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Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris has submitted a member’s bill into the ballot calling for Waitangi Tribunal recommendations to be binding on the Crown.
This bill would also allow the Tribunal to consider whether proposed legislation is consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Mr Ferris says the changes will allow the Tribunal to properly fulfil its role as the kaitiaki of the treaty.
He says Māori consented to kāwanatanga on the basis that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is continuously honoured, and that the promises contained within it are kept.
This consent can be revoked at any time.
ACT Leader David Seymour says the bill would make an unelected tribunal supreme over parliament and it must be rejected.
He says the tribunal has already become increasingly activist, using its ‘partnership’ interpretation of the Treaty to intervene in democratic processes.
The Waitangi Tribunal can only make binding recommendations in claims involving the sale of assets by state owned enterprises, and so far it has resisted making such orders.
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