Rodney Hide's Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill failed to get past the first hurdle in Parliament last night, with apparently only National and Act supporting it going to a select committee. The purpose of this bill was to define exactly what the principles of the treaty were, as the phrase 'principles of the treaty' occurs in a vast number of other laws and regulations. If the principles are not defined by Parliament, then they have to end up being defined by the courts. This can result in the principles being interpreted to mean things that would appear not to be included or implied by the text at all.

I am somewhat surprised that NZ First voted against Rodney's bill. Not long before the last election, Winston Peters himself had a bill that failed the first reading, that would have removed the phrase 'principles of the treaty of waitangi' from all acts of Parliament. A very crude solution, but the reason for was that NZ First was also opposed to these phrases everywhere. I'm afraid that the only conclusion from this can be that NZ First's voting is being strongly influenced by Labour, even though they said that other than supply and confidence, they would be independent.

So much for that - what did Winston get for his opposition to this bill? Or has he done another flip-flop himself?

Update: Stuff now has a report online.treasure island wc3 map

Posted by Dave Bryant at 7:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) treasure island wc3 map