#election2026: ACT Targets Tikanga and Treaty Clauses in New “One Law for All” Election Push

ACT is promising a major reset of the relationship between Parliament, the courts, tikanga Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, unveiling an election policy that would restrict judges from drawing on tikanga, systematically remove what the party considers vague Treaty clauses and place new principles of parliamentary sovereignty and equality into the Constitution Act.

Party leader David Seymour has launched the policy, titled One Law for All With One Future Together, as ACT seeks to make constitutional reform a defining issue ahead of the 7 November General Election.

The policy represents a significant new front in ACT’s long-running campaign against what it considers the expansion of Treaty principles, co-governance and tikanga Māori into areas of law without sufficiently explicit approval from Parliament.

Treaty Principles Bill gone — but the argument remains

One of the most striking features of ACT’s new policy is what it does not contain.

There is no commitment to revive the controversial Treaty Principles Bill or hold the referendum previously sought by ACT.

That legislation became one of the most contentious political issues of the current parliamentary term and generated one of the largest protest movements seen at Parliament before ultimately being defeated at its second reading.

But while the bill has disappeared from ACT’s 2026 platform, the underlying constitutional battle has not.

Instead, ACT is proposing a series of changes that could have significant consequences for how Te Tiriti, tikanga and Māori interests are recognised throughout New Zealand law.

ACT wants tighter controls on Treaty clauses

ACT is targeting legislative provisions requiring decision-makers to give effect to, take account of or have regard to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The party argues those clauses can be too broad, leaving courts and public servants to determine their practical meaning.

Under its proposal, Cabinet would be required to explicitly identify what Treaty interests are engaged before legislation containing a Treaty reference is drafted.

Ministers would need to specify who those interests apply to and what obligations the legislation creates.

Regulatory Impact Assessments would also be expected to explain the practical consequences and costs associated with Treaty provisions.

ACT wants the approach applied retrospectively as legislation comes up for amendment, with vague or high-level Treaty clauses targeted for removal.

That could potentially place dozens of existing pieces of legislation under scrutiny.

Tikanga Māori firmly in ACT’s sights

Perhaps the most consequential proposal for Māori concerns tikanga.

ACT wants legislation making clear that courts cannot use tikanga to influence decisions unless Parliament has expressly authorised its application.

The party accepts tikanga could remain relevant in specific circumstances, including disputes between iwi where tikanga is directly relevant.

But it rejects the proposition that tikanga should develop as a broader source of New Zealand common law without explicit parliamentary authority.

The policy directly responds to developments within the Supreme Court.

ACT points particularly to the Peter Ellis case, where the Supreme Court recognised tikanga as part of the values of New Zealand common law and considered it relevant to whether Ellis’ appeal could continue after his death.

Seymour argues courts have moved beyond what Parliament originally authorised.

For Māori legal scholars and advocates, however, the proposition raises a much deeper constitutional question about whether tikanga — the first law of Aotearoa — derives its legitimacy from Parliament in the first place.

Parliament would have the final say

ACT also wants to reinforce parliamentary sovereignty.

Three principles would be added to the Constitution Act:

Parliament is sovereign.

The rule of law is fundamental.

All New Zealanders are equal before the law.

ACT says these principles would provide greater constitutional certainty and reinforce the authority of elected lawmakers over judges and officials.

The party also proposes changing the Senior Courts Act to reinforce Parliament’s final authority and amending the Legislation Act so statutes are interpreted within the context of the period in which Parliament passed them.

That is significant because the interpretation of older statutes can evolve as common law, social circumstances and understandings of tikanga and Te Tiriti develop.

ACT wants to place clearer boundaries around that evolution.

Property rights elevated

The policy goes beyond Māori constitutional issues.

ACT also wants property rights explicitly included in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.

That would require greater scrutiny when governments interfere with property and require courts, where possible, to prefer interpretations of legislation consistent with the new right.

Courts would not gain the power to strike legislation down.

But they could potentially declare legislation inconsistent with the protected property right, similar to the way existing Bill of Rights protections operate.

ACT argues property rights are fundamental to encouraging people to save, invest and build businesses.

“One law for all” meets Te Tiriti

The fundamental political argument will be over what equality before the law actually means in a country founded on Te Tiriti.

For ACT, equal citizenship means government and law should generally treat New Zealanders identically regardless of ancestry.

For many Māori leaders, constitutional scholars and Treaty advocates, that framing overlooks the specific relationship established between Māori and the Crown through Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

From that perspective, recognising tino rangatiratanga, tikanga or particular Māori rights does not necessarily represent unequal treatment.

It can instead represent the Crown meeting obligations arising from a constitutional relationship established in 1840.

Those two interpretations have increasingly become competing visions for the future of Aotearoa.

Courts becoming an election battleground

ACT’s criticism of judicial development also comes at a particularly important moment.

The role of courts has recently been at the centre of disputes involving climate litigation, customary marine title and tikanga Māori.

Parliament has already intervened in some areas after court decisions.

Most recently, legislation was passed restricting climate tort litigation after the Supreme Court allowed Mike Smith’s case against major greenhouse gas emitters to proceed towards trial.

During parliamentary debate on that legislation, Te Pāti Māori argued the change effectively created one law for major polluters and another for everybody else.

ACT takes almost the opposite lesson from those cases.

It argues elected representatives should make significant policy decisions rather than allowing courts to develop law in ways Parliament never explicitly authorised.

A stark choice for Māori voters

The policy ensures Te Tiriti and tikanga will remain firmly on the election battlefield, despite the Treaty Principles Bill itself disappearing from ACT’s platform.

Te Pāti Māori is campaigning for a dramatically different direction, including making Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown.

ACT wants greater parliamentary control over Treaty clauses and tighter limits on judicial use of tikanga.

Those are not minor policy differences.

They represent fundamentally different answers to questions about who exercises authority, where tikanga sits within the legal system and what Te Tiriti means for contemporary government.

And that makes ACT’s new policy potentially more consequential than its headline suggests.

The Treaty Principles Bill may be gone.

But the constitutional argument it unleashed is very much alive — and on 7 November, voters will again be asked to choose between competing visions of what one future together actually means.

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