate role for a Tribunal headed by Māori Land Court judges.
Māori Land Court judges are well equipped to adjudicate on competing hapū and iwi claims, a significant proportion of the Tribunal’s work.
The judges and members are people of integrity and sincerity but they are turning a Tribunal into a constitutional court answerable to no one.
I note that in the coalition agreement National and New Zealand First have agreed:
“Amend the Waitangi Tribunal legislation to refocus the scope, purpose, and nature of its inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation.”
I recommended the government implement its coalition agreement and upgrade the Tribunal by appointing a senior High Court judge, as was the original appointment to the Waitangi Tribunal.
The treaty as currently interpreted has become a socialist manifesto and a source of never-ending grievance.
I am not willing to carry out the Tribunal’s proposed strategic plan.
Please accept my resignation
Regards,
Hon Richard Prebble
Cc Chief Judge Dr Caren Fox
This article was originally published by Bassett, Brash and Hide.
