Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau believes the pressure and uncertainty caused by the Treaty Principles Bill will negatively impact local government.

Whanau was one of dozens to front MPs in Parliament today to give their thoughts as part of the 80 hours of public hearings being held as the controversial bill, which seeks to rewrite the Treaty’s principles, progresses.

“We’re here to completely oppose the Treaty Principles Bill,” Whanau told members of the Justice select committee.

“We hold significant concern for what it means, which is to diminish the legal, political, and cultural fabric of Aotearoa.”

The bill is unlikely to become law given National and NZ First have publicly stressed they will not support it when it comes up for a second reading in the House.

Whanau referenced the bill’s doomed future in her criticism of the Government’s decision to stick by it.

“This bill represents the very thing this Government is supposedly against; an unnecessary and costly ideology-pandering vanity project that does not deliver tangible outcomes for public good.”

Act Party leader David Seymour is the creator of the Treaty Principles Bill. Photo / Alex Burton

She spoke of the impact changing legislation had on councils, pointing to the Government’s repeal of Māori wards laws causing pressure and uncertainty.

Whanau claimed the same effect would be felt as a result of the Treaty bill, but she couldn’t provide any tangible examples when questioned by journalists after her select committee appearance.

“Even though the Government has promised not to put it past second reading, what is all of this for?

“It has put us, community groups, mana whenua under pressure, under upset, and it has been a very divisive bill unnecessarily.”

Former Greens MP Gareth Hughes made a similar argument, decrying the bill as a waste of time and money as well as the goodwill built up since the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal.

Hughes likened the bill to Act leader David Seymour’s reform of the free school lunches programme, a nod to Seymour’s role as creator of the Treaty Principles Bill.

He claimed the bill, seemingly like Seymour’s changes to the lunch programme, took the Treaty of Waitangi and stripped it of flavour, replacing it with something “bland, colourless and only benefiting profit-seeking multinationals”.

“Like our school lunches, the Treaty Principles Bill is leaving a sour taste in our nation’s mouth.”

Hughes echoed other submitters who called on the Government to apologise for introducing the bill.

Lawyer Nick Whittington, submitting on behalf of the Law Society, suggested the Government’s approach to altering Te Tiriti was “deeply flawed” as it had not appropriately consulted its signatories.

“You don’t seek to pass a bill that simply rewrites what the Treaty means without consulting anyone.”

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.